Sunday, November 23, 2008

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour

I was commenting on a post over at Better Oot Than In, and I realized that I really am a Novelty Song Geek. My friends and relatives can all attest to this. Loudly. As in, "No! No singing! Not AGAIN! SHUT UP!"

When my brother and I were kids, our parents gave us a "Loony Tunes"1 record. I think my mother picked it because it had My Boomerang Won't Come Back by the late, great Charlie Drake (his catchphrase was,"Hello, my darlings" which my father still occasionally says). Other great songs on that album included:
Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah - Alan Sherman,
The Witch Doctor - David Seville,
Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight) - Lonnie Donnegan (actually, this one may have been the reason my mother bought the album for us)
Shaving Cream - Benny Bell
Charlie Brown - The Coasters
Transfusion - Nervous Norvus
Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport - Rolf Harris (Um..., maybe this one was the reason)
Dinner With Drac - John Zacherly
The Streak - Ray Stevens (I'm pretty sure this wasn't the reason)
the #1 novelty song of all time, They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa - Napoleon XIV
And Tip-toe Through The Tulips - Tiny Tim. I do a very good Tiny Tim imitation, if I do say so myself (soundwise only).
We pretty much wore that record out.

One of my friends M (I have three friends M) made the mistake of telling me her new boyfriend knew the song, Along Came Jones and asking if I knew it. "NO! I DIDN'T MEAN SING IT!" Too late. Of course I know it.

In the early '80s, I discovered Dr. Demento. Luckily, Weird Al Yankovic had discovered him several years earlier, or we wouldn't have such classics as Eat It, Fat, and I Lost On Jeopardy. Other songs included:
The Ballad of Irving - Frank Gallop,
Everybody Run, the Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun and Cause I'm a Blonde - Julie Brown,
Existential Blues - Tom "T-Bone" Stankus (I don't even HAVE a little dog Toto),
I still get The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati by Rose and the Arrangement stuck in my head occasionally.

Barnes & Barnes came out with what would become the Aquatic Ecologist's theme song: Fish Heads. Or is that Wet Dream by Kip Addotta?

And who could forget Tom Lehrer with Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, and the Masochism Tango.

Ray Stevens and Weird Al certainly compete for the title of King of the Novelty Songs, but I proclaim Ray Stevens to be King. One, because his are unique, whereas Weird Al makes a living taking the mickey of current hits, and two because it's my blog and I can do whatever I want :-Pppppppppffffth.

Guitarzan, Would Jesus Wear a Rolex, Mississippi Squirrel Revival, Shriner's Convention, It's Me Again, Margaret and the completely un-PC Ahab the Arab.

Nowadays they just don't write songs like Purple People Eater, Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, and Rubber Duckie (Warning - mildly disturbing naked Ernie version).

Yes, I know all the words to Steve Martin's King Tut. Even the parts he missed in this video. Like He gave his life for tourism (wrong place), Golden Idols!, He's an Egyptian, They're selling you. Ok, my next post is going to be about how I'm obsessive enough to criticize Steve Martin singing his own song. I could do the same for several of the Ray Stevens ones, too...

Soon, 'tis the season for Elmo and Patsy's Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer. Can't wait!

1 Put out by the now defunct Grants store, and not affiliated with Warner Bros. Looney Toons

7 comments:

Barry Leiba said...

There's a square dance caller around here who used to use an instrumental version of "Witch Doctor" sometimes, and we always begged him not to use that record at the end of the evening, lest it stick in our brains for days afterward.

Oo... ee... oo-aa-aa....

Hairslave 24/7 said...

NO, NO, STOP SINGING!! Ah, the memories.

Laurie said...

Barry - Next time you get the Witch Doctor stuck in your head just start singing If You're Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands. Works like a charm................

David - Ppppppppppfffffth. Luckily, I have the confidence to ignore people nowadays, and just keep right on singing. Luckily for me, anyway.

Oh, and regarding the raspberries I seem to keep blowing at you, note I said confidence, not maturity.

Bert Chadick said...

Sorry. I hit the wrong button on Bert's Blog and deleted your comment by mistake. There is no undo available.

Anonymous said...

I was going to congratulate you on gathering this fine selection of uplifting music into one handy place - until I read this:

Next time you get the Witch Doctor stuck in your head just start singing If You're Happy And You Know It Clap Your Hands. Works like a charm................

That advice was beyond cruel.

Tendu said...

Hmmm, that loony toons record actually sounds pretty familiar to a tape me and my sisters had when we were little...

Laurie said...

Chaplain - There are those Friendly Atheists, and then there are us mean ones >:-))

Even Hemant has been on a mean streak recently. And he's way friendlier than I am.

Rainedaye - You're back! I thought you gave up blogging back in February! I was afraid you had been attacked by a killer tomato :-)