# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/61 "2006-10-11T02:33:29Z")
I’ve always thought [The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald](http://gordonlightfoot.com/Lyrics/WreckOfTheEdmundFitzgerald.html) by Gordon Lightfoot was a weird song to be a hit. A long dirgy song about a [freighter sinking on a great lake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Fitzgerald) seems liek an unlikely hit single… ---
**Author:** ![Sonia\_Montdore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Sonia\_Montdore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sonia_Montdore)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/62 "2006-10-11T03:24:33Z")
I’m surprised no one has mentioned “Everybody Was Kung Foo Fighting.” Worst. Song. _Evah._ ---
**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 11, 2006, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/63 "2006-10-11T04:46:09Z")
[QUOTE=Sonia Montdore] I’m surprised no one has mentioned “Everybody Was Kung Foo Fighting.” Worst. Song. _Evah._ [/QUOTE] Carl Douglas, late 1973 or early 1974. I have the 45. Kind of fun, but maybe not for everybody. I’m reminded also of a couple of spoken word recordings, though I have no idea if they charted. They are, however, a couple I do remember hearing on Top 40 radio, so they might have charted somehow–maybe somebody knows? Anyway, here they are: “Desiderata.” Cannot recall the artist, but it’s a spoken-word recording of the Max Ehrmann prose poem, with music in the background. _National Lampoon_ lampooned it (sorry!) with their “Deteriorata.” “The Americans.” By Gordon Sinclair. A Canadian broadcaster takes the media–all media–to task for insulting the USA at every opportunity. Needless to say, it was quite popular in the US. Anybody know for sure? ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/64 "2006-10-11T05:04:07Z")
“A Day In The Life” by The Beatles. It’s like a bunch of completely different songs in one. I had the “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep” 45. And “DOA.” And “They’re Coming To Take Me Away Ha Ha” (which Kate Bush joked was the first rap single). And …way too many of these. I was a late 60’s-early 70’s 45-buyin’ teenybopper. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/65 "2006-10-11T05:11:50Z")
“A Day in the Life” was a top-40 song? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/66 "2006-10-11T05:18:01Z")
The Laughing Gnome - David Bowie Popcorn - Hot Butter In the Year 2525 - Zager and Evans Let’s Take a Walk - Kim and Tommy Leonetti 99 Luftballons - Nena Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft - The Carpenters There Are Too Many Saviours On My Cross - Richard Harris My Boomerang Won’t Come Back - Charlie Drake ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/67 "2006-10-11T05:27:48Z")
In 1973 “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” hit #16! :eek: \*"Crossin’ the highway late last night, He didn’t look left, he didn’t look right. Didn’t see the station wagon car, Skunk got squashed, and there you are. You got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road…"\* ---
**Author:** ![overeasy4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b9bd4f/32.png) [@overeasy4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overeasy4)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/68 "2006-10-11T05:53:31Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] , and Blue Swede’s version of **Hooked on a Feeling** (Hooga-chacka, hooga hooga!). [/QUOTE] I swear I read somewhere someone claimed they were really chanting Who got sucked off instead of ooga chaka. Rumor? ---
**Author:** ![overeasy4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b9bd4f/32.png) [@overeasy4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overeasy4)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/69 "2006-10-11T06:01:21Z")
[QUOTE=Spoons] I’m not sure if it cracked the Top 40, but I do remember David Essex’ “Rock On” as being pretty popular. And pretty strange. A thudding bass line, no real percussion to speak of, synthesized strings, horns playing off-key at times…and the weird echo-ey lyrics delivered in a sort of slow chant. References to James Dean and blue suede shoes and a “blue-jean baby queen (prettiest girl I’ve ever seen).” At a time when Top 40 could accomodate all kinds of genres, along came this, and nobody knew quite what to make of it. But it became popular. [/QUOTE] I LOVE that song! It so crystalized the early 70’s for me, with the decadence, groupies, e tc. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/70 "2006-10-11T06:27:04Z")
[QUOTE=JohnT] “A Day in the Life” was a top-40 song? [/QUOTE] Ah, maybe not. I can’t find a cite. I heard it the other day in my neighborhood market. I figured any song that I could hear playing overhead while searching for the Tandoori Paste must have been in the Top 40. ---
**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/71 "2006-10-11T06:39:56Z")
From 1967, a song by **Ed Ames** titled “ **Who Will Answer?** ” made it into the Top 40. I liked it and Ed Ames does a good job singing it. It starts out in a Gregorian chant style: \*From the canyons of the mind, We wander on and stumble blindly Through the often-tangled maze Of starless nights and sunless days, While asking for some kind of clue Or road to lead us to the truth, But who will answer? \*\ As the song progresses the chanting evolves into singing: \*High upon a lonely ledge, a figure teeters near the edge, And jeering crowds collect below To egg him on with, “Go, man, go!” But who will ask what led him To his private day of doom, And who will answer? \* This song was taken by some people as deeply religious (Ed Ames even sang it on the Mike Douglas Show !!) but it seemed to raise a lot of questions but gave no answers. (Well, it was the 1960’s) It was _highly_ unusual for Top 40 songs (even for the 1960’s). ---
**Author:** ![Cabbage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@Cabbage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabbage)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/72 "2006-10-11T06:42:03Z")
[QUOTE=overeasy4] I swear I read somewhere someone claimed they were really chanting Who got sucked off instead of ooga chaka. Rumor? [/QUOTE] That would be Wilson Bryan Key that claimed that. He had a string of paranoia fueled books about subliminal messages everywhere, from top 40 songs to the word “SEX” imprinted on Ritz crackers. While I do think subliminal messages in media do exist, he seemed to go a bit over the top in seeing them literally everywhere. ([Here’s](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_344.html) a Straight Dope article on Key). > [@Kilvert's Pagan](#): > > I now also remember Troglodyte by (IIRC) The Jimmy Castor Bunch. And don’t forget their follow up hit single, “The Bertha Butt Boogie–Part I”! ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/73 "2006-10-11T06:50:19Z")
Ernie- Drove The Fastest Milkcart in The West. Benny Hill I think. (stretching the memory). ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/74 "2006-10-11T06:54:03Z")
[QUOTE=Imasquare] I remember that one. From 1973. [/QUOTE] I mentioned that in post 19…The Birdy Song 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/75 "2006-10-11T07:06:23Z")
OK, I’m listening to _Rock On (Jimmy Dean)_ right now. This is a really otherworldly song. It does have percussion in it, but it sounds like some kind of weird hand drums and a hi-hat. 43 seconds in, we hear a jarring “ssssssssSSSSSSHHHHHHHhhhhh!!!” and then the vocals begin. At 55 seconds, more conventional percussion pops in for about a measure. The bass track and percussion tracks are layered over in a complex way that sounds like a slower version of something Amon Tobin might do. There’s also a lot of creepy reverb and echo in the voice. At 1:33 we hear the eponymous “James Dean.” It’s in a low voice with a weird filter effect. Then comes the instrumental. Synthesized strings, slightly off key, play a version of the melody. Horns (saxophones and brass) come in with a very jazzy rendition of the same melody, layered over the still playing strings which pop in and out. At 1:58 the string part does a very spacy glissando effect where it “slides” _all_ the way up in pitch before dissipating. The “and where do we go from here” (which serves as the bridge) is repeated, except the line “prettiest girl I ever seen” now sounds like it’s being sung by 10 burly men in unison. At 2:22, after “Jimmy Dean,” we get a bar of dead silence, then a throbbing bass drum burst. Then another bar of silence and another drum burst. Then the fadeout begins, layering all the songs’ earlier musical motifs over each other, and adding some new ones (like sporadic rapid-fire jungle drum beats.) At 2:50, more synth strings come in to punctuate the beat, but these are lower-pitched and more cello-like. The song fades out with the repetition of “rock on.” This song is very unique and definitely ahead of its time. I hear a lot of stuff like this in up-to-the-minute electronica, 30 years later. David Essex, or whoever did the editing and arrangement for this song, is a studio wiz. ---
**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 11, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/76 "2006-10-11T13:28:28Z")
**Spoons** - Les Crane’s Desiderata- #8 in 1971. Gordon Sinclair’s Americans peaked at #24 in 1974. A version by Byron Mcgregor (who?) peaked at #4 same year. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/77 "2006-10-11T13:50:11Z")
Richard Harris - **Macarther Park** Chumbawumba - **TubThumping** ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/78 "2006-10-11T14:04:58Z")
Paul Hardcastle – “19” ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/79 "2006-10-11T14:07:21Z")
[QUOTE=Millit the Frail] 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? [/QUOTE] Btw, that was hilariously parodied by Jiminy Cricket on “Disney’s House of Mouse”. ---
**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, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927/80 "2006-10-11T14:22:01Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] …A version by Byron Mcgregor (who?) peaked at #4 same year. [/QUOTE] Gordon Sinclair was the head newscaster at CFRB, Toronto. His is the original record, taken from an editorial he broadcast. The cover is by Byron McGregor, the head newscaster at CKLW, Windsor. The main difference is in delivery and presentation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weirdest-songs-to-ever-hit-the-top-40/375927.md?page=5)