Donna Summers - Macarther Park
That has to be the weirdest song that charted twice.
I still have it!
And my album cover is signed by some of the members of the band, along with the Coldstream Guards they were performing with! And I went out with one of the band members after the show. Alastair Robert Knox Currie, this girl from Kansas remembers you!
No, no-no-no.
Mormon Tabernacle Choir, “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
This needs no explanation, other than that it was a genuine hit during the rock era. This version reached number 13 in September 1959, and was on the chart for 11 weeks. Backed by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra, it has been this famous group’s only top 40 chart appearance.
Man, some great choices here. I’ll throw in a few:
“Ruby, don’t take your love to town”: Kenny Rodgers, I think. Disabled veteran moans about how he’d like to murder his cheatin’ wife. Real upbeat tune.
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show, “Sylvia’s Mother”
Thomas Dolby, “She Blinded Me With Science”.
“Who Let the Dogs Out”, if for nothing else but the barking mad chorus.
“Upbeat”? Well, an up-tempo beat, sure… But overall it paints a dark and sarcastic picture of coping with middle-aged boredom via pharmaceuticals.
The Stones song that I find the most genuinely disturbing (not only that they wrote and perform it, but that it gets consistent radio play to this day) is Brown Sugar. OK, it’s catchy. But damn, it’s pretty straightforwardly (and gleefully) about antebellum whites raping a 16 year old slave girl?!
“Jenny (867-5309” by Tommy Tutone, about a guy getting a girl’s number off the bathroom wall, is a bit different.
“Take a Walk on the Wild Side” by Lou Reed, which should be subtitled “Ewww,” makes you feel like you’re hanging with Warhol and the superstars.
I’ve always thought that “Black is Black” by Los Bravos was one of the weirdest sounding songs I ever heard, though maybe that’s because it kept running through my head one time when I had a high fever.
*Deck of Cards * by Wink (?) Martindale
Grandma We Love You by the St. Winifred’s School Choir
Bob the Builder
Agadoo by Black Lace
Eh-Oh Teletubbies
That’s enough for now, before I lose the will to live
Or even worse, his follow up: Dis-Gorilla. I’m not sure it reached any charts, though.
Another UK one- “No Charge” by JJ Barrie
Scratch that last one- I had “most cloying” on the brain.
Not to mention Disco Duck, by Rick Dees.
What was that cut by some German guys (mid 80’s) where the entire lyrics were
“Daa daa daa” repeated over and over on top of a repetitive bass line? [perusing
Wikipedia] Ah yes Trio, with Da Da Da.
Ah, yes, I hated this song, particularly because my idiot moron boss at the time would say “da da da” all the time without the slightest clue what it meant.
From http://www.conknet.com/~mmagnus/Quotations.html, near the bottom of the page:
“Having finished their studentship, the gods said: ‘Tell us something, Sir.’ He told them the syllable Da. Then he said: ‘Did you understand?’ They said: ‘We did understand. You told us “Dâmyata”, Be subdued.’. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you have understood.’
Then the men said to him: ‘Tell us something, Sir.’ He told them the same syllable Da. Then he said: ‘Did you understand?’ They said: ‘We did understand. You told us “Datta”, Give.’. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you have understood.’
Then the Asuras said to him: ‘Tell us something, Sir.’ He told them the same syllable Da. Then he said: ‘Did you understand?’ They said: ‘We did understand. You told us “Dayadham”, Be merciful.’. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘you have understood.’
The divine voice of thunder repeats the same, Da Da Da, that is, Be subdued, Give, Be merciful. Therefore let that triad be taught, Subduing, Giving and Mercy.”
(sorry for the hijack)
Miami Vice Theme by Jan Hammer
[QUOTE=John DiFool]
What was that cut by some German guys (mid 80’s) where the entire lyrics were “Daa daa daa” repeated over and over on top of a repetitive bass line? [perusing Wikipedia] Ah yes Trio, with Da Da Da./QUOTE]
I believe the complete title was Da Da Da I Love You You Don’t Love Me Uh-huh Uh-huh Uh-huh. Was used in a VW ad in the mid-'90s.
Although it may seem odd that the piping version of Amazing Grace made it to the Top 40, the album’s real musicological significance is that it established Amazing Grace as a bagpipe tune, suitable for funerals. One of the regimental pipers arranged the tune for the pipes for the first time, and it took off. Prior to to 70s, Amazing Grace wasn’t considered a piping tune.
Prior to that time, pipers tended to play “Flowers of the Forest” at funerals. (In fact, “Flowers” is so closely linked to funerals in piping culture that there are some odd superstitions about it, such as it should never be played through entirely except at a funeral.)
“Amzaing Grace” has supplanted “Flowers” in the popular image of bagpipes at funerals, but I’ve noticed that in the recent cases where the remains of dead Canadian soldiers are being brought back to Canada, the Armed Forces pipers often play “Flowers” instead of “Amazing Grace.”
Miami Herald humor columist Dave Barry once polled his readers on what the worst pop song of all time was. MacArthur Park won by a long shot. I believe his responses were the basis for his book Dave Barry’s Book of Bad Songs.
Spoons, don’t take this the wrong way, but I love you. I’ve been trying to figure out who sang this song I used to hear on the oldies station back in high school was for about 12 years.
More than a bit strange is the haunting Sally, Go Round the Roses by the Jaynetts. A great discussion about the lyrics can be foundhere
Mull of Kintyre by Sir Paul.
More bagpipes. And a pretty cool video, too.