“Theme from Super Skrull” by Ookla the Mok
King Missle (Dog Fly Religion) “Take Stuff From Work”
This is so un-politically correct:
- this ended up as the B-side to “The Chicken Song” which went to number 1 in the UK.
The Beatles - You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)
The Fab Four at their most Pythonesque.
My favorite parody song of all time:
Leader of the Laudromat By The Detergents
Others I like:
Elvis is Everywhere By Mojo Nixon
On Top of Spaghetti: By Tom Grazer
Mahna Mahna By The Muppets
Corky Siegel, Idaho Potato Man.
You may know this song but not her cover. She’s actually made CDs, played concerts etc. since catching on via youtube.
Gotta have some 'munks. Let’s do the time warp! They get some seriously good session musicians on these things…
Oh, too big of a question. Too many choices.
Favorite current artist: Randy Rainbow. For now, my favorite of his is “Cover your Frickin’ Face” set to “Put on a Happy Face”.
Favorite long term artist, who else but Weird Al Yankovich? My favorite of his obscure songs? It’s a toss up between “One More Minute with You” and “Gonna Buy Me a Condo”. “One More Minute with You” is the funniest, but “Gonna Buy Me a Condo” is more fun to sing along with, if you get what I mean.
Favorite classic novelty song? “I’m My Own Grandpa” as covered by Homer and Jethro. But that one isn’t very obscure. For my favorite obscure classic novelty song, I would nominate “My Name is Not Merv Griffin”. Once you hear it, you never forget it.
Favorite historical obscure novelty song? This presidential election song, in support of Martin Van Buren and against William Henry Harrison, set to “Rock-a-Bye Baby”:
*Rock-a-bye Baby,
Daddy’s a Whig
When he comes home
Hard cider he’ll swig.
When he has swug
He’ll fall in a stew,
And down will come Tyler
and Tippecanoe.
Rock-a-bye Baby,
Never you cry.
You need not fear
Old Tip and his Ty
What they would ruin
Van Buren will fix
Van’s a Magician.
They are but tricks.*
Finally, I’d like to close with an example of a poignant obscure novelty song by none other than Benny Hill. It’s the last verse in a song about an old playboy miscreant who dies at the age of 93 having been shot by a jealous husband. The man dies praying,
“Please let me go round again Lord.
Please let me go round again.
I just can’t believe that I never will see Your sky or Your trees again.
The women and wine and the music was fine, and I shouldn’t complain, but then…
You give damn short rides on this Merry-Go-Round Lord, oh please let me go round again.”
Benny slowed down the tempo on that last verse while singing it, and damned if I don’t choke up a little whenever I come across it somewhere.
I know the thread says favorite, but sometimes I think half my record collection qualifies as novelty records.
Happy Boy, by the Beat Farmers.
WDVE in Pittsburgh used to play it every Friday at 5PM(don’t know if they still do.) In addition to being wonderfully silly, it also signaled the end of the week and the beginning of freedom and fun, so I associate it with good memories.
Martin Mull was a terrific comic musician in his heyday. Here’s his Christmas song:
There’s also Root Boy Slim
The Austin Lounge Lizards:
And in the not ready for airplay category (but I played it on my show anyway):
Funny story about this song - a roommate of mine back in college had a copy of some Rhino Records sampler CD that had this song as a bonus track, with no identifying information at all. It took us years to figure out who/what it was.
Took me years, too. They never said what song this was, ever. It wasn’t until the internet that I found out about the Beat Farmers.
Likewise, there’s this.
And this.
Aaaaand this.
I used to have a cassette tape somewhere with the original version on it, which is about 15 minutes in length.
Hubba Hubba Zoot Zoot HUBBA HUBBA ZOOT ZOOT - Caramba - YouTube
I agree; Weird Al’s best songs are “style parodies” of classic artists but not parodies of specific songs. “Craig’s List” is a great one, but my all time favorite is “Genius In France.”
An obscure Dr Demento artist calling himself Heathen Dan did a parody of Tom T Halls sappy “I Love”.
I don’t know Nilsson’s “Coconut” is considered a novelty song or not, but I love the Muppets’ take on it.
