Baby Boomers out there will probably remember this gem: "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" performed by Jerry Samuels (billed as Napoleon XIV).
Talk about weird novelty songs -- this 1966 gem hit the mother load rising to #3 on the U.S. Billboard Top 100. It's about a guy who has gone insane because he has been abandoned by a... Friend? / Wife? / Lover?
Not until the very end do we find out who exactly ran out on him:
I cooked your food
I cleaned your house
And this is how you pay me back
For all my kind unselfish, loving deeds
Ha! Well you just wait
They'll find you yet and when they do
They'll put you in the A.S.P.C.A.
You mangy mutt
Even as a (very) insensitive and unaware 6th grader, I sorta realized this song was in bad taste. It was really quite offensive and was eventually pulled from radio stations after an outcry from mental health organizations and the general public.
Be that as it may, the tune was catchy and hypnotic, and the words were sorta clever, and the B-Side was even stranger as this novelty song was recorded in reverse!
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Another one I think of randomly is "Beautiful Delilah" by Chuck Berry
The dingaling song 😀
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"Squeeze Box" is a slang term for an accordion, but it is also slang for the vagina. The band just wanted to see if they could get away with singing about the joys of explicit sex.
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"Squeeze Box" is a slang term for an accordion, but it is also slang for the vagina. The band just wanted to see if they could get away with singing about the joys of explicit sex. Squeeze Box - ( New Window )
You mean the "in and out...and in and out...and in and out" isn't about their excitement over the accordian?
Matty told Hatty about a thing she saw
Had two big horns and a wooly jaw
Wooly bully, wooly bully (yeah, that's right)
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully
All strange but I liked them all.
All strange but I liked them all.
I love the Flying Lizards' version of Money
Matty told Hatty about a thing she saw
Had two big horns and a wooly jaw
Wooly bully, wooly bully (yeah, that's right)
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully
THIS is on my short playlist of tunes when I go out Rollerblading. I love this song!!! Loved it the first time I ever heard it, and still love it over half a century later.
It really messed with me! It was like one of those innocence lost moments when I realized that the children's book version of Alice in Wonderland was bullshit.
My dad had the full CD for that one song .... and ONLY that one song.
The worst song I ever heard came much later... I absolutely hate "You're Beautiful" by J. Blount. That song is 'stick a pencil in your ear' bad!
All strange but I liked them all.
Oh yeah I was obsessed with the B-52's when I was a young gun.
My dad had the full CD for that one song .... and ONLY that one song.
“I get knocked down, but I get up again…”
When it comes to pop music I’m a Baby Boomer cemented in the past, but I do have a place for “newer” songs, and this is certainly one of them. I could play this crazy song over and over again! Alotta fun!
I hear ya! When I first saw him on (I think Johnny Carson — late 1960s?), HE scared the bejesus out of me!
Another song from long ago is The Unicorn song by the Irish Rovers
Whoever woulda thunk we’re on the same wavelength??? (:-)
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Too many 90s singles during my childhood that came and went but hmmm, if I had to narrow it down to one? It would have to be Chumbawamba tubthumping.
My dad had the full CD for that one song .... and ONLY that one song.
“I get knocked down, but I get up again…”
When it comes to pop music I’m a Baby Boomer cemented in the past, but I do have a place for “newer” songs, and this is certainly one of them. I could play this crazy song over and over again! Alotta fun!
Personally I prefer Homer Simpson's cover version
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The worst song I ever heard came much later... I absolutely hate "You're Beautiful" by J. Blount. That song is 'stick a pencil in your ear' bad!
Hey Bama, another one like that was Indian Wants Me. Total cringe...and Run Joey Run. Seriously, just why write that?
The worst song I ever heard came much later... I absolutely hate "You're Beautiful" by J. Blount. That song is 'stick a pencil in your ear' bad!
Too funny! This crazy group had another song about Al Capone! It went something like this:
When a man named Al Capone
Tried to make this town his own
As for “Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” I was a beach boy raking seaweed and fetching chairs and umbrellas when this song came out. On overcast days with nothing to do, the radio blasted for hours on end, and I’m almost embarrassed to say that I memorized EVERY single word from this maudlin bubble-gum song.
Not that I ever went out of my way to listen to it or anything but being born in 84 I have very early memories of it being popular.
A few more from my youth.
Three Little Pigs by Green Jelly
Lump and Peaches by The Presidents of the USA
Detachable Penis by King Missile
By the way, all of these had equally as weird videos on MTV.
HUGE fan of “The Israelites!!!” The syncopated reggae beat with weird lyrics like, “I don’t want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde,” had to be one of the coolest things this teenager heard on the radio!!!
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The Tubes.
You can edit out "All You Zombies by" out of your statement and still be correct. The Hooters sucked.
The Tubes.
Good call! I would add their big hit "She's a Beauty", a song about watching a stripper in one of those old Times Square strip joints with individual booths. Not that I would know or anything.
Neither did I, and my two older brothers gave me shit about it for years!
Matty told Hatty about a thing she saw
Had two big horns and a wooly jaw
Wooly bully, wooly bully (yeah, that's right)
Wooly bully, wooly bully, wooly bully
True confession here -- this song had (and has) been in my mind for so long that, when my daughter was born, I named her Maddy, almost as though in honor of "Matty told Hatty." In fact, my handle M.S. is actually my daughter's who gave it to me years and years ago after I somehow lost my original handle JonS.
Good call, I haven't thought of that song in years. I remember buying the record, and on the inside sleeve, there were the never record lyrics to Feels So Good. Always thought that it was kind of strange.
Here's another weird song that I love- Hocus Pokus by Focus!
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"The Israelites" by Desmond Deker and "If You Want to Be Happy" by Jimmy Soul.
HUGE fan of “The Israelites!!!” The syncopated reggae beat with weird lyrics like, “I don’t want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde,” had to be one of the coolest things this teenager heard on the radio!!!
Love 'The Israelites' too. It still sounds good today. I may be wrong, but I believe this tune is credited as the first reggae song ever to cross over successfully to the US market. And changing genres, I think 'Wooly Bully' is viewed similarly as to the Tex-Mex sound.
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In comment 15414284 rmc3981 said:
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"The Israelites" by Desmond Deker and "If You Want to Be Happy" by Jimmy Soul.
HUGE fan of “The Israelites!!!” The syncopated reggae beat with weird lyrics like, “I don’t want to end up like Bonnie and Clyde,” had to be one of the coolest things this teenager heard on the radio!!!
Love 'The Israelites' too. It still sounds good today. I may be wrong, but I believe this tune is credited as the first reggae song ever to cross over successfully to the US market. And changing genres, I think 'Wooly Bully' is viewed similarly as to the Tex-Mex sound.
I think you've got that right on both songs.
Paulie caught a bullet but it only hit his leg
While it should have been a better shot he got him in the head
They were all in love with dying they were drinkin' from a fountain
That was pouring like an avalanche coming down the mountain
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My New Wave younger colleagues at work introduced me to this song. When I heard it, I was pretty sure the bottom fell out of the barrel! (:-) They told me that I was just an old fart, which was (and still is) true!
Baby Sittin Boogie by I believe Buzz Clifford.
So many.
Ahab the Arab - haha - haven't thought of that song in decades. Yeah, WTF was that all about?
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by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. That song makes me cringe now... I believe it's been a frequent 'top of the charts' for worst songs ever.
The worst song I ever heard came much later... I absolutely hate "You're Beautiful" by J. Blount. That song is 'stick a pencil in your ear' bad!
Too funny! This crazy group had another song about Al Capone! It went something like this:
When a man named Al Capone
Tried to make this town his own
As for “Billy Don’t Be a Hero,” I was a beach boy raking seaweed and fetching chairs and umbrellas when this song came out. On overcast days with nothing to do, the radio blasted for hours on end, and I’m almost embarrassed to say that I memorized EVERY single word from this maudlin
It’s called. The Night Chicago Died
Playground In My Mind Clint Holmes. The kid who sang the chorus with him sounded so weird