Hands Down, The Most Wonderfully Stupid Hit Record I've Ever Heard

Ed, "Sk8er Boi" was just (this week) issued on a 45, so you can get it that way if you so desire...

For reasons unknown, I've also been thinking of "M.T.A." by the Kingston Trio. Talk about wonderfully stupid: Charlie's wife hands him a sandwich as the train comes rumbling through. Why doesn't she hand him some money so he can pay the damn fare so he can get off the train???

 

i have two:


the singing nun song
the "camp grenada song by allen sherman

 

Agreed on "M.T.A." That's always been the point: the poor guy doesn't have the proper fare, and they won't let him out! Why not? How about just loaning the guy what he needs; back in '59 we're not talkin' 'bout big money here! The wife, though, I understand: she fed him, probably figures the guy's got extra change in his pocket. As the song is based on a true story about a sudden--and many did indeed, feel unreasonable--hike in T fares, you would think he'd have remembered to bring extra change. But if he'd done that, we wouldn't have had a song!

Avril on a real live 45? Great! I'll have to track it down; thanks for the heads-up!

ED

 

Ed,

How about: The Egg Plant That Ate Chicago?

I can't remember the artist though...

Bob

 

I'd have to nominate "Mah Na Mah Na" by Pierre Umiliani, a catchy little ditty whose vocal lines were just nonsense syllables. Not sure how much of a "hit" it was, but the single spent a little time on the charts. I vaguely recall that the label on the 45 referred to a movie called "Sweden Heaven or Hell", which may have been a porn film.

Years later, the song was popularized by The Muppets. Weird song, weird story.

 

Bob,

A hearty good morning!

That was Dr. West's Medicine Show, with Norman Greenbaum(in fact, several of those songs appear on his compilation). Great choice! The gang must have seen "The Blob" and decided to do something based on that concept. What else, right?

ED

 

Ed,

Good morning as well!

Ah yes! - Dr. West's Medicine Show

Definite goofy, silly song that I did NOT purchase on 45 while growing up....

I definitely purchased a lot of other choices in this thread though!

Do you remember Rodney Dangerfield's "Rappin' Rodney"?

Bob

 

I certainly remember "Rappin' Rodney"! 1983, on RCA. A real hoot, at once a parody and almost--dare I say it--sincere, as Dangerfield was a comedian who had his ups and downs over the course of his career, and always seemed to just go with the flow, and here it almost sounds as if he's enjoying himself. Like many of us, not sure what to make of a new genre, but having a little fun with it at nobody's expense.

There were precious few of this type from the '80s and onward...Tim just told me about Avril Lavigne on 45. Nice to know the legacy of "Transfusion" and "The Thing" continues, albeit in strange new ways.

ED

 

Speaking of The Blob, the theme song for the original movie was a minor hit for a studio group called, appropriately, the Five Blobs. Written by none other than Burt Bacharach!

"Beware of The Blob!
It creeps, and leaps,
and glides and slides across the floor
right through the door
and all around the walls
a splotch, a blotch
be careful of The Blob!"

 

I even remember the VIDEO for that one, with the comely ladies shakin' it just so and cooing "No respect! No respect!"

In the same vein, one of the early Rhino 45s was called "Hooked On Henny," a collection of Henny Youngman one-liners with a beat behind it. Word is that K-Tel sued for trademark infringement (evidently they have a trademark on "Hooked On...") and Rhino had to (at least temporarily) pull the record from circulation. Rhino then retaliated with "Kazoo'd on Classics" by the Temple City Kazoo Orchestra... yep, famous classics played on kazoos!

 

Another beauty, Jimbo, and the theme to one of my favorite *bad* movies of all time! Amazingly bad acting, the special effects are gloriously incompetent, and bad, stilted dialogue by the bucketload; just good fun all around. "The Blob" was pure, unadulterated drive-in nirvana.

ED

 

Yes! (By the time the 45 came out, the band was known as "Green Jelly" for legal reasons.) Definitely wonderfully stupid. The singer's ultra-falsetto "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" The pig with the brick house is named "Pig Nugent" and was a graduate of "Harvard College." The three pigs call in Rambo to get rid of the wolf! "Hey, wolf-face, I'm your worst nightmare!"

Haven't heard this in years! I think I'll have to pull out my 45 and hear this again!

 

Anyone remember that series of Lite Beer commercials that had a guy who kept saying "You can call me Ray, you can call me Jay". etc.

Wasn't there a song released with this guy using that bit??

Maybe Ed will remember it.

(I still think "My Girl Bill" & "Spiders & Snakes" are pretty cool.)

 

ED mentioned Avril Lavigne....I would nominate Sk8er Boi as perhaps the most recently stupid record I've heard. And yet, somehow, one that manages to seep under your skin....I don't know!

 

That would be Dr. West's Medicine Show and Junk Band, on the obscure, Columbia-pressed GoGo label. Made it to #52 in 12/66. The group included founder Norman Greenbaum!

GM

 

Sometimes it's hard to say the right words even when they're written in you heart. Most songs have words ...

 

Good one Mike; a cover of the Paul Revere & The Raiders Lp cut. Great idea for the band to call themselves the Unknowns, and so they would stay...

Boy, I'd love to snag a copy of that Brit 45....nice label!!

ED

 

His music isn't offensive to me, I enjoy it. How did this become a debate over Tiny Tim's personality, anyway?

 

It was so popular because we liked to insert the name Chuck in the song.

I saw Shirley Ellis sing this live, along with Soupy Sales singing "The Mouse" while they both were hits, at the Brooklyn Fox Theatre.

Two silly songs in the charts around the same time.

 

The hilarious Raymond J. Johnson Jr. (played by Billy Seluga)

Don't know if he had a record with the bit, but here's how it was done:

"Mr. JOHNSON? Oh, you doesn't has to call me Johnson. You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, or you can call me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me RayJay, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ or you can call me RJJ Jr.--but you *doesn't* have to call me Mr. Johnson!"

I still crack up at the thought of him doing this on Sonny & Cher...

 

Soupy was great! Never missed the show.

 

Mike, any chance you could e-mail me a full-size scan of that nice London-American label? I'd love to add it to the "Record Label Graphics" thread.

 

Good choice, reechie. The record is pure mayhem. Probably grounds enough for expulsion if you played this on high school campus in '63.

Jim W.