Saturday, February 24, 2018

Sound and the Fury: Whatever Happened to Novelty Hits?




Redartz:  Recently we've featured several musically-oriented posts; hope you don't mind one more. In this case, we're looking at a small niche in popular music, but one inherently fun: novelty tunes!  

Once upon a time, you could listen to the top forty songs in a given week, and most likely be exposed to at least one laugh-inducing melody. From the fabulous 50's onward through the excellent 80's, novelty hits were fairly common; and at times even topped the pop charts. Some performers were notably linked with the genre- Ray Stevens, The Chipmunks (actually producer Ross Bagdasarian), Weird Al Yankovic and Jim Stafford, for instance. Others were among the ranks of  'one hit wonders' who brought us a smile and disappeared: think Kip Adotta ( "Wet Dream"), Reunion ("Life is a Rock But the Radio Rolled Me"), and Jump 'n' the Saddle ( "Curly Shuffle"). 

Hearing these humorous hits always made the Top 40 Countdown a bit more fun, and certainly made the radio more interesting to listen to. Unfortunately, in more recent years popular music seems to have lost it's sense of humor. I can't remember the last time I heard a new novelty hit on current radio or streaming. Granted, I'm not as well-versed in the latest pop music as I once was, but it would surprise me to hear any such songs today. I'm aware of satires and comedic routines on YouTube and such, but a true 'funny song' in the Top Ten? If only....

What about all of you? Did you get a kick or two out of those 'silly symphonies' and 'merry melodies'? Did you have a favorite novelty hit or performer? Perhaps you know of some more recent examples of novelty music; I'd love to hear about them. Let's get a little silly...and to help get in the mood, here's a few of my favorites from the genre. Enjoy!

Reunion, "Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)"




 Jump 'n' the Saddle, "Curly Shuffle"


Dickie Goodman, "Energy Crisis '74"


Ray Stevens, "The Streak"


8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some novelty hits from the UK singles chart:

"The Smurf Song" by Father Abraham & The Smurfs - stayed at No.2 for six weeks in 1978 and was one of the best-selling singles of the 1970s. Only prevented from reaching No.1 because it was stuck behind an even bigger hit - "You're The One That I Want" from Grease.

"Shaddup You Face" by Joe Dolce - reached No.1 for 3 weeks in 1981. Prevented Ultravox's "Vienna" from reaching No.1 - a crime for which poor Joe Dolce has never been forgiven by some.

"Agadoo" by Black Lace. Reached No.2 in 1984, stuck behind George Michael's tedious "Careless Whisper".

"Y Viva Espana" by Sylvia. A top 10 hit in 1974 - released when cheap holidays to Spain were starting to become popular.

"Star Trekkin" by The Firm. Reached No.1 in June 1987 just days after Margaret Thatcher's 3rd election victory (getting just 43% of the votes cast - she was even less popular than Trump). This wonderful song cheered me up enormously and made life worth living again :D

"I'll Be Back" by Arnee & The Terminators - a top 10 hit in 1991, released soon after Terminator 2.

"Remember You're A Womble" and "Wombling Merry Christmas" from 1974. "The Wombles" was a BBC serial for children featuring little stop-motion creatures who collected litter on London's Wimbledon Common. Those of us of a certain age remember them with huge fondness - and all the episodes are on YouTube.

"D.I.V.O.R.C.E." by Billy Connelly. A No.1 hit in 1975 and a spoof of the Tammy Wynette song. Earlier in 1975 Tammy had reached No.1 with "Stand By Your Man", seven years after its' original American release!!

"Whispering Grass" by Don Estelle & Windsor Davies. A novelty version of the song, originally from the 1940s. Windsor Davies and Don Estelle starred in "It Ain't Half Hot Mum", a BBC comedy show about British troops in Burma in 1945, in the last weeks of World War II. This novelty song was a No.1 hit in June 1975.

"You're The One That I Want" by Hylda Baker & Arthur Mullard. This 1978 spoof of the song from Grease is so awful, it's beyond my ability to describe the awfulness. Look for it on YouTube if you dare!

"Funky Gibbon" by The Goodies from 1975. "The Goodies" was a BBC comedy series in the 1970s starring Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Graham Gardene. All three are still around but nowadays Bill Oddie is more famous for TV shows about nature.

"The Laughing Gnome" by David Bowie. Released in 1973 but recorded before he became famous.

"The Frog Chorus" by Paul McCartney (1984). Something to do with Rupert Bear, a famous long-running newspaper strip in the UK.

As for modern novelty hits - what about "Red Solo Cup" from a few years ago. That was a big hit.

Anonymous said...

Red Solo Cup was by country-music star Toby Keith.

Anonymous said...

Another vintage novelty hit - "The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine" by Laurel & Hardy. Reached No.2 in the British singles chart in 1975, 40 years after it first became famous in the 1930s!

Redartz said...

Colin- many thanks for all you listed! Some I recall (Joe Dolce hit big over here too), many are new to me.

"Star Trekkin" is great; it's included on one of the "Dr. Demento's Greatest Hits" cds (of which two reside in my collection).

And good call on "Red Solo Cup". I don't listen to much Country music,but remember that one...

Mike Wilson said...

I seem to remember you touched on this a while back when you did the K-Tel post and we mentioned the compilation albums "Looney Tunes" and Goofy Greats", both of which were chock full of novelty songs. A few that come to mind:

The Chipmunk Song ("me I want a hula hoop"),
Snoopy vs the Red Baron,
My Boomerang Won't Come Back,
Witch Doctor,
perennial Halloween hit Monster Mash,
Purple People Eater,
The Streak,
and my personal Favourite as a kid, Transfusion by Nervous Norvus.

A couple more mainstream songs that come to mind: "Do You Remember These" by the Statler Brothers, and "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" by Jan and Dean.

Anonymous said...

Here are some more novelty hits:

"Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West" - Benny Hill (1971)

"Long Haired Lover From Liverpool" - Jimmy Osmond. He's still the youngest person ever, aged 9, to reach No.1 in the UK singles chart.

"I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper" - Sarah Brightman & Hot Gossip.

"There's A Guy Works Down The Chipshop, Swears He's Elvis" - Kirsty MacColl. Daughter of Ewan MacColl who wrote "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face".

"My Ding-A-Ling" - Chuck Berry.

"Grandad" - Clive Dunn.

"There's No-One Quite Like Grandma" St. Winifred's School Choir. This truly awful song reached No.1 in 1980, knocking John Lennon's posthumous "Just Like Starting Over" off the No.1 spot.

"Captain Beaky" by Keith Michell (1980). Keith Michell was famous for playing King Henry VIII in the BBC serial "The Six Wives Of Henry VIII". There was also a film version in which he also starred.

"It's Not Easy Being Green" by Kermit The Frog from 1977.

"Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs" by Brian & Michael. This one-hit wonder was about the painter L.S. Lowry and was No.1 for 3 weeks in 1978.

"Wandrin'Star" by Lee Marvin. A No.1 UK hit in 1970.

Not all the songs I mentioned are comedy songs but I think they all count in the "novelty" category.

Another modern novelty hit that comes to mind is "Gangnam Style" by PSY which was huge a few years ago.

Killraven said...

You guys just about got it covered, these are all fun!

One from my childhood that I just adore is "Beep Beep" (Little Nash Rambler).

Thanks for the topic and reminding me of these, having fun listing to them again.

Edo Bosnar said...

"Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" by Elmo & Patsy.

Otherwise, I think Frank Zappa made many contributions to this category; I know Weird Al has cited him as an inspiration, and Dr. Demento often featured his songs on his radio show (and had him on as a guest), and some of his albums (like "Joe's Garage" or "Sheik Yerbouti") are pretty much all novelty songs - very clever, well composed and performed and often quite vulgar novelty songs.

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