If Family Guy really wants to get subversive, they need to work in a reference to the movie Pink Flamingos with that joke.
I can think of several.
Disco Duck by Rick Dees and his Cast of Idiots. Must I say anything else?
Dust in the Wind by Kansas. Most depressing song ever written.
Johnny Get Angry by Shelly Faberes (1962). “Why aren’t you acting like a typical man and lecturing me and coming this close to beating me? You’re not a real man!”
Seasons In The Sun by Terry Jacks. Aren’t songs about death fun?
ETA: Sorry, Lute, missed your post about Disco Duck.
You’re kidding me, that actually charted in Canda & The States? - I thought that was an Australian moment of madness that it was popular.
Speaking of weird chart topping music in Australia, you can’t go past the original german version of 99 Luftballons
Not sure how well this went anywhere else but it was at the top of Australia’s charts for 5 weeks.
you know, just because it’s nearly a clasic now doesn’t mean “American Pie” is any less weird. Don McLean’s “Vincent” isn’t your everyday love song either.
My Sharona
Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” was a pretty weird #1 hit.
Blue Swede’s is the best version of that song precisely because of the stupid HOOOGA CHAKKA thing.
Damn it! That was going to be my post. It’s a really odd song. I love it, though.
Not hardly. My vote for most depressing song ever written is Wharf Rat by the Grateful Dead. Other notables include Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding, Cat’s In the Cradle by Harry Chapin and Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot, which I don’t find weird.
Every Breath You Take–The music is creapy, the lyrics are limited, and the subject matter is creapier than the music.
I don’t know how it did in the charts, but I’m gonna spend my Christmas with a Dalek is pretty strange.
Peter Morris, you are my hero! I never heard of this song before, but its existence brings me unabashed joy.
Well, I don’t know how we got this far without somebody mentioning it, but “Amazing Grace,” by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards made it to number 11 on the Billboard charts back in 1972. Those of you who are familiar with “Amazing Grace” but who have have never heard this version must be asking “How weird was it?” Well, it was probably the only time a military bagpipe band ever charted. At number 11, maybe it wasn’t Top Ten, but given its subject matter (a hymn) and the instruments (bagpipes), I’d say it was close enough.
Wasn’t there also a Japanese song, possibly titled “Sakura”, that charted in the US? Only time a song entirely in Japanese charted I’m sure, but I’m not sure of the name.
Oh, and is “La Bamba” the only song entirely in Spanish to chart top 10 in the US? (We’ve already mentioned a French song) “Feliz Navidad” was only partly in Spanish.
Ok, maybe I’m weird. I just listened to that song, twice, and the weirdest thing I can hear is that the roses won’t tell. I don’t get why it’s weird or spooky, and I think it’s actually a really pretty song. Ok, maybe it’s because my favorite group has always been Blue Oyster Cult. When you’re used to songs about Godzilla, UFOs, vampires, subway shootings, x-ray eyes, Frankenstein, a possessed sword, and other sci-fi and occult themes, maybe “the roses won’t tell” just can’t seem weird.
I don’t know how many more there are, but I thought of one off the top of my head: Daddy Yankee’s Gasolina peaked at #3.
I still can’t believe the Rolling Stones’ song Brown Sugar gets radio play, much less have gone up the charts back in the day (to #1 in the US and #2 in the UK). A song about raping an underage slave girl? Wheee. (It does totally rock, though…)