“Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” by Steam
“Fat” by Weird Al
“They’re Coming to Take Me Away” by Napoleon XIV
My man! My wife and I were singing this together just the other day. Have you seen the video of older Groucho singing it live on Dick Cavett’s show?
.
You ommitted his masterpiece: “Harry The Hairy Ape”
(“what record?” “Shut up!”)
“Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport”
and
“Flowers on The Wall”
were chart toppers.
That song (properly called The Toronto Song) is by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, not the Arrogant Worms. Pretty amusing, though. (Was funnier when Mel Lastman was mayor, though…the guy who’s in now may still be a dork, but he’s not nearly as publicly so as Mel was…)
(3DTiaB are from Edmonton, so Alberta, aside from Calgary, not sucking makes sense for them…not so much for the Kingston, Ontario based Arrogant Worms.)
Are you saying that The Arrogant Worms did a cover version of the 3DTiaB song, or did I mistakenly attribute the song to The Arrogant Worms?
Anyway, this is the first I’ve ever heard your assertion. I’ve discussed this song several times with a Canadian friend who grew up in Saskatoon but who now lives in Ottawa. He, too, loves the song, and has never once corrected me when I refer to the song as Ontario Sucks by The Arrogant Worms.
So, what’s the straight dope on this, eh?
Misattribution. The Worms have never done the song.
It’s like all the songs misattributed to Weird Al. Since the Worms are better known than the Trolls, they get credited with their songs.
Unfortunately, the Worms’ website no longer has the page that used to say ‘no, we didn’t do The Toronto Song, that was Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie’. (And the Trolls’ site sucks badly, in general.) On the other hand, they do have a page where you can buy every bit of music they ever put out, either as individual tracks, or as albums, and it’s not there. And here’s the song’s wikipedia entry.
I saw it live when it first aired. In junior high and high school, after the household was asleep, I would sneak downstairs and put the TV on really low and watch Dick Cavett. Cavett’s brand of showbiz, wit, and muscular intellectualism was such an education for impressionable me! I vividly remember some of those shows: Janice Joplin, Norman Mailer, John G. Neihardt, Groucho, Katherine Hepburn, Orson Welles…
Someone already mentioned Pac-Man Fever, but not my favorite from that album - Ode To A Centipede. I don’t what I love more, the obsessive-sounding spoken word vocals or the wailing guitar solo in the middle.
Any love for The Rutles?
In the early 70’s Dr. Demento would play a song on his Christmas show called: “I want to hang my balls on your Christmas tree”. Made in the 30’s, old blues/jazz tune, very odd/funny tune. I no longer have it on tape and I cannot find it anywhere on the ‘interweb’–so if someone has a copy please post it or a link to it.
While I was was searching for the above I found this…
'It’s Hard to kiss the lips at night that’s chewed your ass all day long"
I used to love Cavett’s show. The few that I remember viewing live on first airing are:
- Janis Joplin and Racquel Welch, together.
- Dudley Moore playing the “Colonel Bogey March” in the style of a Beethoven sonata.
- Zappa and Mothers (Flo & Eddie lineup) doing “Who Are The Brain Police.”
- Mailer arrogantly dissing Cavett by telling him to “just ask me your next question, read your little piece of paper there”; Cavett responding “Why don’t you fold it five ways and put it where the moon don’t shine.” (The story behind that encounter was kind of funny, regarding Mailer’s feud with Gore Vidal, which got so bitter that Mailer wound up slugging Vidal at a party. Vidal’s comment afterward was: “Words failed him. As usual.”
.
…I am the Waitress (do a poo-poo!) …
(Yes, I took the liberty of combining the cover art “waitress” gag with the Piggy In The Middle version of goo goo ga joob. But you already knew that.)