Your "novelty song you (probably) forgot all about" for the day is Thunderbirds Are Go by FAB (feat. MC Parker).
As always, what you do with this information is up to you.
#noveltysongs — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #noveltysongs, aggregated by home.social.
-
DR. DEMENTO
25th Anniversary Collection (More Of The Greatest Novelty Records Of All Time)
1995 U.S. 2xCD issueEverybody needs a few chortles now and then.
Novelty songs are the fucking best.
Even the bad ones.
Their main goal IS to be ridiculous and to make people laugh and smile.Dr. Demento’s sole purpose in life was to shine a light on these kinds of tunes and serve them up to people, both GOOD AND BAD.
He introduced the world to Weird Al Yankovic, Barnes and Barnes, and so much more.Both artists are here, as well as a bevy of other insanely goofy and questionable tunes.
You can’t throw something like this on and not laugh or feel good in some way.
Today is definitely a day for it.
#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcommunity #vinylcollection #retro #vintage #art #music #analog #novelty #noveltysongs #DrDemento #comedy #humor #laughs #ridiculous #cd #cds #compactdisc
-
STEVE MARTIN AND THE TOOT UNCOMMONS
King Tut
1978 Canada 7” singleA little whimsy and nostalgia to end my night before bed.
I remember watching an old re-run of SNL as a kid where Steve Martin was dressed in pharaoh garb performing this ridiculous song. I remember saying “What the hell was THAT?!?!”
The “uncommons” are actually members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and that SNL performance was where this was born; a completely ridiculous novelty song written about the Treasures Of Tutankhamun travelling exhibit that toured through American cities for three years (1976-1979).
Steve Martin is a fucking genius.
#vinyl #vinylrecords #vinylcommunity #vinylcollection #retro #vintage #art #music #comedy #stevemartin #kingtut #noveltymusic #noveltysongs #1970s #70s #70smusic #snl #saturdaynightlive
-
The widespread decommissioning of the Boeing 747 will slowly make it easier to buy a jumbo jet.
It's pretty easy to climb inside a dog if you find the right fursuit.
On the other hand ... the modern Renault 4 is an electric car, so would be significantly less edible.
The rest of the activities in the "The Chicken Song" remain about as plausible as they were in the 80s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzTioHGQgeA
#Music #Pop #80s #Nostalgia #NoveltySongs #SpittingImage #Furry
-
Afroman Sings “Because I Got High”
Listen to this track by herbally-refreshed rapper and singer Joseph Edgar Foreman, better known to the world as Afroman. It’s “Because I Got High”, his internationally charting hit that made a big splash in 2000. It also appears on the album of the same name, and his second release by then. The song would also appear on the 2001 compilation record of his independent releases The Good Times.
This monster hit song would eventually win Afroman his “one hit wonder” status, after its use on The Howard Stern Show boosted its popularity. The song later appeared in movie soundtracks of the era including Kevin Smith’s Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Shia LeBeouf psychological thriller Disturbia, and teen heist comedy The Perfect Score. Even beyond its initial era of popularity in the early 2000s, Afroman’s song about weed endures today. Since its release, there have been parody versions, a holiday-themed take, and updated versions of the song to reflect issues including cannabis legalization and even inflation. The less said about the more recent Hunter Biden parody version, the better. But even so, this song still has legs.
It helps that “Because I Got High” is very relatable for many. The fact is this: a lot of people smoke up. According to the CDC, approximately 19% of Americans partook in cannabis at least once in 2021. That’s 52 million people. Cannabis use in the UK is proportionate, being the nation’s most commonly consumed Class B drug with users ranging from teens to seniors. There continue to be concerns around brain development in weed-smoking teens in particular as it affects memory, learning, coordination, and even mental health. These are serious health issues to consider, just as there is with many substances people ingest, legal or not.
When “Because I Got High” came out, and as appealing and funny as it was (and still is!), some perceived it as being dismissive of these serious issues at best and of being blatantly “pro-drugs” at worst. The song became fuel for conservative rhetoric around the dangers of reefer madness and its (spurious) connection to the deterioration of morality. As usual, talking about drugs in this reactionary way as a moral issue and not a health issue with serious social implications served as a very useful distraction to other pertinent political and economic issues that require solutions that go well beyond the prohibition of substances.
In fact, many of those issues are among the systemic root causes of drug abuse; social inequality, worker’s rights abuses, and racism, among many others. It is far easier to condemn the use of a substance and attribute it solely to individual moral weakness or self-indulgence than it is to address the systemic problems the drives up that use. That seems to be how things are in our society; preserving systems that benefit some and cause great harm to so many others is more important than protecting those people who are most negatively affected by those systems and structures.
Beyond how politically useful the controversy was to talk radio host blowhards and waning political figures desperate to keep their names in the press, the song’s origins had very little to do with making political statements around drug use. Purportedly, Afroman wrote his signature song in minutes, doing so initially as an inside joke with people he considered to be likeminded in their appreciation of recreational greenery. As he stated by August of 2001 in the pages of Time Magazine, no less:
“You know what, dude? I made this tape for all my homeboys. I didn’t think I’d be talking to TIME magazine. I’m a little worried about Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. I don’t want to get anybody riled up. I just figured, since I’m a pothead, why can’t me and the other potheads have a little joke between ourselves.” (read the whole article)
Besides the dubious controversy it stirred up, “Because I Got High” is a very deftly constructed pop song, doing the thing it’s designed to do which is to get in your head and stay there. To start with, it’s got a powerful melodic hook. It’s sung very well in a kind of bleary-eyed and languid doo wop style which really stood out stylistically on the radio at the time. Importantly, it has a distinctive narrative structure in every verse that is very easy to follow; situation, to intention, to consequence, and all because of a habitual pattern that the narrator can’t seem to shake to any degree of success . Most damning of all, Afroman made it sound fun.
Listening closer, though, there is something lurking beneath the comedy that makes this song more than it seems. As much as he wrote it for a laugh to share with other potheads, Afroman also built something socially potent into “Because I Got High” along with his series of punchlines. This is a story about someone who didn’t clean up their room, failed an exam, and didn’t get laid because he got too baked to follow through. The only victim in these stories in the song is the narrator himself. Everyone can see the funny side there.
But another story found in the song is about someone who has lost his family due to drug use, ultimately causing him to become homeless and for his children to be without their father.
I messed up my entire life because I got high
I lost my kids and wife because I got high
Now I’m sleeping on the sidewalk and I know why (why, man?)‘Cause I got high, because I got high, because I got high …
~ “Because I Got High” by Afroman
This is in addition to the story about a man becoming a paraplegic after running from the police who take violent measures against him. This is a story that is all too real for many Black people, and also very much a story that resonated with the audience Afroman had primarily in mind when writing his novelty hit. At a certain point then, “Because I Got High” becomes something more than just a gimmicky hit single.
Is “Because I Got High” still a funny song? Yes. Is it also one that acknowledges that drugs can undo your life bit by bit if you’re not careful? Also, yes. Does it suggest to listeners that this story has bigger social implications beyond just individual bad habits and poor choices? You bet. It mixes the comedy with the cold reality of established social structures and tragic events that come of them.
This is why the impulse to laugh is so much the stronger. In fact, a lot of comedy works that way. The comedy is in place to help us process the tragedy. As we’ve known since the art of storytelling began, these two powerful and resonant narrative forces are linked. Maybe it was this level of nuance and thematic ambiguity instead of a clear cut “pro or anti” divide around the taboo subject of drugs that really riled people up at the time. This is a song that, with subtlety, reveals things about our society that people in power and those defending the status quo would rather not talk about.
His one-hit wonder status notwithstanding, Afroman’s more recent work also deals with some relatable themes between comedy and tragedy that touch on harmful social and political systems in Western society. This newer material is specifically themed around a baseless police raid at his home in 2022, with footage of the incident used in videos for the songs that appear on his Lemon Pound Cake album that same year. All told, Afroman took the fear and humiliation of a wrongful raid and made those responsible into a laughing stock.
Legal issues ensued afterwards with some of the officers in question naming themselves as injured parties. It goes to show that the pen is sometimes mightier than the dubiously-issued search warrant and badge, especially when that pen is wielded by someone who is too easily mistaken for just another slacker pothead.
You can read about the incident here on NPR.
Enjoy!
#2000sMusic #Afroman #noveltySongs #oneHitWonders #songsAboutDrugs
-
Finally for today, this Novelty Hit by One Hit Wonders, A Tribe of Toffs, must have annoyed John Ketley, at the time a BBC TV weather presenter. He now does the daytime weather on Boom Radio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db6WHtNV5-I&list=PL100CA49A80CB0AA0
-
Here's another Novelty song by a comedy actor that was a hit in the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inee2wKsXsk&list=RDEMpA9b6oo3kiZhOkMEVtHTLQ&start_radio=1
-
The UK has a fondness for Novelty records, with many getting into the charts. In these last days of November.
Bernard Cribbins, a comedy actor had a couple of charting songs. Here is one of them.
-
Final Novelty song that was a hit in the UK for today.
This was another number 1, and one of the better entries in the Novelty Songs.
-
The Barron Knights had hits in the UK in the 1960s, 70's and 80s..
Here is one of their Novelty Records that was a hit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIXr4VOZzgU&list=PLuXvB8NZhXFkbKLo1ov-UKxL2tgCxS8hx
-
Continuing the short series of Novelty songs that were UK chart hits. I think this annoying song was a Christmas Number one.
-
Listen to this track by nu-easy-listening sensations and pop song context re-positioners The Mike Flowers Pops. It’s “Wonderwall”, a hit song that swept the nation, eventually appearing on the 1996 record A Groovy Place. The single is based on an earlier version by a little band you might remember called Oasis. The initial joke at the time was that the Manchester Britpop outfit had been the ones to cover The Mike Flowers Pops original, a supposedly lost late-1960s hit, and not the other way around.
The song had a significant impact in Britain. This was at least in part because the Oasis cut was so familiar, and perhaps even overfamiliar by 1995. The quirky novelty of the Mike Flowers Pops take had the song championed by morning shows on British radio and television, celebrating its place in the zeitgeist. At one point in the proceedings, the song actually overlapped with the Oasis version in the UK top ten in December of 1995. The Oasis original had slipped down to number seven while The Mike Flowers Pops cover overtook it to score the number two spot. That must have endeared (scan for sarcasm …) the Gallagher Brothers to it, royalty cheques notwithstanding.
Hearing a shadowy and earnest pop song from one of the world’s biggest bands re-interpreted so incongruously is what made it so funny. But beyond the tendency for British charts to celebrate novelty songs in general, there are other layers to consider that helped to make this song so well-liked and successful to the record-buying public of the mid-Nineties.
First, the song’s arrangement and musicianship really is superb. Sure, Mike Flowers (actually born Michael Roberts) and his musicians mug for the camera a bit in the video. But musically speaking, they really went for it with varied textures of brass and flutes and layered backing vocals that make it a detailed and lush recording. The command of musical phrases, sonic tropes, and slight tweaks to the chord structure inspired by a bygone age legitimately serve the material.
On this level, it’s perfectly reasonable to think that this really was some obscure late-Sixties easy listening hit. It contains a level of musical precision that really sells it as a bona fide pop single that actually swings, man. Groovy. Novelty song or not, the musicians present this version of “Wonderwall” with great respect for the original Oasis song as a composition. It’s true that Flowers’ improbable haircut in the video is one of the stars of the show, pre-dating Jimmy Fallon’s “Tight Pants” schtick by decades. But, beyond the costuming, the comedy is chiefly found in undermining listener expectations, not in the playing or singing of it in contempt of its source.
Second, the song fitted in well with the Britpop age nearing the point of its apex by 1995. Of course in this case, there’s a twist. With an idealized 1960s in mind, instead of The Kinks and The Small Faces references, here we get Andy Williams and Englebert Humperdinck vibes instead. It all fed into the retro-cool aspects of what Britpop was all about with a bit of aural frommage thrown in for good measure. Generation X ate it up, applying as much of a generational propensity and appreciation for irony at it as it was giving out to us. Some critics didn’t get the joke. But really; who cares?
Besides all that and third, there were legitimate forces at work here that went beyond the comedy. One of them was that the sounds and approach found on this tune were very familiar to audiences in their twenties and early thirties by 1995. Easy listening music was everywhere when Generation X were children. It was on the radio. It was in malls. It was on TV variety shows and on greatest hits compilation commercials. It was certainly ensconced in parental record collections, with James Last and Herb Alpert records seemingly issued by governments as some kind of cultural mandate.
Dogeared and scratchy albums followed us into the Nineties in the form of charity shop bin-delvers looking for forgotten gems to sample on hip hop and trip hop albums. As we edged closer to the 21st century, the strains of easy listening sounds and aesthetics became mainstays of downtempo comedown tracks, and as artifacts of our memories of late Sixties and early Seventies sounds, fashions, and lifestyles. This was the world our parents called their own. By the Nineties, that world had largely faded away. Being Generation X, we derided it. But we also loved it, and even missed it.
That’s the thing with this song. It was and still is hilarious. But that’s because it was so familiar. This was not just because of how ubiquitous the Oasis song was by 1995. The Mike Flowers Pops cover contained as much affection for a world long gone as it did smart-assery in response to the then-present one. What better way to sum up the character of a generation straddling the blurry line between a fading twentieth century and an emerging twenty-first?
For more about the history and impact of The Mike Flowers Pops version of “Wonderwall” and on the rise of lounge music at the end of the twentieth century, take a look at this article on backseatmafia.com.
Enjoy!
https://thedeletebin.com/2024/10/28/the-mike-flowers-pops-play-wonderwall/
#90sMusic #BritPop #coverVersions #noveltySongs #TheMikeFlowersPops
-
Another great blog post by @denker_joel: 'I had always assumed that the popular song, “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” was written about an Italian hawking fruit. I was wrong.' https://foodpassages.com #foodhistory #immigration #streetvendors #noveltysongs #music #food
-
Another great blog post by @denker_joel: 'I had always assumed that the popular song, “Yes, We Have No Bananas,” was written about an Italian hawking fruit. I was wrong.' https://foodpassages.com #foodhistory #immigration #streetvendors #noveltysongs #music #food
-
#SheetMusic shipping to new homes today.
#music #NoveltySongs #Yiddish #Hawaiian#Music
-
You can now hear my latest #FromeFM radio show Very Very Vintage: Science Fiction via this link:
https://www.mixcloud.com/FromeFM/71-very-very-vintage-020723-scifi/
Playing tracks from #DeeDJackson #SarahBrightman #TheRAHBand and @[email protected]
#communityradio #sciencefiction #nostalgia #nostalgicmusic #scifi #SciFiMusic #spacedisco #noveltysongs
-
This week's Bring the Ruckus mix is posted over on Mixcloud! Novelty songs from the 1940s through today! Funny and weird songs from They Might Be Giants, Weird Al Yankovic, Spike Jones and the City Slickers, Lonnie Donegan, Paul & Storm, and more!
https://www.mixcloud.com/zaxusemk/bring-the-ruckus-6252023-novelties/
-
I'm about to go LIVE!!!
Come join me for this week's Bring the Ruckus mixtape!
We have great conversations in chat about the music and see what shenanigans we can perpetrate.
No politics/religion.
This week: All novelty songs, all the time!
The stream is here:
Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/zaxusemk
-
And now, back to misty-eyed as I learn that in the same week that we lost "Fish Heads" Robert Haimler," we lost "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" Napoleon XIV.
Somebody please check on Barry Hansen (aka Dr. Demento)!
-
Today's #music (23 Jan 2023) honors what one source claims is the 150th anniversary year of the first batch of Lydia Pinkham's "medicinal compound".
The Pinkham tonic is still being manufactured, using what the current company claims is the original recipe, but they probably leave out the active ingredient which made the stuff popular enough during Prohibition to write a song about it: 40 proof drinking alcohol.
Lily The Pink -- #Scaffold
-
📣 Music Video for FUN original Christmas single: "WHEN SANTA CLAUS GOT STUCK IN THE CHIMNEY" written and performed by (mother and daughter) She And The Cat's Mother;
#Fun #Songs #Christmas #NoveltySongs #ChristmasSongs #ChristmasSingles #MothersAndDaughters