I wonder if the 1980’s was the death of the novelty recordings. Such fun from the 1950’s to 1980’s…long lived those novelty records! What ones do you recall?
Here’s a start…
Purple People Eater
Purple People Eater Meets the Witch Doctor*
I think there are two songs with very similar titles, but different songs totally
The Witch Doctor (title?) “I told the Witch Doctor…” by David Seville?
The UFO Song? (title?) also by David Seville?
The Chipmunk Song et al…
The Leader of the Laundry Mat (spoof of “Leader of the Pack”)
Judy in Disguise With Glasses (spoof of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”)
Beep Beep by the Playmates
The Camp Granada Song by Alan Sherman? (related to Bobby Sherman?)
Energy Crisis '74
Mr. Jaws
King Tut (by Steve Martin) - I wish I had this!
Shaving Cream
Breaking Up Is Hard On You (re: AT&T Break Up) - rare, I can’t find
Pac-Man Fever
Do the Donkey Kong
The Curly Shuffle (re: 3 Stooges)
Take Off (from Second City TV - a quasi song/quasi novelty)
I’m sure I missed a bunch…what else do you recall? - Jinx
Harder than it sounds. The official site is precluded from listing the stations DrD broadcasts on… yeah, that makes sense! Hasn’t been on here in San Jose for over a decade (I see a Concord, CA station airs it… pretty far for a small FM).
You can find a lot of novelty songs, if you look. Dr. Demento issued 2oth and 25th anniversary collections (and probably others), and there are a lot of newer ones than you list.
Allan Sherman (no relation to any other Sherman I know) issued four LPs. A few years ago a “Best of…” albumk came out. Look him up. He did a lot more than “Camp Granada” (which had a sequel, by the way)
“David Seville” was Ross Bagdasarian, producer of “The Alvin Show” after The chipmunks became a hit. He plasys a composer (duh) in the hitchcock film Rear Window
If you like Sherman, get Tom Lehrer, well known to denizens of this Board. Not to mention Al Yankovic.
BTW – it’s “Leader of the Laundromat”, not “Laundry Mat”.
I don’t know if I’d call “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)” a spoof of “Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds.” At least not in the sense that “Leader of the Laundromat” is a spoof of “Leader of the Pack” and “Eat It” is a spoof of “Beat It.”
“Judy” is a bright, bouncy, bubblegum tune that bears no musical relation at all to the slower and more psychedelic “Lucy,” so I’ve always seen them as entirely different songs. The titles are similar, yes, but that’s about it for similarities. “Judy” may have been intended to be a novelty, but it would never be confused with the Beatles song in the way a spoof would, and could certainly hold its own with the bubblegum acts of the day on the Top 40 AM dial.
Anyway, there were a number of collections of novelty songs that K-Tel put out in the 1970s. I remember a summer where, for some reason, we played the heck out of a couple of K-Tel collections called (IIRC) Looney Tunes and Goofy Greats. Among the ones I can still remember were the following:
“Transfusion” - (Transfusion, transfusion, my red corpsuckles [sic] are in mass confusion; I’m never ever ever ever gonna speed again–slip the blood to me, Bud!)
“Rubber Ducky” - Yep, Ernie from Sesame Street.
“The Monster Mash” - (Whatever happened to the Transylvania Twist?)
“Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” - (Two, three, four, tell the people what she wore…)
“They’re Coming To Take Me Away (Ha Ha)” - (To the Happy Home with trees and flowers and chirping birds and basket weavers who sit and smile…)
On the contrary: the popularity of Wierd Al is proof the novelty song is dead. Larry Siegel* and Allan Sherman (both of whom Weird Al should thank every day of his life) did it infinitely better back in the 60s.
Anyway, I’ll mention the true geniuses of the novelty song:
Tom Lehrer
Spike Jones and his City Slickers The Bonzo Dog Band Neil Innes – former Bonzo Dog Band member, still going strong – his site has MP3s for download, so you can see how much superior he is to Yankovic. The Capitol Steps (for political satire novelty songs – what Yankovic would be like if he had any real talent)
Flanders and Swann
As for the question in the OP, novelty songs became popular when a DJ would discover them, take a fancy, and start playing. Eventually, other DJs would hear them and begin to play them, resulting in a success. Now, however, the decision of what songs to play is done by committee, and the committee is less likely to play something solely because it tickles their fancy. In addition, there’s the old “humor is subjective, so we’ll avoid it” fallacy: if humor is subjective, there will always be people who don’t think it’s funny. So it’s better to skip humor.
The Simpsons have had (I think) two instances where they knocked on Russell - both times the guy was doing some horribly unfunny song on the paino and the cameras turn to the family, who are rolling their eyes or wincing. Now THAT is funny!
He’s been kind of hit & miss for the past few years but his year-end summaries have always been as good as Billy Crystal summarizing Academy Award nominees in song.
I’m with the OP. In the very early '60s (pre-Beatles) not only were there lots of novelty records, but they charted and got lots of airplay. I suppose that there was so much crap being produced that the novelty records were good in comparison. As soon as there was really good music, they diminished. But back then you didn’t need Dr. Demento to hear Monster Mash - it was on WABC all the time.
It looks more like you were born there. Sure. Capitol Steps consistently come up with clever rhymes and intriguing implications of the songs. Yankovic chooses dumb, random phrases. Not-so-weird Al is like a ten-year-old who sings a song and adding “poopie” to every word; Elaina Newport and Bill Strauss are more like Cole Porter – smart, not stupid.
Wow, couldn’t disagree more. My experiences with Capitol steps have been thankfully few - I found them political (admittedly, intentional on their part) and forgettable.
Whereas Al’s got clever rhymes, truly off-the-wall notions, and is a wonderful stylistic chameleon. And he’s never preachy.
Sure. Capitol Steps consistently come up with clever rhymes and intriguing implications of the songs. Yankovic chooses dumb, random phrases. Not-so-weird Al is like a ten-year-old who sings a song and adding “poopie” to every word; Elaina Newport and Bill Strauss are more like Cole Porter – smart, not stupid.