Besides the expected comedic one-offs there were some interesting choices. I've never really thought of Splish Splash, Yakety Yak or My Boy Lollipop, say, as novelties. A lot of bubblegum pop from the 60s like Bread and Butter, Simple Simon Says or Yummy Yummy Yummy fit the novelty classification better. My Boy Lollipop was just an early example of reggae with many subsequent reggae and ska songs having a novelty feel (e.g. many by Judge Dread, Bad Manners or Madness).
Great video, you did forget a few songs, though. Barnes & Barnes - Fish Heads Bob & Doug McKenzie - Take Off The Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew - The Super Bowl Shuffle Rodney Dangerfield - Rappin' Rodney
It's because they have catchy tunes, and would be good for adverts. I was surprised when Mattel objected to 'Barbie Girl', spoiling their image. It's a kiddie song - but it's children who play with dolls, and free advertising.
It seems like they come in two flavours: either they become timeless classics or they become an annoyance, unless they become a timeless classic because they are so annoying which is ten times worse.
Really bad songs!? No. They were great. Full of imagination. They actually had personality. As did the singers / songwriters. I'd still happily listen to them today.
I mean ... I would qualify Old Town Road on the really bad side of things ... but it might be that one's just been done to death at this point. Give me a classic funny song or Weird Al any day to that crap.
Am I the only one who wishes this was a couple of hours long and featured the full versions? Knew 95% of them and singing along (until they quickly stopped!)
Weird Al Yankovic? Man somebody posts a comment and everything brings loose. One starts and then after that another one rides the bus. Each one thinks they're such a groovy guy. It makes me want to turn of my computer and go eat something good because I love Rocky Road. Oh well, I'm getting wound up for nothing. I guess I'll be mellow when I'm dead.
Nobody says something bad about Weird Al this man makes me laugh when I'm depressed, and because of him, I'm alive. Yeah, i know that it was a little bit exaggerated but This Man Is A Legend
Since I grew up with a lot of them, I'm planning on having a medley of these great tunes played at my funeral. Especially the ones from the 50s and 60s. I'll be boogeying with the mourners.
I will add The Thong Song, You Talk Too Much, 16 Tons, Achy Breaky Heart, These Boots were Made for Walking, The Limbo Song, Tiptoeing Through the Tulips With You, Escape (The Pina Colada Song), Baby Got Back, Jungle Boogie, Margaritaville, and I have to go to bed now or I’ll never stop.Thank you for all your hard work! Oh, Tequila!!
While some of these are novelties, a few you listed aren't. For example, These Boots were Made for Walking was a song standing up against a cheating man, and The Pina Colada Song was typical of yacht rock and relationships.
That would have taken up too much of the video! One of my favorites that wasn’t even a parody “Gotta Boogie” that I played for my granddaughters was hilarious because they were kind of dancing to it and when it got to the part Gotta boogie on my finger and I can’t shake it off they burst out hysterically laughing 😂
Wow. This was just like watching a music video sampler of The Dr. Demento Show. Imagine listening to "novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present" each Sunday Night for 2 hours (since 1974). Thanks for putting this up.
Totally agree with you, songs like Paralyzed by The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Fluffy by Gloria Balsam and My Pal Foot Foot by The Shaggs are all Dr. Demento 'classics'. 😂😂😂
Man, Convoy by CW McCall is still an unironically good song. My dad used to play it for us when we were little kids and he was a trucker, and now that I’m a teenager I make all my friends drive in a big convoy and I blast this song on the interstate.
Do you have the ORIGINAL, or the MOVIE REWRITE, because they both have different lyrics. The original starts with "It was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June and a kenworth pulling logs, cab-over pete with a reefer on and a Jimmy hauling hogs..." While the rewrite starts "Arizona, Noon, on the seventh of June when they highballed over the pass, bulldog Mack with a can on back and a Jaguar hauling ass."
I’m shocked that Rubber Duckie from Sesame Street was not on the list even though Baby Shark and Teletubbies did make the list. Rubber Duckie also reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 late September of 1970.
Witch Doctor was a funny song, and well sung. "Oo-ee oo-ah ah wallaballabeng-beng" LOL Wonderful collection, RandomGuy! My all-time favorite novelty song is 'Johnny Reggae' by the Piglets. (Jonathan King, 1971) A delightful record! It got #3 in the british charts.
"There coming to take me away"; "Wooly Bully"; "Witch Doctor"; "Snoopy and the Red Baron"; "My Ding a Ling"; and others, cant recall, are great songs!!
Very disagreeable. Modern music isn’t your taste, it doesn’t mean it’s crap. And even so, these are novelty singles designed for the sake of being novelty singles. Many hated them back then and compared them to the more mainstream and serious songs in the charts (I mean look at Harlem Shake or The Fox, and see how much people hated them back in 2013) back then so your take doesn’t even matter at all. Get your head out of the close-minded arrogant boomer cloud and just enjoy the music for once.
@@matthewhenningervonada9914 Don’t listen to him. He’s stuck in the arrogant boomer cloud and trying to compare an average novelty song to modern music. The logic falls flat.
@@arturoromero951:... That's because 95% of modern chart music is CRAP!!! And of course, you're not gonna respond, because there IS no response! You Gen zed, know nothing music vacuum!!!
The 50s and 90s really were the best decades for novelty songs. 2000's onwards were ghastly and I just dont know what people were thinking in the 80s lol
I was at least okay with basically every song... Until we got to the 73rd or so. And some of the stuff from the 2000's on, really only counts on a technicality. Mr blobby, is probably my sole exception to that assessment. Though that's not my pick for worst song on this list.
First of all, the gentleman who does these videos is not from the US, so yeah, he adds songs from lots of different countries. But either you don't know much about music or are too young to know that between 1/2 to 2/3 of these songs are from the US.
@@lucyboosmom I'm well aware of where these songs originated, which is why I posted my original comment. I count at least 28 songs on this list which were not played in the USA, which is why I said "a number" were not hits in America.
When I was about 3 or 4 years old my grandparents and I heard their 60s-Hits-CD. Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie was also on it and I rember that my granddad had to dance with me many hours. This Song is a part of my childhood ^^ Thank you for your work and greetings from Germany 😇
weird al doesnt deserve to be on a list with novelty songs, his are parody songs, and the best ones ever made, imho no one has made a better parody song
Loved this! Snoopy vs. The Red Baron and Lily the Pink were favourites when I was a kid, and I’d mostly forgotten about them. I’m honestly thrilled to see Green Jelly here.
Great list! Also worth considering: Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots are Made for Walking," "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," and Southern Culture On the Skid's "Camel Walk." "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," Toni Basil's "Hey Mickey," "Ghostbusters," "The Hokey Pokey," "Limbo Rock" 🤩
Love these Random, they always manage to put a smile on my face even though I have heard them many times through the years, still great and thank you!!
Here are a few more: Secret Agent Man-Johnny Rivers (1966) Rubber Biscuit--Blues Brothers (1978) Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer--Elmo & Patsy (1979) Hot for Teacher--Van Halen (1984) Ghostbusters--Ray Parker Jr (1984) This Is Ponderous--2NU (1990) Shiny Happy People--REM (1991) If I Had $1000000--Bare Naked Ladies (1992) Baby Got Back--Sir-Mix-a-Lot (1992) Stacy's Mom--Fountains of Wayne (2003) Plus many songs by They Might Be Giants and Five Iron Frenzy
Disagreeable. While I like novelty singles, the fact that you’re trying to compare this to Top 40 singles now is honestly kind of pathetic and the logic falls flat every time. Selfie, The Fox, and Old Town Road were literally Top 40. And people said they SUCKED. So your logic makes no sense whatsoever. Quit the arrogant boomer act and just enjoy the music.
What I think we need is for one of the satellite radio stations to get hold of the old Dr Demento shows and play them (like they do with old Casey Kasem)
I didn't realize how many novelty songs I actually like until I saw this video. Monster Mash, Do the Bartman, I'm Blue, Barbie Girl, Crazy Frog's version of Axel F, Cotton-Eye Joe, Who Let the Dogs Out, the Chicken Dance, The Hampsterdance song, and Dragostea Din Tei are songs I really enjoy. There are also some others I don't mind like YMCA and Surfin' Bird (the latter was popularized by Family Guy as well). Songs like Baby Shark and Sexy and I Know It though... yeah those aren't great songs imo.
The very first military fails video I watched had Hampsterdance as the music. The complete and utter incongruity of the music from the video itself just made everything 5x as funny. Picture this: an air dropped Jeep (as in, WW2 Jeep, not the brand) rolling off on its own little adventure, to the musical accompaniment of Hampsterdance. I wish I could find that video again.
"Who let the dogs out" is great. I listen to it on RU-vid video, every once in awhile. Also "Teeny weeny ..... yellow ... bikini". There is one really good produced music video of it on YT, if u havent seen it.
This needs a Part 2! Here are some honorable mentions: 1959. The Rock-A-Teens - Woo-Hoo 1960. Chubby Checker - The Twist 1963. The Five Du-Tones - Shake a Tail Feather 1965. Lesley Gore - Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows 1965. The Strangelovers - I Want Candy 1966. Wilson Pickett - Land of 1000 Dances 1968. Ohio Express - Yummy Yummy Yummy 1969. The Muppets - Mahna Mahna 1972. Gary Glitter - Rock and Roll Part 2 1984. Ray Parker Jr. - Ghostbusters 1994. Scatman John - Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop) 1994. The Mighty Raw - Go Go Power Rangers 1996. Weird Al Yankovic - Amish Paradise 1997. Steps: 5, 6, 7, 8 2005. Crazy Frog - Popcorn
"Scatman" is often misunderstood as a novelty funny song. But if you listen closely to the lyrics, you will find that it's actually a socially critical song with an important message. Scatman John was a stutterer and he severely suffered from that during his childhood, because his classmates made fun of him and aped him. He stopped a therapy because of feelings of inferiority and he mostly tried to avoid speaking. He started playing the piano at the age of 14; this helped him to compensate for his language deficits and to discover artistic abilities such as the scat singing which made him famous years later. The message of his "Scatman" song is that everyone should make the best of their life and can achieve something, regardless of a possible handicap. So Scatman John reports about his problem of stuttering and that he still managed to make music successfully: *“Everybody stutters one way or the other / so check out my message to you / as a matter of fact, don’t let nothing hold you back / if the Scatman can do it, so can you”* As a pop star, Scatman John became a role model for people with disabilities. During his lifetime, he was committed to helping children and organizations that helped people who stutter.
The Muppets? That song was predated by the original, written and performed by Piero Umiliani. And it's bad enough that this video had Rolf Harris in it without inviting Gary Glitter in as well!
Yep, were a lot of novelty songs. However back then people used to know how to have fun. Not every song had to have some deep meaning, just a smile was enough. Having said that they still were well constructed. My parents bought me up in the early 70's mainly with Blues and Jazz. Their whole philosophy was 'here is some music ' ... enjoy what you enjoy. As I got older they would fill in history and open up new types of music, but always left it up to me to decide what I liked. It not only started conversations about music with them, but also my school friends ( who thouht I was a freak :). Yes, some music has the power to shift perseptions and make a difference in the political sphere ... however, just having a laugh or just enjoying music can be just as powerfull. Sorry, pissed :)
I used to listen to many of them with Uncle Mac on the light programme on Saturday morning .I’m now 77 years old and I recognise all of these songs even now . I wonder how many Stormzy songs we’ll be singing along with in 70 years time ?
Most of the songs early on were to capitalize on a dance craze. Some were aimed at kids and released only for a money grab. Others were simply fun. Weird Al did it as a career. Witch Doctor was Seville's precursor to the chipmunks. They left out "Bird on my Head".
Heck, I have the record! I also have "I am the Doctor" by John Pertwee. And you can't call yourself a true Whovian if you haven't heard Colin Baker's "Gallifeyan Bucaneer"! ;)
You missed "Beep Beep" by the Playmates - 1958 one of my favorites. I recognized all the songs through 1966. YMCA, Birdie Song , Macarena, Who let the dogs out - that they play at sporting events The rest are unknown to me. But it was fun listening to the short clips. Thank you.
There were heaps missing. My parents had a compilation set of 6 tapes of various 50s and 60s songs and 1 tape was dedicated to novelty songs. Only about half of them made this list. Songs like 7 little girls, Birds and the Bees and Running Bear didnt make the list.
Great compilation. I expected this to be painful listening, but it wasn't at all and ended up being a trip down memory lane once it reached the 90s. Honestly, I'd have more issues enduring a compilation of 2010s chart toppers.
How about "Please, Mr. Columbus, turn the boat around. I don't know why you tell Isabella that the world is round. I just want to feel my two feet back on the ground."
Great compilation. It's crazy how incredibly successful and memorable many of these songs were/are. The Baby Shark song is apparently the most viewed music video ever on youtube.
Really funny and enjoyable video! I think when you put that disclaimer at the beginning, I genuinely think that the “bad songs” is supposed to be the point of a novelty song. A song that maybe isn’t the best in terms of vocals or production or other typical musical aspects, but great in its lyricism or catchiness (sometimes) or great in terms of being witty, funny, a good gag or pop culture reference, or sometimes plain annoying or “so bad it’s so good,” like Friday or Baby Shark in my opinion (I don’t think they’re the worst songs in the world, but I don’t like songs like Baby Shark because of that, which I think is the main point of the song, since it’s mostly aimed at children). I would have loved to see Schnappi or Gummibär on the lists, but overall great video. :)
Have to admit I was shocked when "Take off" by Bob & Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas of SCTV) wasn't on this video. A bonefide top 40 hit in the USA just missing the top 10 in 1982. It features Geddy Lee from Rush as well. Oh and Jump N The Saddle Band's "The Curly Shuffle". Otherwise I enjoyed this video.
Yeah. Several hit no.1 on US such as Monster Mash, Alley-Oop, My Ding-A-Ling, The Streak and Disco duck. So many in the UK aswell (Hampsterdance for Canada). Also two of these became the biggest songs of their respective years
@@juliusnepos6013 Europe had a different Hampsterdance song, based on the same sample. It was in the running for Xmas #1 in the UK, but eventually made #4 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognoscenti_vs._Intelligentsia) Honestly, I'd have preferred that to the awful Westlife cover that was #1.
Apparently, "Gimme Dat Ding" by The Pipkins, "The Curly Shuffle" by Jump 'N' The Saddle Band &;"She Don't Use Jelly" by The Flaming Lips were only popular here in the states.
This list is marvellous! I can enjoy all of the tunes, and merely shake my head and wonder at the section of the population who seem to dislike these songs. However, I have suggestions for the years 1968 and 1967. I believe "I'm The Urban Spaceman" and "The Equestrian Statue" (both by The Bonzo Dog Band) are fair contenders for their respective aforementioned years. Yet, even if they aren't added, I'll still cherish this video as including some of my favourite (and grossly underrated!) tunes of the years gone by.
