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Novelty Song Medley

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I’ve been sifting through some lists of Novelty Songs lately. I will state unequivocally that the Novelty Song is a worthy musical genre that has faded in popularity in recent years, much to our detriment.

That’s assuming that I know what a novelty song is, and that I have even the slightest clue as to what passes for popular in 2011. Two questionable assumptions.

To me, a novelty song is an intentionally comic number that may or may not be a parody. They sometimes have weird instruments, strange voices, silly noises, and even sound effects. A novelty song can become popular, but only a very short while.

Some novelty tunes have dated references but timeless appeal. They can be wordy and quite complicated, like this one.

Novelty numbers can also be weirdly polished and borderline inappropriate, like this one.

http://youtu.be/3HNpVs_QZkQ

And then, of course, there’s everything Allan Sherman ever did.

http://youtu.be/BGQxsLFMAzc

But one thing all novelty songs seem to have in common – they’re not today’s music.

What’s a novelty song to you?

117 thoughts on “Novelty Song Medley”

  1. Dale, as the man who introduced me to most of the novelty songs I know, I found it ironic that you would ask me about them.

    I can describe 2 types of novelty songs-one is the type that is so novel that only one performer is associated with the piece. Nobody else sings Peter and Lou Berryman, Tom Lehrer, or Alan Sherman songs. The other genre borders on folk songs because of their adoption by camps, elementary schools, and other groups of children.In this groups I would include “classics” such as “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas,” “Boom Chicka Boom, ” and of course, “The Cat Came Back.”

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  2. Good morning to all,

    I wonder if any of you have listened to the Dr. Demento show on radio? I think it is still on the air. I haven’t heard it for many years. I think it is now online and I should be able to get it. He always started his show saying “The Doctor is in” in a crazed voice. He plays many different odd novelty songs. One of the ones I like that he played is Fishheads by Barnes and Barnes. It includes the line “I took a fishhead to the movies, didn’t have to pay to get her in”.

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    1. I used to listen to Dr. Demento, too – he played one called “Dead Puppies” (I don’t remember the artist). Had lines like, “They don’t come when you call – they don’t chase squirrels at all…dead puppies aren’t much fun.”

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      1. Yes, I remember that song, Anna. The song list that Dr. Demento uses includes some very wierd songs and also some of the funny novelty songs that Dale played. Dr. Demento help start Wierd Al’s career and played his songs frequently.

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  3. i agree, B-A – Dale played those songs that i came to know and love. i would never have known them otherwise.
    it’s difficult to list favorites, but two i really loved were “If a Rock Falls on an egg” sung by Faith Petric.and Dale knows my all-time fave is “In a Gadda Da Vida”, sung by Albert Kuvezin in Tuvan throat-singing

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  5. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    I remember some novelty songs from childhood. Most of the ones I remember were the ones from the playground that we thought at the time were really racy–On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, etc. Now they seem so silly.

    However, Dale, I think novelty songs must be your specialty because I also was exposed to most of them on LGMS. But what about “The Capital Steps” who do political satire? I think they are still in business with novelty work. Then there is “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” from Bobby McFerrin. That is the last pop novelty song I remember. And that must be 25 years!

    The mashed potatoes and gravy comfort food suggested yesterday were so satisfying.

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  6. I have an unusual perspective on this issue because Pat Donohue, guitarist for PHC, is a friend. Pat has an absolute genius for crafting funny songs: “Icky Yucky Sushi” being the best known. I have suggested to Pat that he could emphasize that part of his repertoire since he does it so well. Pat does NOT want to be known as the funny music guy. He is a proud blues guitarist who wants to be recognized for his vast instrumental skills.

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    1. It is fun to think of these, isn’t it? Here are some more quick favorites: “She’s Got ‘Er ‘Ead Tucked Underneath ‘Er Arm”; the Stan Freberg Day-O parody; “Truck Load of Art”; “Impressionist Two-Step”; and that crazy “worried” song.

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      3. “Einstein the Genius” is another favorite in that vein…I have been trying to figure out if I can manage to squeeze “Impressionist Two-Step” into my art presentations this month for Daughter’s class…(there are, after all, two Impressionists in the art sets we’re discussing).

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  7. Hmmm…my definition used to be, “would I only hear it on the Morning Show?”…songs that came out of the music halls and their kin fit into the genre along with the other mentions thus far. Songs like, “With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm” or from the Vaudeville side of that world with “Lydia the Tattooed Lady” (which in my head is always sung by Groucho Marx). But then you can veer off into the “perfectly normal songs performed in an unusual way, like the theme from “The Magnificent Seven” on bagpipes or most any of the covers done by the Bobs (“Purple Haze” anyone?). I’d also make an argument that some of the “teenage death” songs from the 60s would qualify now as novelty songs; “Leader of the Pack,” “Deadman’s Curve” and their ilk were pop music when they were released but now seem like an odd sub-genre of trite tragedy.

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    1. Just sweet sixteen, and now you’re gone
      They’ve taken you away.
      I’ll never kiss your lips again
      They buried you today

      Teen angel, can you hear me
      Teen angel, can you see me
      Are you somewhere up above
      And I am still your own true love
      Teen angel, teen angel, answer me, please

      😦 sob!

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      1. oh oh
        last night at the dance i met laurie,
        so tender and warm and angle of a girl
        last night i fel in love with laurie
        strange things happen in this world

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  8. icky yucky sukiaki is a recent favorite. i am thinking pat donahue has another but am draeing a blank. there is an opportunity to do a rap parody isn’t there. i’ll tell my son to get on it. remember along came jones, guitarzan , mares eat oats is the first one i can remember being made to smile at. i love wooly bully and dirty water were almost there. their coming to take me away was sort of there. i love novelty songs. they tend to be short lived but long remembered. . i’m feeling a little cautious with our new blog mate nan the slasher. i think i am in trouble..

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    1. this is what happens when i get distracted. my daughter need help with the math assignment she has due this morning and i started this reply early and hit the send button after steve had made his entry. thats the way it goes here in life on the trail.

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    2. Only slash when asked is my motto. There is a time and place for proper slashing—and it takes lots of energy. Reading to communicate and/or for pleasure, now that’s an energy source for me; I love all forms—formal and informal. And I think that life is stream of consciousness with no need for correctly placed commas or periods and we never know who/what will get the capital letters. This blog has a kind and gentle tone. I do not want to become the Aunt Kate of my childhood—the one who entered our farmhouse kitchen and demanded that we sit up straight and “NO LAUGHING” at the dinner table. and anyway, you all know how well that worked

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  11. “FIrst I was a hippie, then I was a stockbroker, now I am a hippie again, na na na naaahh na.”
    That was the Bobs…

    Anyone else remember Michael Cooney?
    http://www.michaelcooney.com/MC1P000.html

    He had a bunch of them – “The Sodium Chloride Song” was one, I hope I’ll remember others. He and The Berrymans overlapped a bit. I love Peter & Lou Berryman:

    A Chat with Your Mother (F-word song)
    Why Are We Painting the Living Room?
    so many more…

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    1. I LOVE Michael Cooney. He has such an incredible memory and performs more different songs than anyone I can think of.

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    3. The Berrymans came on TLGMS when my son was recovering from surgery and using a urinal. He thought they were singing about him as in “Why Am I Peeing in the Living Room?” We, of course changed the title forever at our house.

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  12. At the St Joan of Arc Cabaret George Maurer played a unique novelty song-it’s wordless. . I think he explains it in this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvJElOrbfhI Purple Muppets was inspired by inappropriate requests at weddings (“Play Stairway to Heaven” or “Freebird”) and his exposure to pop culture. The matchups in the tune make it very amusing.

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  13. Morning!

    Oh, the suggestions so far have been great fun.
    The first one I thought of though was Spike Jones. Not even sure when I first heard of him. Probably from TLGMS. Here’s a fun one:

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    1. OK, I thought I knew how to embed. It said it was going to Embed. It’s Spike and the gang doing ‘The Sabre Dance’ complete with falling pants and a man standing on one finger!

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      1. Funny… and seeing this one led me to several other funny you tube clips. Carmen’s Bizet is currently being murdered in my earpiece. I have to be careful… one person has already come come over to my cube to see why I’m laughing this morning!

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      4. Couple years back I found (by total accident) a “cluckoratura” version of the Queen of the Night aria from “The Magic Flute” on iTunes. Someone recorded a whole CD of opera arias clucking like a chicken. I was looking for a standard version of the aria, but this was so funny I had to download it. Played it for Daughter’s kindergarten class – they were delighted (and asked me to play it about 4 or 5 times before I left for the afternoon).

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  15. OK, the Sodium Chloride was written by the McGarrigles –

    Ooh ooh – Radio Heartland is playing “Me and My Arrow” from Nilsson’s The Point. 🙂

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  16. Some of those very sad country songs might be considered novelty songs if thought of that way. I like those sad country songs, but they real are kind of strange songs. One that I’m thinking of is Wreak on the Highway by Roy Acuff

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    1. Early in her career Dolly Parton did a string of tearjerkers – Letter to Heaven, Two Little Orphans, Little Blossom – about children meeting an unfortunate early demise; they’re so maudlin you have to approach them as novelty songs. Here’s one:

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      1. Dolly is, herself, a parody. She has said she doesn’t look at all like she does on the stage when she takes off all of the makeup that she uses when she preforms. I think she is a very good singer and preformer.

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  17. A novelty song, to me, represents a little glimpse into the human spirit. A sly jab in the ribs with an elbow, when a person knows this is just the right moment to make someone else smile. There are a lot of songs I miss hearing – 500 Robots, Little Minivan, Me Me Me I I I, King of Spain, Einstein the Genius, Their Way, What Was I Thinking?, to name a few – but I can’t help feeling that it wouldn’t seem right to hear them served up randomly by an automated service. You don’t share a smile with a computer.

    No, there’s no such thing as forgive-and-forget at my house; I’ll still be airing this grievance if I live to be 100.

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  18. There’s so many songs when I start to think about it. Rudy Vallee getting the giggles in ‘Tavern in the Town’ wasn’t intentionally a novelty song but I think it became one. And it’s one of my favorites.
    Christine Lavin has a bunch too.
    I gotta get to work here. I just shared Spike Jones with a young college student. She’s never seen anything like that before.

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  20. Country music has a tradition of novelty songs including some of the preformers on the Grand Ole Opery and Hee Haw. I think Garrison partly patterned The Prairie Home Companion after the Opery and there have been plenty of novelty songs used on PHC.

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    1. “Gloom, despair, and agony on me, deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck I would have no luck at all. Gloom, despair, and agony on me.”

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    2. I found a $5 copy of HeeHaw’s 10th anniversary special. Gave it to the family for Christmas. My wife was not amused… 🙂

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  21. Greetings! Oh, it’s so fun to remember all those fun novelty songs — I loved all of them. The Bobs “My Baby Leaves His Trash All Over the House” comes to mind. As a young adult, I remember “Disco Duck”, “Convoy” and “The Streak” — but those were just kind of stupid. Nowhere near as clever and artistic as the stuff we heard on TLGMS. Keep ’em coming, guys!

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    1. OMG – how could Anna and Ben forget this one? The guy who makes music using saws and hand tools — that’s amazing. I also remember a wild and woolly version of “Jingle Bells” from Bela Fleck that featured Tuvan throat singers — great stuff.

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  23. Here’s one by Terre Roche:

    O Mr Sellack
    Can I have my job back?
    I’ve run out of money again.
    Last time I saw ya
    I was singing Hallelujah
    I’m so glad to be leavin’ this restaurant.

    Now the only thing I want
    Is to have my old job back again.
    I’ll clean the tables;
    I’ll do the creams;
    I’ll get down on my knees and scrub
    Behind the steam table.

    O Mr. Sellack
    I didn’t think I’d be back.
    I worked here last year
    Remember?
    I came when Annie
    Was going on vacation
    And I stayed on almost till December.

    Now the only thing I want
    Is to have my old job back again.
    I won’t be nasty to customers no more.
    When they send their burger back I’ll tell them that
    I’m sorry.

    Waiting tables ain’t that bad.
    Since I’ve seen you last, I’ve waited
    For some things that you would not believe
    To come true.

    Give me a broom and I’ll sweep my way to heaven.
    Give me a job;
    You name it.
    Let the other forty-million three-hundred and seven
    People who want to get famous.

    Now the only thing I want
    Is to have that old job back again.
    I’ll clean the tables;
    I’ll do the creams;
    I’ll get down on my knees and scrub
    Behind the steam table.

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  25. I remember the ones from the 70s and 80s – Wet Dream (about the underwater singles scene: “i met this cute little yellowtail…asked her what her sign was. She said “Aquarium” so I said, “Great! Let’s get tanked!” Then her boyfriend walked in. That guy was COVERED with mussels…”) and the one about Evel Knievel jumping the Grand Canyon that used song snippets. And one called Mr. Jaws.

    The funniest one of more recent vintage (only 25 years old!) is “The Man Song.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj4vLZJhNEk

    It makes me smile that so many of the novelties listed above can be found on the Keepers CDs. 🙂

    -Val

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    3. The Wet Dream song; I HAVE THAT LP! I won it from the radio station and I thought I was the only one who knew it! Hi Val!
      A guy named ‘Kip Addota’… (In the song, talking about car repair:) “He said I’d blown a seal. I said ‘Fix the damn thing and leave my private life out of it, OK Pal?”

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  27. Randy Newman’s “Short People” and John Prine’s “Dear Abby” fall in that category too. Several old Kingston Trio and Chad Mitchell Trio songs come to mind also. Flanders and Swan definitely have to be in the mix. An how about Jerry Jeff Walker and Jimmy Buffett? Both have several songs I’d include.

    Then there’s David Stoddard, he has several songs that qualify. This is one:

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    1. I was thinking of that one too. Great minds ……

      I just stumbled on this one by Christine Lavin, too funny not to share. Be sure to watch to the end.

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      2. just now back home – TERRIFIC! i love her anyway – and now even more.
        i’m sure in March/April i’m going to be singing “what was i thinking???” because not only have i bred Kona and Lassi to T this week, but Miss Dream, whom i had retired but who wanted to come out of retirement. then Miss Alba and Juju in two weeks. 5 does – that could be 10 to 12 kiddos running around here. what, indeed was i thinking? give me some of that yummy wine.

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    2. There are so many by Steve Goodman – for those who have some time to sift through YouTube, try tracking down Elvis Imitator, Three-Legged Man, Hot Tub Refugee, You Never Even Call Me By My Name, Veg-o-matic, Talk Backwards. (I don’t need YouTube for those – got ’em on vinyl.)

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      1. Steve Goodman was the absolute best. I have 5 CDs and several old LPs with his music, he just can’t be beat. I’d add “Chicken Cordon Blues,” “Lincoln Park Pirates,” “turnpike Tom,” and even “Donald and Lydia” to the mix. I miss him so.

        I’ve just spent a couple of hours listening to Niels Hausgaard on youtube. I wish you all understood Danish and could enjoy him too; I know you would. One of a kind in a long tradition of one of a kinds.

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      2. I can’t say I agree on Donald & Lydia. With the exception of Dear Abby, I don’t think I would classify any one of John Prine’s songs as a novelty song. They are poetry. Respectfully.

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  29. Slow Down Krishna

    Send Me a Love Letter on a Fish

    whatever the Andrew Jackson song is from the same era as Wooly Bully-starts out…in 1814 we took a little trip, along with Colonel Jackson down the Mighty Mississipp…..

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  32. I’m thinking Novelty songs are also part of what makes up Americana, since they don’t really fit any place else… so I wonder: do other cultures, countries have these novelties in their music repertoires?

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    1. BiR, if I’m not mistaken, Dale’s first example is not an American but an Irish song. These types of songs are common in English, Irish and in Danish culture as well. I’d be surprised if they aren’t found in other cultures as well. One of the more recent Danish ones is with an artist named Niels Hausgaard, and many of his songs poke fun of all kind of things. In this particular song, a cell phone company known to have very bad service. It’s very funny and spot on. If anyone is interested in a translation, I’ll give it a whirl:

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  33. Oh, Oh, Oh!!! The Rossini duet for Cats!
    Garrison and Fredericka von Stada did that brilliantly. I keep trying to teach Our Fair Twixie, but she doesn’t really see the appeal, as it doesn’t see to really GET you anywhere.

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    1. Yep, I wonder if Dale had any idea what he started. Keep the link to this day, Babooners, for if you are ever having one of those days and need a laugh. There’a s lot to choose from!

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    2. That’s what keep us ticking; vulnerability tempered by a sense of the absurd coupled with a sense of community and hope.

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  38. I think this qualifies for “novelty song” – at any rate I was in high school, this came on late-night radio in Kuala Lumpur and I died laughing.

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  39. This borders on plain (but catchy) 70s pop, but since it was the one pop-culture song I knew that the Mister didn’t and it has a sound-effect title, I’m including it.

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  41. For posterity, something current:
    From Over The Rhine’s 2011 album, “Only God Can Save Us Now” – Karin Bergquist’s story of characters at the nursing home where her mother lives after a stroke… “The collision of tragedy and comedy”.

    I linked this version for the story, but you can fast-forward to 5:50 to hear the song (though this recording is a bit treble-y).

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    1. Thanks gain, MN. I’m not familiar with Karin Bergquist or Over the Rhine, will have to investigate further.

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