“Telephone Man” by Meri Wilson
Superman, by The Brothers Four doesn’t get played. (Or might not, since I don’t listen to oldies stations.) It’s not exactly PC.
Intergalactic Laxative Donovan
Alley Oop The Hollywood Argyles
Please Mr. Custer by Larry Verne.
You mention Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter, but forgot “I’m Henry the Eighth, I Am?” Or maybe you intentionally forgot: I’ve certainly tried.
And no one has mentioned “Godzilla” by Blue Oyster Cult.
Monster Mash.
The likelihood of ever hearing this actual hit on the radio again is somewhere south of zero, thanks to an unfortunate historic event.
I give you “Wild Thing” with Senator Bobby and the HardlyWorthit Players.
Even more bizarrely - there is a YouTube video of this performed live on “Hollywood Palace”.
I have the 45 RPM record and it is on my Ipod along with other brain-destroying effluvia.
The version I remember was the other side, in which the vocal was an impersonation of Sen. Everett Dirksen. (At the time I thought it really was Dirksen.)
I read this as The Marvelous Toy Peter by Paul and Mary. Thought it must be a couple singing about their vibrator. ![]()
“Leader of the Laundromat” By The Detergents. The Detergents - Leader of the Laundromat - YouTube
“Life is a Rock (But the radio rolled me)” by Reunion.
On the contrary, I’d say that Monster Mash is a classic example of a novelty song that just won’t die. The follow-up songs, like Pickett’s own Monster’s Holiday, fared not so well.
Unfortunately (and no reflection on the previous poster), “Johnny Angel” still gets airplay.
I had the novelisation of this - the one thing I remember is that the author rendered the Monster’s vocalisation as “ig maud blip”. I’m guessing it’s because he was going by the script, which probably had “monster makes funny noise” instead of what ended up in the film.
Yes, Teri Garr, I will roll in the hay with you.
Er, as for the original topic, Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” is nowadays mostly remembered for its unique take on drinking & driving. Reparata & The Delrons’ “Captain of Your Ship”? It was awful but catchy and I remember it being in an advert in the 1990s. #13 in the UK pop charts in 1968. Awful.
Discogs suggests that my dad had this album when I was young, because it has “In the Summertime” and “Captain of Your Ship” on it, as well as “Purple People Eater”. Almost every other track would fit this thread. And yet I went on to like the avant-garde electronic stylings of glitchy art music pioneers Autechre - not love them, but like them. Curious case of a band that started out a bit rubbish, and then seemed to get better whilst simultaneously evaporating, so that you can’t pick a definitive instance when they were really, truly at the top of their game. They were either about to be brilliant, or… look, get Tri Repetae and Chiastic Slide and then imagine something in between those two albums.
Somewhere in the world there’s a man my age whose dad played him Coil when he was young, and now he has a collection of novelty hit records from the 1970s. Fucking awful decade for novelty records, to be honest. There’s a thin line between kitsch novelty and just fucking awful shit, and the 1970s flew right over that line. I mean, listen to it. Yes, I know it’s fucking 1968… it’s almost the 1970s and it’s just, gah. Like that fuck-Beatles awful shitfucksong, “All Together Now”, from Yellow Shit-ma-fuckarine. I’m sitting here right now listening to goddam disc fucking two of Ambient IV: Isolationism, and it starts with this, which is just six fucking minutes of a fucking screeching screeching noise, like this - eeeeee! - and I’d rather carry on listening to it than even think about that fucking goddamn Paul Mc-fucking-Cartney motherfucking goddamn abortion. Which is legal now.
Aborting Paul McCartney whilst smoking pot. It’s legal now, 'cause of Obama.
“Pass The Dutchie” by Musical Youth.
The 70s channel on Music Choice (comes with my cable package) plays both at least occasionally.
Anything pre-rock is too old to be an oldie, and might as well be turning to petroleum in the bowels of the earth as far as the popular culture is concerned.
Phil Harris’ The Thing is my favorite, but dating to 1950, it’s only playable as part of Alzheimer’s therapy.
Jim Dandy Black Oak Arkansas