What is Your Favorite Novelty Song?
July 3rd 2007 05:19
Today I was looking through my music library and came across Steve Marin's hit from 1978...King Tut. This got me to thinking about my favorite novelty songs. A novelty song is a popular tune that is either written and performed as a novelty or that becomes a novelty when removed from its original context. Regardless of which of these two categories applies, the assumption is that the song is popular because of its novelty, because it sounds different from everything else being played on the radio.
My family has always enjoyed a good novelty song. During my teenaged years, my family and I would listen to the Dr. Demento radio show. Dr. Demento is the stage name of Barret Eugene Hansen a radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs and pop music parodies. He created the persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM.. After Hansen played "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, DJ Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be "demented" to play that. Thereafter, the name stuck. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974 and from 1978-1992 was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Networks. It is still on the air as of 2007. For more information Dr. Demento link
Here are my top 10 favorite Novelty Songs
(Sorry Weird Al and Adam Sandler...you guys did not make the top 10)
Steve Martin - King Tut (1978)
This popular stand-up comic made frequent appearances on Saturday Night Live which solidified his national acclaim. His career took another leap forward when he began releasing comedy albums. His first, 1977's Let's Get Small reached the top 10 on the albums chart. The second A Wild and Crazy Guy included the top 20 hit single "King Tut" which parodies the national obsession with Egyptian king Tutankhamen.
Steve Martin - King Tut (SNL)
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C.W. McCall - Convoy (1975)C.W. McCall is the alter-ego of advertising executive William Fries. He created the C.W. McCall character as a fictional character who drove a truck for an Omaha area bread company. The radio ad campaigns using the McCall character were so successful Fries won the advertising industry's Clio award. Soon Fries began recording music as C.W. McCall and the song "Convoy" rode the mid-70's CB radio craze to be a #1 pop hit in 1975.
Loudon Wainwright III - Dead Skunk (1973)
Once thought to be the next Bob Dylan, Wainwright had been dropped by Atlantic records and was about to be dropped by CBS records when his label decided they had nothing to lose by releasing this morbid song. Apparently, someone at CBS smelled a hit. Featuring the repetitive chorus "Ya got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road," this stinker was released in the spring of 1973 to a listening public head over heels in love with the Carpenters and sweet songs from sensitive males. Wainwright encourages his entourage near the end of this disaster with "Come on... stink!"
Ray Stevens - The Streak (1974)
Ray Stevens is arguably the most successful performer of novelty and comedy songs ever. He is responsible for classics like "Ahab the Arab," "Gitarzan," and "Along Came Jones." In 1974, at the peak of streaking (running naked in public) as a national fad, Stevens put together "The Streak," a song featuring fake news reports of a streaker in various settings. It became one of his biggest hits and topped the pop singles chart.
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Frank Zappa - Valley Girl (1982)
Despite a lengthy career as one of the most creative performers in the history of rock, Frank Zappa's only true hit single is this novelty classic. Featuring an improvised vocal peformance by Zappa's daughter Moon Unit, the song pokes fun at a particular type of speaking developed by teenage girls in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. In response to the song, Valspeak swept the country with phrases ranging from "gag me with a spoon" to "fersure"
Barnes and Barnes-Fish Heads
Barnes & Barnes, fictional twin brothers Art & Artie Barnes, are a "novelty" duo based in Lumania, a fictional mythological civilization (similar to Lemuria or Atlantis). Most of their music is standard Rock or Pop with heavy comedic elements, hence their inclusion in the "novelty rock" genre. Their real-life alter egos, Robert Haimer and Bill Mumy, are based in Los Angeles, California, USA. Mumy is also well known for playing Will Robinson in the TV series Lost in Space and Lennier in "Babylon 5."
Mojo Nixon - Elvis is Everywhere
Mojo Nixon (born Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr., August 2, 1957 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) is an American musician. A part of the psychobilly movement, he is known for his boisterousness, his often scathing critiques of pop culture, and his libertarian political views.
Nixon paired with Skid Roper (aka Richard Banke) in the early 1980s in San Diego. Roper mostly provided instrumental backup to Nixon's lyrics. Nixon and Roper's third album, 1987's Bo-Day-Shus!!! featured this song a deification of Elvis Presley, which is probably his best known song (Nixon later declared his personal religious trinity was Presley, Foghorn Leghorn and Otis Campbell).
Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod
Jesus Built My Hotrod is a 1991 single by Ministry and was the band's most popular song up to that point. The track features a driving beat and speed metal guitar work backing Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes gonzo vocal stylings. The song was released November 7, 1991, a little more than half a year before it appeared on Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs. MuchMusic and MTV championed the accompanying video and it enjoyed repetitive plays on both stations.
Monster Mash
Monster Mash" is a 1962 novelty song and the best-known song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Pickett was an aspiring actor who sang with a band called The Cordials at night while going to auditions during the day. One night, while performing with his band, Pickett did a monologue in imitation of horror movie actor Boris Karloff while covering The Diamonds' "Little Darlin'". The audience loved it and co band member, Lenny Capizzi encouraged Pickett to do more with the Karloff imitation.
Pickett and Capizzi composed "Monster Mash" and recorded it with Gary Paxton, Leon Russell, Johnny McCrae and Rickie Page, credited as "The Cryptkickers". The song is narrated by a mad scientist whose monster, late one evening, rises from a slab to perform a new dance. The dance becomes a hit when the scientist throws a party for other monsters. The producers came up with several low-budget, but effective sound effects for the recording. For example, the sound of a coffin opening was imitated by a rusty nail being pulled out of a board. The sound of a cauldron bubbling was actually water being bubbled through a straw and the chains rattling were simply chains being dropped on a tile floor. Pickett also impersonated the horror actor Bela Lugosi as Dracula when he said, "What ever happened to my Transylvania Twist?" On October 20, 1962, eight weeks after it was recorded, "Monster Mash" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart just in time for Halloween. It has been a perennial holiday favorite ever since.
Napoleon XIV - They are Coming To Take Me Away (1966)
Napoleon XIV was the pseudonym of American songwriter and record producer Jerry Samuels (born 1938), who achieved one-hit wonder status with the bizarre and controversial Top 5 hit novelty song "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!".
Then in 1966, Samuels concocted the bizarre and controversial "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!" His nom du novelty Napoleon XIV for this effort was a play on the names of two very famous Frenchmen — the Emperor Napoleon I and King Louis XIV, although some in the public found out the true identity when Cousin Brucie of WABC in New York outed him
My family has always enjoyed a good novelty song. During my teenaged years, my family and I would listen to the Dr. Demento radio show. Dr. Demento is the stage name of Barret Eugene Hansen a radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs and pop music parodies. He created the persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM.. After Hansen played "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, DJ Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be "demented" to play that. Thereafter, the name stuck. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974 and from 1978-1992 was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Networks. It is still on the air as of 2007. For more information Dr. Demento link
Here are my top 10 favorite Novelty Songs
(Sorry Weird Al and Adam Sandler...you guys did not make the top 10)
Steve Martin - King Tut (1978)
This popular stand-up comic made frequent appearances on Saturday Night Live which solidified his national acclaim. His career took another leap forward when he began releasing comedy albums. His first, 1977's Let's Get Small reached the top 10 on the albums chart. The second A Wild and Crazy Guy included the top 20 hit single "King Tut" which parodies the national obsession with Egyptian king Tutankhamen.
Steve Martin - King Tut (SNL)
Add to My Profile | More Videos
C.W. McCall - Convoy (1975)C.W. McCall is the alter-ego of advertising executive William Fries. He created the C.W. McCall character as a fictional character who drove a truck for an Omaha area bread company. The radio ad campaigns using the McCall character were so successful Fries won the advertising industry's Clio award. Soon Fries began recording music as C.W. McCall and the song "Convoy" rode the mid-70's CB radio craze to be a #1 pop hit in 1975.
Loudon Wainwright III - Dead Skunk (1973)
Once thought to be the next Bob Dylan, Wainwright had been dropped by Atlantic records and was about to be dropped by CBS records when his label decided they had nothing to lose by releasing this morbid song. Apparently, someone at CBS smelled a hit. Featuring the repetitive chorus "Ya got yer dead skunk in the middle of the road," this stinker was released in the spring of 1973 to a listening public head over heels in love with the Carpenters and sweet songs from sensitive males. Wainwright encourages his entourage near the end of this disaster with "Come on... stink!"
Ray Stevens - The Streak (1974)
Ray Stevens is arguably the most successful performer of novelty and comedy songs ever. He is responsible for classics like "Ahab the Arab," "Gitarzan," and "Along Came Jones." In 1974, at the peak of streaking (running naked in public) as a national fad, Stevens put together "The Streak," a song featuring fake news reports of a streaker in various settings. It became one of his biggest hits and topped the pop singles chart.
<>
Frank Zappa - Valley Girl (1982)
Despite a lengthy career as one of the most creative performers in the history of rock, Frank Zappa's only true hit single is this novelty classic. Featuring an improvised vocal peformance by Zappa's daughter Moon Unit, the song pokes fun at a particular type of speaking developed by teenage girls in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. In response to the song, Valspeak swept the country with phrases ranging from "gag me with a spoon" to "fersure"
Barnes and Barnes-Fish Heads
Barnes & Barnes, fictional twin brothers Art & Artie Barnes, are a "novelty" duo based in Lumania, a fictional mythological civilization (similar to Lemuria or Atlantis). Most of their music is standard Rock or Pop with heavy comedic elements, hence their inclusion in the "novelty rock" genre. Their real-life alter egos, Robert Haimer and Bill Mumy, are based in Los Angeles, California, USA. Mumy is also well known for playing Will Robinson in the TV series Lost in Space and Lennier in "Babylon 5."
Mojo Nixon - Elvis is Everywhere
Mojo Nixon (born Neill Kirby McMillan, Jr., August 2, 1957 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) is an American musician. A part of the psychobilly movement, he is known for his boisterousness, his often scathing critiques of pop culture, and his libertarian political views.
Nixon paired with Skid Roper (aka Richard Banke) in the early 1980s in San Diego. Roper mostly provided instrumental backup to Nixon's lyrics. Nixon and Roper's third album, 1987's Bo-Day-Shus!!! featured this song a deification of Elvis Presley, which is probably his best known song (Nixon later declared his personal religious trinity was Presley, Foghorn Leghorn and Otis Campbell).
Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod
Jesus Built My Hotrod is a 1991 single by Ministry and was the band's most popular song up to that point. The track features a driving beat and speed metal guitar work backing Butthole Surfers' Gibby Haynes gonzo vocal stylings. The song was released November 7, 1991, a little more than half a year before it appeared on Psalm 69: The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs. MuchMusic and MTV championed the accompanying video and it enjoyed repetitive plays on both stations.
Monster Mash
Monster Mash" is a 1962 novelty song and the best-known song by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Pickett was an aspiring actor who sang with a band called The Cordials at night while going to auditions during the day. One night, while performing with his band, Pickett did a monologue in imitation of horror movie actor Boris Karloff while covering The Diamonds' "Little Darlin'". The audience loved it and co band member, Lenny Capizzi encouraged Pickett to do more with the Karloff imitation.
Pickett and Capizzi composed "Monster Mash" and recorded it with Gary Paxton, Leon Russell, Johnny McCrae and Rickie Page, credited as "The Cryptkickers". The song is narrated by a mad scientist whose monster, late one evening, rises from a slab to perform a new dance. The dance becomes a hit when the scientist throws a party for other monsters. The producers came up with several low-budget, but effective sound effects for the recording. For example, the sound of a coffin opening was imitated by a rusty nail being pulled out of a board. The sound of a cauldron bubbling was actually water being bubbled through a straw and the chains rattling were simply chains being dropped on a tile floor. Pickett also impersonated the horror actor Bela Lugosi as Dracula when he said, "What ever happened to my Transylvania Twist?" On October 20, 1962, eight weeks after it was recorded, "Monster Mash" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart just in time for Halloween. It has been a perennial holiday favorite ever since.
Napoleon XIV - They are Coming To Take Me Away (1966)
Napoleon XIV was the pseudonym of American songwriter and record producer Jerry Samuels (born 1938), who achieved one-hit wonder status with the bizarre and controversial Top 5 hit novelty song "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!".
Then in 1966, Samuels concocted the bizarre and controversial "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!" His nom du novelty Napoleon XIV for this effort was a play on the names of two very famous Frenchmen — the Emperor Napoleon I and King Louis XIV, although some in the public found out the true identity when Cousin Brucie of WABC in New York outed him
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Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
What another great question. You made me think of few old classics from my childhood like Monster Mash, Ministry - Jesus Built My Hotrod and Napoleon XIV and They are Coming To Take Me Away.
Memories.....
But the only other novelty songs I can think of are the Birdy Song and Agadoo. Two popular English songs that are usually reincarnated at Christmas time. I'll search for them on You and come back later.
They both make me cringe and leave the dance floor,if not the party....
Byeeee
Comment by katyzzz
Photography Tips
MS Paint Art
Along came Jones.
katyzzz
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I saw this list on Really Long Link called Top 10 Most Annoying Tracks of All time and thought of this post:
1. 'You're Beautiful', James Blunt (2005)
2. 'Axel F', Crazy Frog (2005)
3. 'Mmm Bop', Hanson (1997)
4. 'Mr Blobby', Mr Blobby (1993)
5. 'Birdie Song', The Tweets (1981)
6. 'Shout', Lulu (1964)
7. 'Agadoo', Black Lace (1984)
8. 'Grace Kelly', Mika (2007)
9. 'My Heart Will Go On', Celine Dion (1998)
10. 'Las Macarena', Los Del Rio (1997)
I bolded the ones I agree with...which was most of them...
Comment by DuskDevi
Rugby World Cup 2007
'Don't Worry Be Happy' or 'Shaddup Your Face'.
First one because I think the music was created by 'voice'...plus I liked the video clip!
2nd one...so bad...it was good!
much warmth
Dusk
Comment by James Rickard
unlucky_ fishermen.com
Angling Fish
Check this out...
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I had forgotten those awful gems.....eeekkkkkk
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Love that one so much. Here is the video for everyone else to bask in Denis' glory!
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
I am posting the New Braunfels Texas (Wurst Fest) version. It even has dance instructions. HAHAHA. The only time I danced this was when I was drunk or sober with small children. So obnoxious.... feel the love....very popluar with the old folks and at weddings.
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Have you seen the Ernie Kovac short that "goes" with this song? My dad loves Ray Stevens. You are right. Bleeeech
Mis
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Mr. Blobby.... such an acid trip of a children's show song....
Other notable novelties from that fab link include:
'The Hampster Dance Song', Hampton the Hamster
'The Ketchup Song', Las Ketchup
'Who Let the Dogs Out', Baha Men
''Shaddap You Face', Joe Dolce
and my fav; "Barbie Girl", Aqua
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Always a pleasure to see you. I am glad that you liked the "so bad that it is good!" videos.
Much love sweet sister
Mis
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Thanks so much! I forgot Snoopy and the Red Baron. Good show!
Mis
Comment by Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
I had to look this one up as my mind went totally blank and found the following list here
Weird Al Yankovich does some great ones and Baz Lurman!
ash
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
That list is great! Thanks so much for the hook up!
Mis
Comment by Miswanderlust
Killer Beats
Ramble On
Hipnotherapy
Sorry to say that you are so right!
Mis
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life