Showing posts with label Bonzo Dog Band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bonzo Dog Band. Show all posts

Thursday, March 16, 2017

TEN ANNOYING, SHORT-LIVED, POP MUSIC GENRES



This post started off as a comparison of two sub genres of rock music. The problem was, as I tried to do some research on the subject, I found very little information or music on-line about it. So I just decided to mix it into a post about several other genres.

If you are on social media, you would assume, from reading all those stupid memes that your un-hip friends post, that Millennials listen to the worst music ever made. In doing some research for this, I found that the hipsters and Millennials are actually into some very interesting and technical, experimental music.

Also, I've noticed these memes usually come from one of three places 1) a country radio station or redneck humor Facebook site, 2) a classic rock - AOR radio station Facebook site or a 3) right-wing political - talk radio Facebook website. All three have an agenda.

Let's look back at the history of rock and roll and see if we can find any trends, that those who criticize the current music scene, bought into that could be scene as vomit inducing.



10. Rural Norwegian/Scandinavian accent novelty songs (70s - 80s): The Wurzels, Da Yoopers and the Bananas at Large. It started in the 50s with a comedian named Harry Stewart, who recorded under the name Yogi Yorgenson. His stuff was kind of fun. Then, in the 60s, came Stan Boreson and Doug Stetterberg doing parodies of popular songs with some rural Norwegian/Scandinavian humor, still okay. That was all. Then, the rural Norwegian/Scandinavian, sort of was revived by a group from England called the Wurzels, who did recorded a parody of "Brand New Key" as "Combine Harvester." Technically, their music was a British rural variation, but the elements were there such as beer and farm implements. In the 80s, some groups out of Minnesota and Wisconsin, began recording original songs, most of these were about two subjects: deer hunting and farting. The redneck crowd like these songs and, if you are in country radio you get request these songs. Ugh.


9. Acapella - Doo Wop Revival (80s - 90s): The Nylons, Take 6, 4 P.M, All-4-One, Boyz 2 Men, New Edition. It started with the Nylons and their covers of Steam's "Kiss Him Goodbye (Na Na Na Hey Hey)" and The Turtles' "Happy Together." It didn't immediately take off, but then New Edition gave us a cover of "Earth Angel," to coincide with its use in Back To the Future. From then on, all boy band (really they are vocal groups not bands, but that is what people call them) had to do some acapella variation of a doo wop, oldies hit or country hit. Even when they covered a song, with musical backing, there would be at least a few bars of acapella. I think Boyz 2 Men had a whole acapella CD. The last hurrah (and best song of this trend) was The Straight No Chaser version of the "Twelve Days of Christmas."  


8.  American Ska - Punk (90s): Save Ferris, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Real Big Fish. In the early 80s, the Ska - Punk movement came out of England with bands like The Specials, The Untouchables, English Beat and Madness had some great songs. In the 90s, some American bands tried to revive the sound. The problem with these bands were their songs were usually too fast or just bad. Save Ferris (great name for a band) committed the ultimate sin by doing a cover of a song from the 80s that I HATE, "Come On Eileen." I also thought Reel Big Fish's "Sell Out" was one of the worst songs ever.


7. Big Band - Timeless Standards Revival (90s - Present): Squirrel Nut Zippers, Cherry Poppin Daddies, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Michael Bubble, Puppini Sisters. This can be blamed on the short lived popularity of swing-dance. There has always seemed to be a push to bring back the Big Band era and the music of the pre-rock and roll era ever few years, but in the late 90s and early 2000's it almost succeeded. The groups doing original songs were on Alternative radio, where they sounded out of place. The more Timeless stuff helped kill off light AC and, when given its own radio format, it was the same songs over and over. Worse was how major stars (Rod Stewart, Michael Bolton, Bobby Caldwell, Paul McCartney, Carly Simon) recorded CDs of the "Timeless songs" and became un-cool.

6. American Blues Revival (Late 80s - early 90s): Omar & the Howlers, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jeff Healy Band. This is the subject that has caused me not to post in a while. I was going to compare the music of the late 60s British blues revival with the American blues revival of the late 80s. When I was in college, the local AOR station seemed to play a huge glut of these American blues revival bands. Out of all of the stuff being played, I only liked about three songs, "Bad To the Bone" & "Who Do You Love" by George Thorogood and "Smoking Gun" by The Robert Cray Band. There was also a tone of local blues bands around. I always preferred the late 60s British blues of Led Zepellin, Cream, Fleetwood Mac and Ten Years After. There was something made their interpretations of the blues different. Maybe it was help from acid, pot, Alistair Crowley and that person Robert Johnson met at the crossroads, but their blues was like atomic thunder from outer space. A new generation discovers it every year. The American blues revival of the 80s has largely become the in-house music of chain barbecue restaurants like Rib Crib and Famous Dave's. Here is the thing that caused my lengthy lack of post. Doing research on those bands was impossible, because I could find very little information about them on the Internet. I could track down very little of the music. I looked in an old Gold Disc AOR catalog from the 90s at work and only found a few names I remembered. Most of the groups had names like Jimmy Fudbucker and the Skillet Lickers. The only thing I found was a comment on the message board that summed up why these groups didn't have the impact of the British groups of the 60s. This person said "It lacked the feeling and soul that the blues is supposed to have. They made the blues bland and boring." 
 

5. Mummers String Bands (50s): Ferko String Band, Nu-Tornados, Quaker City Boys. If you wondered what in the world that photo at the top of this post represented, here it is. Sadly, I have to blame this one on one of my broadcasting media heroes: Dick Clark. The Mummers Parade has been a New Years Day tradition for over a century in Philadelphia. In the 50s, it was aired live on TV. This was also when American Bandstand was broadcast from Philadelphia.  The oddly dressed marchers and bands in the parade can only use string and percussion instruments. Some how they wound up catching the nations attention. Ferko String Band performed mainly instrumentals on records, but they had a hit. A vocal group, with a Mummers sanctioned banjo and glockenspiel, called The Quaker City Boys gave us "Teasin." 



The Nu-Tornados, on the other hand, gave us the dorkiest hit of the early days of rock & roll. A song called "Philadelphia U.S.A."It makes "Pink Shoe Laces" look like "Blowin In the Wind." The trend lasted roughly a year and thankful stayed in Philly after that.


4. Nostalgia - Camp (60s): New Vaudeville Band, Ian Whitcomb, Rainy Daze, Purple Gang, Bonzo Dog Band.  The Pop Art movement of the 60s lead to nostalgia for the pop culture of the past. In some circles, it was known as camp. Starting in about 1965, British Invasion artist Ian Whitcomb, known for his breathless hit "You Turn Me On," started reviving old ragtime songs like "Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night?" The next year, British composer Geoff Stephens, wrote a song called "Winchester Cathedral." He had it recorded by a studio group with a vocal by John Carter, the former lead singer of the Ivy League, singing through a megaphone, like singers of the 1920s. Using the name The New Vaudeville Band, the song became an unexpected hit and spawned some other records with that sound. Several older artist (Rudy Vallee, Guy Lombardo, Lawrence Welk, George Burns and Tony Randall) and easy listening acts recorded cover versions, as well as bringing back more old songs from the 20s. It also spawn two bad copies that were blatant drug references. A band out of Denver used the nostalgia sound for their sledgehammer subtle minor hit "Accapolco Gold" and a British group called the Purple Gang recorded "Granny Takes a Trip." One group who started out doing the nostalgia sound revival act but left it behind was The Bonzo Dog Band. Here is one of those nostalgia tunes they recorded.


    



3. Death Songs (50s - 60s): "Teen Angel," "The Leader of the Pack," "Tell Laura I Love Her," "Last Kiss." This is one of those trends that have for years caused people to ask "WHY?". What caused the teenagers of the late 50s until the British Invasion to love such morbid songs. Many trace the beginning of this to be early 1959 and the death of Buddy Holly, Richie Valence and Big Bopper.  First came Mark Dining's "Teen Angel" and soon the Top 40 was filled with car wrecks (Ray Peterson's "Tell Laura I Love Her" J. Frank Wilson "Last Kiss"), drownings (Jody Reynolds "Endless Sleep"), suicides (Pat Boone "Moody River", ghost girls ("Laurie"), a football team in a bus crash ("The Hero"), a girl eaten by a shark ("The Water Was Red") and a biker who may have hit a truck ("The Leader of the Pack"). This phase started to fade with the death of President Kennedy. Teens turned to the happy music of the British Invasion and Motown acts. The nail in the coffin (pardon the pun) may have been "I Want My Baby Back" by Jimmy Cross. It was a parody that took things a little too far. Jimmy misses his dead girlfriend so much that he digs up he coffin and crawls inside with her. Of all of these songs, my favorite is "Johnny Remember Me" by Johnny Leyton. He never says what happened to the girl or really if she is dead or not, but, thanks to production from Joe Meek, she is a spooky as a Roger Corman Poe movie.


  

2. Spoken Word Recitations: (60s): "A Open Letter To My Teenage Son,""I.O.U," "Grover Henson Feels Forgotten," "History Repeats Itself," "The Americans (A Canadian's Opinion)," "Gallant Men." This may get me into trouble. Before there was talk radio and memes on Facebook, there were the spoken word recitations. Don't get me wrong, not all were preachy tirades. Some spoken word recitations were stories with a musical background, such as "Old Rivers" by Walter Brennan, "Ringo" by Lorne Greene, "Phantom 309" by Red Sovine, and "The Shifting Whispering Sands" by Billy Vaughan with Ken Nordine. The others give us lectures against burning our draft card and respecting our elders, the similarities between President Lincoln and President Kennedy, how Europeans and "smug self-righteous Canadians" need to respect Americans, the true meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, how kids need positive role models and how much your mother has done for you. 75 percent of these records used an instrumental version of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" for a background. After the 60s, these type of recordings fell out of fashion because they don't gel well with the rest of the programing on music stations.  Imagine if you were listening to the radio today and between the latest hit by Beyonce and the latest hit by Katy Perry, the radio station played a cranky, old, white griping about how today's teenagers are stupid, people on welfare or illegal aliens . You understand. I will admit I do have two favorites that actually came along after the boom of these records in the mid to late 60s. One is 1999's "Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen)", which was credited to producer Baz Luhrmann, but the reading is by actor Lee Perry. The other is 1971's "Desiderata (Child of the Universe)" by talk show host Les Crane. What I like about these are the upbeat music and positive, affirmative tone.


    



1.  Answer Songs (50s - 60s): "He'll Have To Stay," "I'm the Girl From Wolverton Mountain," "I'll Save The Last Dance For You," "Tell Tommy I Miss Him," "I'm the Duchess of Earl," "Oh Neil," "Yes, I'm Lonesome Tonight," "Gary, Don't Sell My Diamond Ring," and "I'm Glad They Took You Away Ha-Ha!" The most ridiculous of all of these trends I mentioned has to be the answer song trend of the 60s. It's roots were planted in the early 50s on the rhythm and blues side when Hank Ballard & the Midnighters released "Work With Me, Annie" and on the country side with Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life." Etta James fired back at Ballard with "Roll With Me, Henry" and Kitty Wells snapped back at Thompson with "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." For some reason the peak began in 1960 and lasted until the British Invasion hit (Let's face it, the British Invasion groups can be thanked for getting rid of awful stuff). Every time a male artist or group had a hit, another record company would release a bad re-write of the song with a female singer or group and visa versa. You can tell from the above titles that much of this was pure dreck (although "Oh Neil" was by Carole King, who Neil Sedaka wrote "Oh, Carol" about, so there was a point to that one).  The only ones that worked are Jan Bradley's "Mama Didn't Lie," an answer to The Shirelles hit "Mama Said There Would Be Days Like This," Katy Perry's "California Gurls," which was an answer to Jay-Z "Empire State of Mind" and, the grand daddy of all answer songs, "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynard Skynard, which was an answer to Neil Young's "Southern Man" and "Alabama." The reason these work is they are original songs that sound different than the songs they are an answer to not a carbon copy with the gender of the singer changed.
     
Some will, of course, holler "What about disco? What about rap? What about hair bands? What about psychedelic music? What about punk?" Those genres and styles had staying power, whether you like them or not. These are brief flash in the pans. Lucky for us they were brief.
 

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

DESDINOVA'S FAVORITE SONG PARODIES


The big talk in the music industry recently was Weird Al Yankovic hitting the number one position on the album chart. Weird Al has been creating parodies of popular songs since the early 80s. Song parodies were not new when Weird Al starting recording. There are four styles of song parodies and Weird Al has recorded all but one of these styles.

Crazy version or "Tearing it up": This was the style preferred by Spike Jones and his City Slicker. The Hoosier Hotshots and early Homer and Jethro records took pop song and turned them into country swing/bluegrass numbers. Since his In 3-D LP, Weird Al has recorded a medley of popular songs performed as polkas. While we're mentioning the polka medleys, we should also point out that while Weird Al was parodying the then popular medley craze of the early 80s, he probably continued these as a tribute to both Spike Jones (gunshots and gargling turn up in these frequently) and Alan Sherman, who included medleys of shorter parodies on his LPs. Classical parody artist P.D.Q Bach would fall into this category.

Sound alike: For the most part this was the forte of Stan Freberg, I can only think of one other recording like this.  Freberg didn't change the words (the exception is his "Cry" parody) and barely changed the arrangement. However, he made the joke out of the singer's delivery or the musician's flair or the record's production. While Weird Al has credited Stan Freberg as an influence, he has never recorded a parody of this style.

Stylistic or homages: The masters of this kind of parody were performers of The National Lampoon Radio Hour. The architects of these parodies were usually Christopher Guest and Paul Shaffer. They even recorded one whole LP of parodies entitled Goodbye Pop. Before The National Lampoon, Benny Hill was creating these for his TV show, later releasing them on record. Sometimes these are best with the visual image of Hill pretending to be Mick Jagger or Kenny Rogers. Weird Al has parodied or paid homage to performers such as Bob Dylan, Devo and They Might Be Giants, as well as 70s soft rock, 90s hair bands and 50s rock and roll.

Same tune/different lyrics: This is the style of parody used most by Weird Al. It was also the style used most by Allan Sherman and Homer and Jethro. Sheb Wooley recorded several LPs of this style of parody under the name Ben Colder. Basically these artist took a popular song and rewrote the lyrics, but left the tune the same.

Here is a list of some of my favorite song parodies. Some are well-known and some are obscure, but can probably be found by Googling the title.


1) "Eat It" - Weird Al Yankovic (Parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It")   This not only made Weird Al a household name but it legitimized song parodies as an art form. Weird Al benefited from the music video revolution because he could parody both the song "Beat It" as well as the video.



2) "Try" - Stan Freberg (Parody of Johnny Ray's "Cry")  Before he was name dropped in British pop songs of the 80s, Johnny Ray was the singer who shook up the music world before Elvis. He wore a back brace and two hearing aids. His singing would go from an overly drawn-out enunciated (which Bob Dylan admits to imitating) soft voice to a screaming mournful wail with in a few seconds. On stage, Ray grabbed and jerked his clothes like he had a bad itch beneath them. This is one of the few Freburg parodies where he changed the lyrics to Ray's hit "Cry" and even mentions Ray's other big hit "The Little White Cloud the Cried" before he begins sounding like an emergency vehicle siren.


3) "The Art Rock Suite" & "Goodbye Pop" - National Lampoon (Parody of art/prog rock genre and Elton John respectfully) The National Lampoon LP Goodbye Pop 1952 -1975 is comprised of several great parodies of different artist and styles, as well as parodies of FM radio and documentaries. I listed these two together because of the songs on the LP, these are great as rock songs on their own. According to the liner notes, "there are 28 groups wrong with this song." Even if you don't want to guess who is being parodied, this song is a fun rocker. According to the intellectual narrator, Roger DeSwans (voiced by Christopher Guest), this is a song by a British rock band called The Dog's Breakfast. We hear an interview from a member of the group, who sounds suspiciously like Nigel Tufnel of Spinal Tap (Guest does this voice too). The song changes tempo, vocals and styles with pokes at Queen, the Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Focus, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes.


"Goodbye Pop" is a dead-on homage to early 70s Elton John, written and sung by David Letterman's bandleader, Paul Shaffer. The song is not a much of a comedy piece as it is a great tribute to rock and roll history. Someone should remake this song, because this is just a great song.



4)  "The Chicken Song" - Spitting Image (Parody of Black Lace "Agadoo") The one thing hard lesson of song parodies: malicious and animosity towards the artist can be unfunny and, often, deadly to a career. For instance, Don Bowman's "Other Ringo" is just plain horrible and Allan Sheman's "Pop Hates the Beatles" helped kill his career. Of course, Spitting Image picked on a group that was a flash in the pan, mainly a sensation in Great Britain and sort of irritating to begin with. The British duo called Black Lace's hits really don't show up on compilations with Duran Duran, Flock of Seagulls, Style Council or Culture Club as "great hits of the 80s," but on CDs with the Countdown Kids, Sharon, Lois and Bram, Raffi and Barney the Dinosaur. In the early to mid 80s, they had major hits in Britain and Europe with their silly, off-kilter dance hits. The biggest was "Agadoo" which featured the often repeated chorus of "Ag-a-doo-doo-doo, push pineapple, shake the tree. Aga-doo-doo-doo, push pineapple, grind coffee.To the left, to the right, jump up and down and to the knees, Come and dance every night, sing with a hula melody."

BLACK LACE aka THOSE TWO WET GITS

The satirical British TV show Spitting Image frequently parodied popular songs and performers. They decided a parody of Black Lace's goofy dance hits would be a hit with the audience. "The Chicken Song" had not only strange dance direction but some rather prophetic lines: "Hold a chicken in the air, Stick a deckchair up your nose, Buy a jumbo jet, And then bury all your clothes. Skin yourself alive, Learn to speak Arapaho, Climb inside a dog, And behead an Eskimo, Now you've heard it once, Your brain will spring a leak and though you hate this song, You'll be humming it for weeks."  The joke backfired because "The Chicken Song" turned out to be more successful than any of the Black Lace songs and, in the end, became more annoying as well. The writers of the TV show at one point apologized for "inflicting that song on the innocent public." Unlike any of Black Lace's songs, "The Chicken Song" received airplay in the United States thanks to Dr. Demento and its use in three Spitting Image TV specials
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5) "Great Men Repeat Themselves" - Homer & Jethro (Parody of Buddy Starcher "History Repeats Itself")  I'm not sure at what point after the assassination of  President John F. Kennedy people began compiling list of coincidences in the lives of President Abraham Lincoln and President Kennedy. This list is still circulated today and even has a listing on Snopes that analyzes these facts. In 1966, a country singer named Buddy Starcher recorded a spoken word record entitled "History Repeats Itself." Never missing a chance to parody a country hit, Homer and Jethro came up with "Great Men Repeat Themselves," which compares then then current President Lyndon Johnson with then popular TV character Batman (above). Sheb Wooley also recorded a version under his Ben Colder persona that also parodied Senator Everette Dirksen's "Gallant Men" spoken word record. The Homer & Jethro recording is best because it pokes fun at the excessive numerology and mathematics in Starcher's record and the original list, leading Jethro Burns to conclude that "There is only one Batman."


6) "Suspicion" - Vivian Stanshall & his Gargantuan Chums (Parody of "Suspicion" by Terry Stafford)  This falls into the sound alike category like many of Stan Freburg's parodies. Former Bonzo Dog Band lead singer Vivian Stanshall (above) recorded this in after the break up of the Bonzo Dog Band (Some are confused because it appeared on a Bonzo Dog Band greatest hits CD in the 80s). While Stanshall actually sounded like the songs original performer, Elvis Presley, the record parodies the 1964 number one hit version by Terry Stafford, which featured an early synthesizer imitating a horn section and a backing chorus of girls cooing "Ooooohhh." Stanshall had a synthesizer imitating horns, but substituted the girls with his friends, Keith Moon of The Who and Screaming Lord Sutch.


7)  "I Lost On Jeopardy" - Weird Al Yankovic (Parody of the Greg Kihn Band "Jeopardy") You have to list a parody that is responsible for reviving a game show. Before becoming a horror/mystery novelist and classic rock DJ, Greg Kihn put out some great moody power pop songs in the 80s. The biggest was "Jeopardy" with its infectious guitar riff, pulsating bass line and great video about a wedding that turns into a cross between Carnival of Souls and It Came From Beneath the Sea. Weird Al figured the song had to be turned into a song about the game show Jeopardy. At the time this video was released, Jeopardy had been off the air for three years (the second run of the show was cancelled in 1979). Besides the satiric jokes about the show, it ends with Jeopardy's announcer,  the late Don Pardo, reading a list of stuff Weird Al "didn't win" such as Turtle Wax and Rice A-Roni. Merv Griffin was trying to bring back the game show at the time this song and video came out. It's popularity helped spur renewed interest in the TV show and the revived syndicated version is still on the air today.


8) "You Went the Wrong Way, Ole King Louie" - Allan Sherman (Parody of "You Came Along Way From St. Louis" performed here by Rosemary Clooney)  For the most part, Allan Sherman (above) used American folk songs and pop standards for parodies that satirized Jewish suburban life. He made two that poked fun at history. "Won't You Come Home, Disraeli" (Based on "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey") and this ditty about the French Revolution. Part of what makes the one fun is an arrangement that the piano playing the riff from the theme to Peter Gunn.


9) "Just Wanna Be In Your Band" - Benny Hill (Parody of "Lucille," "The Gambler" and "Coward of the County" by Kenny Rogers)  My regret is that I couldn't find video of Benny Hill doing this stylistic parody of Kenny Rogers country story songs on his show in the 80s. The version TV was longer and featured different lyrics (Including a line about a midget). Hill has Rogers voice down to a tee and the song is filled with Hill trademark bad puns.

HOMER & JETHRO

10) "Gone" - Homer & Jethro (Parody of "Gone" by Ferlin Husky) I have two things in common with Homer & Jethro. Homer & Jethro and myself have both worked at KWTO radio in Springfield, Missouri. The other is we think the backing vocals on Ferlin Husky's 1957 hit "Gone" are some of the worst backing vocals ever (Dickie Goodman did too - listen to the end of "Flying Saucer The 2nd"). I have always pictured a group of people culled from the streets of Nashville and told "Ya'll wanna sing on a country record. Stand in front of the mic and when I point to ya sing 'Now you've gone." That's all ya gotta do." Besides the obvious pokes at the vocals, this song contains lyrics like, "You can take your heart back now, I ordered liver anyhow" and "You wore a newspaper dress to the ball, it caught on fire and you started to squawl, burnt yer front page, sports section and all." You have to wonder what these guys would have done to Zac Brown Band, Luke Bryan and Taylor Swift. Then again...

HOMER & JETHRO IN BEATLE WIGS

11) "She Loves You" - Homer & Jethro (Parody of "She Loves You" by the Beatles)   After recording a bad anti-Beatle novelty song called "Gonna Send Them Home," Homer & Jethro made up for it ten-fold with two great parodies of Beatles songs that are perfect copies of the instrumentation on the original Beatle hits. The truth is Homer & Jethro (and producer Chet Atkins) were closet jazz fans and talented musicians.  Of the two songs, "I Want to Hold You Hand" and "She Loves You," I prefer the B-side "She Loves You."  After the 'yeah-yeah-yeah' open, Homer & Jethro sings "You think you lost yer love, well I think that is mighty fine, and now that she is gone, you can have this gal of mine, cause she loves you and I just don't know what fer. She loves you and now you're stuck with her."


12) "Waste of Money" - Allan Sherman (Parody of "Taste of Honey" by Herb Alpert) After "Pop Hates The Beatles" and "Crazy Downtown" drove away the kids who fell in love with him with "Hello Mutha, Hello Fatha," he got back to poking fun at one of his favorite subjects, consumer culture. A guy tries to attract women by going into debt buying cars, pearl necklaces and tight pants. He winds up dating a girl from Household Finance Loans.


13) "Mother Goose's Sweet Potato Sparkling Wine" - National Lampoon (Parody of James Taylor) This is not just a great parody of early James Taylor (imitation by Christopher Guest again) but a great poke at that teenage rite of passage known as Boone's Farm Wines. "I'm a wino at fourteen" and "It taste like Cheracol" are truer than anything ever written in a straight pop song. If you drank Boone's Farm in high school, this song will bring back memories. It also beats the heck out of hearing "You've Got a Friend" for the millionth time.

14) "Chow Mein and Bowling" & "Rodan" - Mike Nesmith (Parody of Jimmy Webb and "Joanne" by Mike Nesmith, respectively) It takes a big man to parody another artist, but it takes a bigger man to parody himself. The first song was written by a member of Mike Nesmith's band. Nesmith said on his Television Parts show that it was what it sounded like when "Richard Harris sings a Jimmy Webb song." The images of things that really don't go together, while spinning a tale of memories of young love, flowers, rare wine, food in the rain and playgrounds. It ends with a dramatic end like "MacArthur Park." Nesmith also made a short parody of "Joanne" for Elephant Parts about Rodan. "Her name was Rodan and she lived in the ocean off Japan."


15) "Detroit City #2" - Ben Colder (Sheb Wooley) (Parody of "Detroit City" by Bobby Bare) Singer/actor Sheb Wooley released parodies of popular country music songs under the name Ben Colder. I was close to listing the monster kid friendly parody of Jerry Wallace's "Shutters and Boards," but the more I think about it this parody works on two levels: Musically and lyrically. Bobby Bare, Tom Jones and Dean Martin all recorded the original song with the same twangy guitar part that almost sound like the guitar is coming untuned. Ben Colder berates the guitar player about not having the guitar properly tuned. In the original song, the singer regrets leaving his family farm in Tennessee to work at an automobile factory in Detroit. The singer also laments his drinking with the line "During the day I make the cars, at night I make the bars." The chorus is "I want to go home." Ben Colder on the other hand sings "I don't want to go home." He enjoys his job in the shock absorber division, going to bars after work and telling the girls that he is "the number one washer crammer in the whole shock absorber division."



16) "I've Got You Under My Skin" - Stan Freberg and "On Top of Spaghetti" by Tom Glazer & the Do-Re-Mi Children's Chorus (Parody of "On Top of Old Smokey" by the Weavers)
The Weavers released a version of the folk song "On Top of Old Smokey" in the early 50s which featured Pete Seeger speaking the lyrics of the song before the other members of the group sang them. It sounded like he was telling them what to sing next. Stan Freberg wondered what it would sound like if a pop standard was sung this way. Freberg also wondered what would happen if the person speaking the lyrics messed up. Would the singers stop or would they sing whatever the song leader said? The later was what happened and the group suddenly burst into "On Top of Old Smokey."


Folk singer Tom Glazer made a children's LP with a group of children singing a parody of "On Top of Old Smokey." Like Seeger, he speaks the lyric with the children singing it afterward. Legend has it that children at an elementary school in Lodi, California came up with the parody lyrics.


17) "You Always Hurt the One You Love" - Spike Jones and his City Slickers (Parody of the Ink Spots)  This parody has lead to a misconception that the Ink Spots had a hit with "You Always Hurt the One You Love." The Mills Brothers had the hit, but Spike Jones decided to show the world what would happen if The Ink Spots, another pioneer R&B group, recorded the song. Both groups had a distinct style. The Mills Brothers songs started slow, then picked up to become jazzy and uptempo. The Ink Sports were slow with the same four-bar acoustic guitar accompaniment and the tenor voice of Bill Kenny. Mid-way through the song, bass sing Hoppy Jones would give a little talk to the lady Kenny was singing too. Jones would usually call this woman "Honey chile' or Honey lamb." Of course, after the Ink Spots imitation, Spike Jones and the boys let it rip with their typical musical mayhem.

BONZO DOG BAND AND A GROUPIE

18) "Kama Sutra" - Bonzo Dog Band (Parody of "Handy Man" by Jimmy Jones and "Calendar Girl" by Neil Sedaka) This song is the missing link between Jimmy Jones 1960 hit song "Handy Man" and Culture Club's 1984 hit "Karma Chameleon." It also has to be one of the shortest songs ever recorded (49 seconds). Bonzo Dog Band mashed up the tune of "Handy Man" with the tune of Neil Sedaka's "Calender Girl" for a quick risque rhyme.

 
19) "My Old Flame" - Spike Jones and his City Slickers  (Parody of "My Old Flame" by Mae West and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Billie Holliday, Peggy Lee and Benny Goodman Orchestra) A monster kid favorite that still gets airplay at Halloween on some hipper radio stations. The more ironic thing about this is that this parody version is the most successful recording of this song and the one that made this song popular. Mae West introduced this song in a movie called Belle of the Nineties. Carl Grayson sings it straight at the beginning, but is soon interrupted by Spike and fire engines. The song slows back down and the song is then turned over to famous voice artist Paul Frees, who recites the lyrics as Peter Lorre, "My old flame, I can't even remember her name...I'll have to look through my collection of human heads." In the end, the Lorre-character douses his lover in gasoline and sets fire to his "old flame." Creepy fun.


20) "Cantata: Iphigenia in Brooklyn" & "Classical Rap" P.D.Q Bach - Peter Schickele (Parody of Cantatas, classical music, rap, respectively)  Of the artist I'm featuring in this list, P.D.Q Bach is probably the artist that you either love or hate. Some people don't get the joke or feel it is above their head. Truth is the works of fictional P.D.Q Bach (above) that Professor Peter Schickele, of the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople, "discovers" often sound as if they could have been an influence on Spike Jones. They are filled with bike horns, doorbells, kazoos and sour notes, while the compositions veer into bits of "Beautiful Dreamer," "Shenandoah," "Peggy Sue" or "Batman." The two pieces I list here were recorded twenty-five years apart (1965 & 1990, respectfully), but are probably the most accessible to the casual listener. "Iphigenia in Brooklyn" is a parody of Gluck's Iphigenia in Aulis, but you need not have ever heard Gluck's opera to find this funny. Tenor John Ferrante sings about exorbitantly worded lyrics about a fish market and running noses.

"Classical Rap" is what happens if Sugar Hill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" was created with the audience that listens to classical music on the radio in mind, complete with samples of other famous classical pieces. Besides parodying the popular music trend of the day, it is a vicious but hilarious satire of the upper income set that listens to classical music.  They must not be as touchy listeners to talk radio listeners, who believe you shouldn't make fun of them. NOTE: I linked to a recording of this track on YouTube. For some reason the video is a manga cartoon of some sort.

This has been an epic post and I could have listed several other great parodies. This also isn't a ranking (Which is why I put two on some of these), just a mix of some of my favorites that I wanted to feature in hopes that readers would discover these songs. My hope is you hunt these down and have a good laugh.


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