# Weirdest songs to ever hit the Top 40 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927 "2006-10-10T14:01:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/41 "2006-10-10T20:43:50Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] **Governor** , my OP wasn’t clear, but what I originally had in mind were songs that didn’t sound like your usual top 40 hit- for example, if one of Zamfir’s pan flute epics made the top 40… [/QUOTE] Along these lines, I also seem to recall that in about 1971 or 1972, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (a bagpipe band) had some success on the charts with “Amazing Grace.” Note that I’m unsure just _how_ much success they had, but I do recall that they got a lot of airplay on my local Top 40 station. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/42 "2006-10-10T20:45:42Z")
Didn’t the actual theme from Star Wars enter the top 40 in the 1970s? I’d also add the theme from Chariots of Fire. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/43 "2006-10-10T20:47:14Z")
Spoons- #11 on the US Top 40- not sure in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/44 "2006-10-10T21:05:01Z")
[QUOTE=phungi] For me, it has to be **YMCA** by _The Village People_ It never ceases to amaze me when people celebrate, en mass, a wedding or even little Nathan’s Bar Mitzvah by dancing and singing to the glorification of anonymous gay sex at the mother of all boarding/bath houses: \*Young man - there’s a place you can go I said - young man, when you’re short on your dough You can stay there, and I’m sure you will find Many ways to have a good time. It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A. They have everything for young men to enjoy. You can hang out with all the boys.\* I believe it made it to #2 but never #1, but definitely held a Top 40 spot for a while. [/QUOTE] In The Navy you can sail the seven seas In The Navy you can put your mind at ease… And War’s [Why Can’t We Be Friends](http://www.lyricsdepot.com/war/why-cant-we-be-friends.html) ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/45 "2006-10-10T21:23:43Z")
Song apparently no one remembers but me: Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/46 "2006-10-10T21:25:53Z")
Rick Dees’ “Disco Duck” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/47 "2006-10-10T21:26:38Z")
One Night in Bangkok made #1 ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/48 "2006-10-10T21:37:46Z")
And who could forget “Gimme Dat Ding” by the Pipkins. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/49 "2006-10-10T21:58:08Z")
[QUOTE=Spoons] Along these lines, I also seem to recall that in about 1971 or 1972, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (a bagpipe band) had some success on the charts with “Amazing Grace.” Note that I’m unsure just _how_ much success they had, but I do recall that they got a lot of airplay on my local Top 40 station. [/QUOTE] Shoot…I bought the album! There was that period in the early '60s of morbid death songs: Teen Angel, Last Kiss, Tell Laura I Love Her, Leader of the Pack. And we think kids then were so wholesome… Werewolves of London. Unusual subject matter. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/50 "2006-10-10T22:21:27Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42] Didn’t the actual theme from Star Wars enter the top 40 in the 1970s? [/QUOTE] What’s even stranger is that Meco’s disco version did better on the charts than John Williams’s original. My personal favorite Top 40 oddity: Jim Henson’s _Rubber Duckie_, #16 in 1970. Yes, the song from _Sesame Street_. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/51 "2006-10-10T23:07:03Z")
[QUOTE=mobo85] What’s even stranger is that Meco’s disco version did better on the charts than John Williams’s original. My personal favorite Top 40 oddity: Jim Henson’s _Rubber Duckie_, #16 in 1970. Yes, the song from _Sesame Street_. [/QUOTE] I have that 45 somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/52 "2006-10-10T23:39:56Z")
_Mnah Mnah_, also by the Muppets. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/53 "2006-10-11T00:12:22Z")
[QUOTE=Eutychus] And who could forget “Gimme Dat Ding” by the Pipkins. [/QUOTE] Well, I certainly TRIED to… 🙂 And thanks to you, I now also remember **Troglodyte** by (IIRC) The Jimmy Castor Bunch. And **Basketball Jones** by Cheech y Chong. How could anyone nominate **White Rabbit**? The 60’s were ALL ABOUT drugs!!! ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/54 "2006-10-11T00:19:37Z")
DOA by Bloodrock is the only song describing dying in a plane collision, ever to get airplay. It may be the only song on that subject, period. It was playing on the first station I came to rest on, the first time I moved the dial off my parents’ middle-of-the-road station to see what else was on the radio. It was so weird I had to listen to that station until I heard that song again. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/55 "2006-10-11T00:21:23Z")
“Pass the Dutchie from the Left Hand Side” “Mambo Number 5” the dead animal sub-genre: “Shannon” and “Wildfire” and the frequently mentioned: “I’ve Never Been to Me” ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/56 "2006-10-11T00:39:45Z")
Didn’t “Everybody is Free to Wear Sunscreen” make the Top 40 in the late 90s? Right about when I was graduating, in 1999. Baz Luhrmann, new-agey music, a choir, and lyrics that consist entirely of spoken-word glurge attributed to everyone from Kurt Vonnegut to my high school guidance counselor to Dear Abby. Is that the most recent nomination? Or has anything so weird happened since? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/57 "2006-10-11T00:51:21Z")
**Spill the Wine** by Eric Burdon ( _that overfed long haired leaping nome…_) & War and [**My Boy Lollipop**](http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/m/myboylollipop.shtml) by Millie Small ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/58 "2006-10-11T01:23:31Z")
IIRC, the writers of “Timothy” later claimed it was about a burro. I nominate “[The Thing](http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/phil_harris/the_thing.html)” , by Phil Harris: #1 for several weeks, and a great drinking song to boot (the line “and then I took it home with me to give it to my wife” has sounded funnier than it did the next morning for generations). ---
**Author:** ![JimOfAllTrades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@JimOfAllTrades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimOfAllTrades)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/59 "2006-10-11T01:25:51Z")
In the mid 1960s, then [U.S. Senator Everett Dirkson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Dirkson) hit the charts with a spoken word version of a song called ‘Gallent Men”. The song was co-written by television news reporter Charles Osgood. The record received a grammy award. Near that same time, [Mrs. Miller](http://www.mrsmillersworld.com/whois_bin/WhoIs.html) , a middle-aged woman who seemed to sing slightly off-key and off-tempo, gained fame and hit the charts with a cover of Petula Clarks’s “Downtown”. She also released a couple of albums, which sold fairly well for a couple of years. Image a slightly warbly sounding sort of high pitched voice, and you’ve got it. Some people said she sounded like Tiny Tim’s mother. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/60 "2006-10-11T01:47:39Z")
[QUOTE=ouryL] Song apparently no one remembers but me: Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep ☹ [/QUOTE] I remember that one. From 1973. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927.md?page=4)