Get Weird with Me: Uncovering the Strangest Songs of the 80s! 

Yes, that one is a bit of a standout on this list. actually quite a clever song in many ways

The band recently released a new album. It is exceedingly good. "Again"

Yep, I'm tesm POP GOES THR WORLD, too!

It's legitimately great song. I think the oddity here is that actors trying a music career usually ends in cringe and this one rocks the party (all the time)

That is a great "weird" song... and I don't even think it(nor the video) is weird. I've seen a lot weirder.

I hear ya 👍

It was a good song Eddie Murphy has a great voice

I agree 100%. Most of the music today is junk. At least this song was clean and had a hook.

I’d take Disco Duck over what they play today! 😂😂

Or "boogie in your butt"

Me too….it was a great decade

Me too

😂😅🤣

Yes! I didn't know they sang "Pop Goes the World" a catchy tune if there ever was one..

I love that song!!!!!

Lemmy from Motorhead was in the video

Indeed

Lemmy from Motorhead is in the video

Loved the original and all its parodies.

Sweetness sounded, well, sweet as a singer.

What happened to Jimmie Mac was criminal. Following seasons a frequent saying in our house was "Noooo not Tomczack!!" Years later (1994) I was watching MNF(Bears at Packers) and guess who's sitting on the GB bench, dressed, helmet in his hands? Jimmie Mac! Frank Gifford said " There's the quarterback who was on this field for the Bears the last time we were here on Monday night".

R.I.P Payton💐🕊️🥀

A couple more. 2nU - Ponderous, The Art Of Noise - Paranoimia

Um you are mentioning bands that are legendary - like Siouxsie and the Banshees - they were enormously important in the history of punk and goth…

@@AleisterCrowleyMagus Not to mention The Church, one of the biggest bands Australia ever produced, and the sickly sweet "I don't Mind At All", which is so un-wierd it actually shocked me to see.

Paul Lekakis - Boom Boom! Anything from the Dr. Demento Show.

I saw Wall of Voodoo open for Adam Ant in 85 and only knew Mexican Radio. Don't remember much about their show but rediscovered them years later, and love a lot of their other material. Wish I had been paying attention back then.

Wow I had no idea. That is a great fact.

Everyone in Canada knows Bonhomme de Neige! It was awesome seeing him in the video back in the day.

The band got their name from when they were kids, the 3 brothers (Ivan, Colin, Stefan- who were all in the band) used to go out without wearing hats, even when it was really cold. Metaphorically, it has the coolest meaning.

Thank you, lol I was just going to write the same thing.

And the lyric is Big Bonhomme, not big ba-dum.

This is song I thought he was going to play when I saw the thumbnail with Eddie Murphy on it.

If I remember correctly, Eddie Murphy also had a song called "Put Your Mouth On Me", but I don't think it was a hit.

Fortunately, Eddie got together with Snoop Lion and did a pretty good reggae song called "Red Light".

I was in high school at the time, decidedly not popular, and some guy from school called me and played that, claiming to be from the record label and doing a survey on it. I was utterly confused and embarrassed.

Glad someone mentioned "Pacman Fever,' hahaha!

Bangkok was from the musical Chess and was sung by Murray Head brother of Anthony Head who played Giles on Buffy

Bangkok was sung by Murray Head it was from the musical Chess.

Andrew Lloyd Webber strikes again...

Loved it too!

And "Nellie the Elephant," by the Toy Dolls, lol!

My wife described Sigue Sigue Sputnik's whole album as essentially a series of commercials and commentary on consumerism. She's so right!

Why is it I suddenly want to rush out and buy Cool Mint Listerine 😅😅😅😅

For sure, lol...

YES!

The original video was creepy as hell.

@@LuisDiaz-zr2vs i don't remember watching the video.

It was featured in a standard Teen Boarding School T&A movie back then. I don't remember the title but the scene had to do with odds probability of a girl taking off her bra. It all went wrong, of course...

Today's music is cookie cutter trash.

Or Balls to the Wall by Accept.

Or land of 1,000000 dances? Or WWE Wrestlers?

I still love the Superbowl Shuffle!! I thought they were so cool...."I am the Fridge..,"

Yeah, doesn't matter that they faked it. They're still awesome songs.

@@brandonpage7087 indeed.

@brandonpage7087 Milli Vanilli was tragic and I wish those that orchestrated the fiasco had been publicly humiliated like Milli Vanilli was, because it was tremendously unfair. Milli Vanilli were great frontmen, and because of them the records sold, and everybody made a ton of money off them. What they did wasn't right, but then again, everyone involved seemed OK dropping them in the grease,after setting them up for a fall.

Yeah, lol, that has to be the most bizarre track on here! Must've been from T's 1984 rap album called Mr. T's Commandments. No, I'm not making that up.

@@brandonpage7087 84 fits the time frame perfectly

As a Psychology student, a faculty member acknowledged to us that he sometimes had silly songs stuck in his head, too.

That actually dates from before the 80s, I heard it on Dr. Demento in 1978. ".... Roly-poly Fish Heads are never seen drinking cappuccino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women..... yeah...."

That's great 😆 poor mom.

Thanks for standing up for them. The whole situation was sad, and had they not won the Grammy, I doubt they'd be remembered the way they are. The guys honestly thought they'd be singing on the second album if they went along with Frank Farian's ruse. He's the one who ultimately ratted them out. Farian held every card. Some of us, unfortunately, knew about it long before it became public, like the instant we saw Farian's name attached to the project. We sold it anyway. Milli Vanilli were there when my former husband proposed to me, so I was in it deep. Anyway, the music has held up through the years. All of my 20 something sons know every Milli Vanilli song, too. To this day, I feel some degree of guilt for the part I played, but I can't change it now. I just hope Rob found the peace he was seeking.

Oh, and Black Box pulled the same stunt as C+C Music Factory with Martha Wash's voice. She had to sue them, too.

Hypocrisy abounds.😣

@chrismorgan9153 I wish I had seen this comment sooner. Please do not feel like you had a hand in the cacophony of cruelty that ended up destroying the two. I don't think anyone could have known the magnitude that the whole thing snowballed into. My point of view on this has come with age, because when I was in my twenties I was like, oh wow. I wasn't really on the anti- Milli Vanilli train, I liked the music and doing the dance they did when I wore leggings. It wasn't until I realized that they had been used and then, upon the discovery, it seems they were hung out to dry alone, all fingers pointed at them. I felt compassion and that there was an injustice truly done. I know that they were not complicit in putting themselves in front of the camera or styling themselves or choosing the songs. Oh no, there was people that pushed them and gave them false promises,like this Frank Farian, whose name I did not hear till now. and somehow it seemed OK. And, and this I really believe, they won the Grammy and got to #1 and that sealed their fate with the singing little engines that couldn't. They were rich, good-looking, young men with oodles of charisma and the world was at their feet. And some jealous wannabe shoved them off the cliff and no one was vocal in defending them. I don't remember anyone saying they had a hand in it. It must have felt like the whole world hated you, thought you were a punchline, believed you had no worth and no talent. Everyone acted like they had stolen some poor singers' spotlight and songs. I can't fathom the depths of despair a person would experience with, not just the cruel behaviors felt now, but the death of any career you may have had. And where have these singers been, The McFuglie family? I am being smart-ass but if it was so important that these lives were ruined, then get out and sing. And even if they take the stage with an outfit full of sparkle, fairy dust and glitter, Milli Vanilli was cool and shone brightly without the slightest bit of effort. I need to look into this Farian dude. Never heard of him, he laid low.

@@chrismorgan9153 I saw Martha Wash in a video. She was a bit heavier but pretty. What a business. I kind of wonder if there isn't more of this facade. So sad.

Yeah, I know. At least the Mr. T song has a positive message. That life boat song is truly fucked up.

The Lifeboat song is using sarcasm to criticize how our society often values the rich, beautiful and powerful over others. Hard to get that context here.

​@@steveschwartz5213yes it does, it's an ethics question taken to extremes.

Check out their more recent work. They recently released "Again". It kicks ass!

I was a 45-minute car ride away, most likely riding my bike, and if I was, Milli Vanilli was probably in my Walkman.

Yes, even Boney M. (I think it was 70s) had dancers that looked good and you didn't see the real singer. The band was from Germany. Their song Rasputin had a clue that they were German when the back up singers said Rasputin was "really wunderbär".

Both Milli Vanilli and Boney M were produced by Frank Farian.@@THRITCHIE76

And don't forget Lipps Inc's Funkytown. A short, balding Jewish guy created that song with African American session singers, then used a white blonde girl in the video lip synching (Lipps Inc'ing?)

In the case of Baltimora, Jimmy McShane was the face and main dancer of the project and appeared in all videos and live appearances. Fun Fun was another case: a couple of models lyps-synching to songs recorded by a group of female singers that included Spagna.

Same guy behind Boney M also created Milli Vanilli, he also had another creation besides those two iirc

I thought the same thing! I love Paranoimia, but yeah, it is weird!😮

I now only wish we had Max Headroom as President....😢

I forgot about that! I listened to that and that led me to "Back to School". Remember, you're a Melon!

"I had some money, what did I do? (no respect, no respect) I bought some swampland in Florida, the deal fell through! (no respect, no respect) I can't take it anymore, I'm gettin' too old!(no respect, no respect) I called Suicide Prevention and they put me on hold! (no respect, no respect)...."

I never heard any of Murphy's songs. But I have "Shrek." And the few times when Donkey sings, it told me that Eddie Murphy really can sing.

I remember hearing "Fire and Desire" by Teena Marie and Rick James. He could really sing. Charlie Murphy (RIP) told a funny story about Rick James.

Wow. This is slightly before my time, so I missed it (the song, not the faults of our educational system), and now I want to know more about it. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it after seeing this, because I was thinking it was social commentary, but also it seems like the message would’ve been lost on kids, especially if there weren’t any adults discussing it with them. If it’s seen as satire, then it’s clever, but if not… also, this guy was doing Christian music? Weird indeed.

He also had a song called Jesus is for Loser among others where unless you pay attention to what he is trying to say can be misinterpreted. I have multiple albums of his. My favorite being Squint.

I found his music while doing a stint at an Evangelical church. His stuff was better than the rest of the light rock praise garbage.

Laid back are Danish and that song was No.1 on the bilboard dance/club chart.

Also Walk the Dinosaur by Was (Not Was)

Dad I'm in Jail was an awesome song, featured in Pump Up the Volume (but not released on the actual soundtrack - it's the last track on Was (not Was)'s album What Up, Dog?).

I have the "Keep Smiling" album 😊😊

90's

try "we are what we are" by the other ones

Ha ha lol he

And is still one of my favourite songs of the 80’s!

I was all about my hair band music...the Gorky Park stuff was a little to the lighter edge of what I was listening to back then, but I just couldn't deny my hair band heart...

@@greenmtnmellie I'm still all about those bands, although I have branched out and enjoy a lot of genres these days. My music player playlist really confuses people now, LOL.

Little Bird is much weirder with its bird call through it. New Toy was by Thomas Dolby

Little Bird is much weirder with its bird call through it. New Toy was by Thomas Dolby