The Greatest Novelty Songs

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And let’s be honest, giving your debut single the same name as your band (or vice-versa) suggests that you’re quite happy in aiming for one-hit wonder status. As a kid, I can remember hearing this song thinking that although it was crazy funny, it was really pretty scary particularly as the piece progresses. Really though, this is real one-hit wonder stuff: a flash in the pan, bottled lightning moment, and I’m not sure this track has been played on the radio for years. With lyrics describing Best Film nominee Pan’s Labyrinth, Minnie Driver sang a parody of the song at the 2007 Spirit Awards.

It’s also probably one of the last, as they’ve become rarer and rarer since their heyday in the late fifties-early sixties. Straight out of West Germany, this disco trio spent three weeks atop the charts in the holiday season. I think another reason writing this post didn’t bring about a warm Proustian glow is that my repeated plays of ‘Saturday Night’ have reminded me of the dance routine. Although Britain has been creating music for centuries The Great British Songbook canon starts with popular songs written in the early 1960’s. Helping this cover even further, as well as a competent indie band and a clever choice of song, is the fact that Reeves can carry a tune.

Presumably played in bars across the continent all summer, it smashed straight in at number one when finally released at the start of September. Celebrating 25 of my favorite happy songs from the '60s, including "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas, "Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles, and "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys. Not to be confused with an older song entitled "Chic-A-Boom", this novelty song hit the charts in 1971 by Daddy Dewdrop. I’m not a prude, but this isn’t something I’ve never had to consider in my seven hundred and seventeen previous posts. Clive Dunn was an English actor, comedian, artist, author, and singer best known for playing the role of the rather doddery Lance Corporal Jones in the BBC sitcom Dad’s Army, which ran for 80 episodes between 1968 and 1977.

The Rednex all play straggly-haired, yellow-teethed, rat-fondling hillbillies, who appear to be subjecting a younger, prettier girl to a never-ending ride on a bucking bronco. But this year, down our end of the planet, we were treated to the Monty Python stage show reunion which featured one of the best known and greatest comedy songs of all time – Monty Python’s, The Lumberjack Song. Freeform and album-oriented rock stations made use of novelty songs; some of the best-known work from progressive rocker Frank Zappa, for instance, is his extensive body of mostly adult-oriented novelty music. The video too is a six-minute long MJ-esque epic, in which Bart takes over a school talent show with his new dance routine (or was it all a dream…? Fellows only played a handful of gigs as his Jilted John alter-ego: “I think we only did about six or seven… all in Manchester.Ultimately, absurdly, there is too much intense accessibility for it to be a commercial success, even if it had the backing of a major label.