Maybe that explains why they never fixed the part in the middle where they start laughing.
Huh. I always thought it was “Let’s Spend Some Time Together”. I’m sure I’ve heard it performed that way somewhere… 
Barbara Ann was recorded for one of pop’s first unplugged albums, Beach Boys Party!. It was intended to sound impromptu like you had The Beach Boys casually playing at your party. The laughing and false starts are intended to convey that.
I went to high school with a guy named Bob Moran. We all sang the song with his name replacing Barbara’s.
New Adventures in Hi-Fi is reportedly Michael Stipe’s favorite REM album, and combining that with the story of its creation (largely recorded at soundchecks and tweaked in the studio) I’m suspicious of the idea that they were using it as a cudgel against Warners.
Here’s one with a bit of a backstory. Canada has long had the Canadian Content (Cancon) regulations over broadcast media, ensuring a certain percentage of Canadian content on the radio and on Muchmusic (which doesn’t really play videos any more, but I haven’t watched it in over a decade so I have no idea how it’s currently playing out). Which was always a thorn in the side of music fans here (such as myself) who’d really love to have been hearing cool American alternative back in the 80s rather than Barney Bentall or Candi & the Backbeat. There’s plenty online about Bryan Adams’ Cancon battles, how the rating system determined his work wasn’t Canadian because of where he recorded his albums or something like that.
ANYWAY. There was a band called Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom, that was from New York City and included some former members of the great proto-punk band The Dictators (including Handsome Dick Manitoba). Their single “The Party Starts Now” got quite a bit of Muchmusic airplay and became a modest hit up north. I was watching MM one afternoon when one of the veejays sheepishly admitted to Handsome Dick (or maybe Andy Shernoff, I forget) on the air that the only reason the video got played on the channel in the first place was that the programmers saw “Manitoba” in the band name, lazily didn’t dig any deeper than that, and thus figured they were Canucks and would help fill the quota. I think he actually said “We probably wouldn’t have even played you if we knew.” Which, sigh.
I had to go YouTube that. That was fun. Total Zodiac Mindwarp Clone. Here it is if anybody wants.
I watched a very entertaining video on the story of “It Wasn’t Me” by Shaggy: The Story of 'It Wasn’t Me' by Shaggy - YouTube
Basically the record company didn’t like the song, one producer accidentally heard the rough cut and saved it, but even then the record company didn’t release it as a single. One DJ in Honolulu Hawaii asked the record company for the album, was refused and instead found the song through illegal downloading. He started playing it, the listeners loved it, and it took off from there.
I remember when this album came out and I have the same perception as you. It was regarded as a commercial disappointment compared the previous few albums (which all contained huge video and radio hit singles) as the lead single wasn’t a big hit and the album did not sell millions in the US. However, there was a lot of hype and it was certainly MEANT to be a big hit album by the band and label. This is quoting Wikipedia, but itself is a reference to a NYT article with Michael Stipe “The members of R.E.M. consider the recorded album representative of the band at their peak”
Pearl Jam recorded a cover of the 1961 song “Last Kiss” on a lark, spent about $2.50 mixing it and released it as a Christmas single for their fan club. DJs got a hold of it and put it in heavy rotation, until the band released it to the public as a single (with all of its proceeds going to charity). It ended up being their highest-charted song, which is honestly kind of ridiculous.
I always knew that Kung Fu Fighting by Karl Douglas was meant to be a B-side. I only just found out, that’s why it sounds so bloody ludicrous.
After having spent over two hours recording the A-side and then taking a break, “Kung Fu Fighting” was recorded quickly in the last ten minutes of studio time, in only two takes, due to a three-hour time constraint for the entire session. According to Biddu, “Kung Fu Fighting was the B-side so I went over the top on the ‘huhs’ and the ‘hahs’ and the chopping sounds. It was a B-side: who was going to listen?” After hearing both songs, Robin Blanchflower of Pye Records insisted that “Kung Fu Fighting” be the A-side instead.
j
You had to be there.
Those cats were fast as lightning.
Surely, not EVERYONE was… Oh, nevermind.
Yeah, sorry, it’s a little bit frightening…
Is there such a thing as an earworm mugging?
j
Love that!
And I needed a good term. I have two friends who do long multi-day bike rides, and one thing they do is try to catch up to the other guy, sing one line from a potential earworm, and take off… so it’ll be an hour or more til the poor guy who’s got “Blitzkreig Bop” running non-stop through his head can retaliate.
.
(They decided the Geneva Convention outlawed torturous stuff like “Havin’ My Baby”…)
An hour with “Blitzkrieg Bop” as an earworm is an hour well spent, an hour trying to catch up with a skilled biker not so much.