Z: Zombie Jamboree

Zombie Jamboree

We have come to the end, and Z was as tricky as ever. A search of songs on Youtube produced this song, which was new to me. Yet it seems to fit and as always, it was fun finding something new.

The song was originally titled "Jumbie Jamberee" (sic). A jumbee is a type of mythological spirit or demon in the folklore of some Caribbean countries, and is the generic name given to all malevolent entities. The song's references to Carnival also suggest a connection to the Moko jumbie, a protective spirit figure represented during Carnival on Trinidad by stilt walkers and dancers. The switch to "Zombie Jamboree" occurred very early with King Flash's version (see video below) with those lyrics coming out in 1956, only three years after "Jumbie Jamberee" first appeared (from link above). All this stuff was new to me 🙂 The song is done in calypso style. The Kingston Trio also did "Zombie Jamboree," as did Harry Belafonte, who was known for calypso music.

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And that's the end. Hope you have enjoyed my A to Z posts. A reflections post is coming.

Y: Yes! We Have No Bananas

 

Yes! We Have No Bananas

This is a popular novelty tune written in 1923 by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn. It has been recorded by numerous artists including Louis Prima and Billy Jones (both of whose versions are below), among others, many in 1923 alone. It is one of the best-selling books of sheet music. 

Below is a video on the story of "Yes! We Have No Bananas." 

The song also found its way into commercials. I seem to think this was how I first heard the song.

X: All My Exes Live in Texas

 

All My Exes Live in Texas

Here we are--that ever-pesky letter X! Almost every year I have to do this one by finding something that has an X in it somewhere, often not at the beginning. 

This was the best I could find for this letter. Some will argue whether this can be considered a novelty song. It's also far from one of my favorites, but am familiar with it. George Strait mania was rampant in the 1980s. I've heard this and other Strait songs performed at the local karaoke bar (at least during some of the last times I went). I live in a rodeo county, after all. "All My Exes..." is what is called a list song. 

 

The song was released in 1987 on Strait's album Ocean Front Property and was  nominated for Best Male Country Vocal Performance at the Grammy Awards in 1988.

Here is a remake from a female perspective.

And by Patrick Star from SpongeBob. Now this comes a little close to a novelty record, in my opinion. (The video I'd originally included for this one was later marked private, so I posted a different one, just days before posting day).

Some Extras Before We Reach the End

Only three days left till we reach the end of the month and the alphabet. 

There were a few other songs I had considered for two of my letters, but decided against including. If you want to know what they are, click here and here. Both were frequently played on Dr. Demento, a syndicated radio show that specialized in playing novelty songs. I don't recall any station near me carrying his show. Did any of you ever get his show?

Also, while searching I remembered this parody of "The 12 Days of Christmas" from Bob and Doug McKenzie on SCTV. (Another favorite on Dr. Demento). I wasn't sure about including this one either, and as you could see, I chose not to. It's also holiday-themed, another reason I chose not to include it, even though I did include the Halloween-themed "Monster Mash." Even so, I got to thinking of other Christmas novelty songs, including one nearly everyone has heard, as well this one from Cheech and Chong, and many "Twisted Christmas" songs from Seattle DJ and parody artist Bob Rivers, whom I just learned passed away on March 11. RIP. Click here to listen to some of his songs. I had some of Rivers's Christmas CDs (still do actually, I just don't know if my player still works). He also did non-holiday parodies, including a recent one called "Elon's Coming." Do a search if you want to hear this one :)

Last month, while I was searching for songs, a blog I read posted another Bob and Doug McKenzie song called "Take Off." I wasn't familiar with this one at first. I wasn't sure about including it as one of my songs, and eventually chose not to. 

Some letters, as I may have already said, provided more than one possible choice, too many to mention. This made it a little hard to choose just one.

Tomorrow we resume with X. Please join me then.

W: Western Union

 

Western Union

Some might argue whether this can be considered a novelty song. Someone on this site said, "...it's really just a step above a novelty song." This was the lone hit single by the Five Americans in 1967. The title refers to Western Union, the money-transferring service, and the song's lyrics are about sending out telegrams. For those not in the know, here is an explanation of telegrams (from this link):

If you were born after, say, 1980, you may not have any idea what a telegram is. If you’ve even heard of the company Western Union, it is most likely for its financial services division and not for the telegraphy business that it dominated for a century.

For the uninitiated, a telegram was the most efficient way, pre-texting and email, to get a message quickly to its intended recipient. At its peak, all the way back in 1929, it’s said that 200 million telegrams were sent. To put that in perspective, one estimate indicates that in America alone, six billion texts are sent every day. ...

The song's opening notes attempt to imitate the sounds of a telegram being sent, and the lyrics "Dit-Da-Dit-Da-Dit" (in the song's refrain) are also an attempt to imitate the sounds of the message being sent, using Morse Code (from this link). The man in the song is receiving a telegram from his girlfriend who's breaking up with him (lyrics).

V: Video Killed the Radio Star

 

Video Killed the Radio Star

As many will know, this was the first video shown on MTV when the station launched in the summer of 1981. The song was originally recorded in 1979, concurrently by Bruce Wooley and the Camera and the duo the Buggles.  Wooley's version contained different lyrics and did not have the" oh-a, oh-a" hook (link). It is the Buggles' version that is better known and that was played on MTV. It was included on their first album, The Age of Plastic. The song is about concerns and mixed attitudes toward 20th-century inventions and machines for media arts, how some musicians did not translate visually to video. Now MTV shows no videos! The irony! 

The Buggles consisted of singer and bassist Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes (who cowrote the song with Bruce Wooley). Horn and Downes joined the band Yes in 1980 after that group's original lead singer Jon Anderson and keyboardist Rick Wakeman departed. Downes and Horn would record one album with Yes before the band's temporary breakup in 1981. Downes joined the new supergroup Asia, with former Yes guitarist Steve Howe. When Yes regrouped two years later (with Anderson back as lead singer), Horn signed on as the band's producer, producing Yes's bestselling album 90125.

The song was recently parodied as "New AI's Filling Us With Alarm." Ain't that true!

U: Under the Sea

 

Under the Sea

One of the tricky letters. Not a lot could be found for this one. A list of novelty songs beginning with U gave many I'm not familiar with, some of which I felt were inappropriate to include, and one that goes against my political beliefs (though I don't want to get too much into that). 

Even though I have not seen the original Little Mermaid since it first came out in 1989 and have not bothered with the new one (and don't know if I ever will), I remembered this song. It is sung by Samuel Wright, who voiced Sebastian the crab in the original animated movie. (Daveed Diggs sings it in the remake). Sebastian sings the song to persuade the mermaid Ariel to stay sea-bound after she falls in love with Prince Eric, warning of her of human life and reminding her of the benefits of living under water. The song is done in both a calypso and a reggae style. 

I also wanted to include the video below of kids doing a dance to the song and this short (again, shorts don't seem to allow embedding).

T: Tiptoe Through the Tulips

 

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

This was a hard one to choose a song for. I originally had something else in mind but decided against that one, thinking it was a little inappropriate to include.

This song was first made famous in 1929 by jazz guitarist and singer Nick Lucas. Several others recorded the song that same year. But the best-known version is that by singer Herbert Khaury, better known as Tiny Tim. Tiny Tim first performed the song on the sketch-comedy show Laugh-In in 1968. The song reached #17 and became Tiny Tim's signature song. Both songs are included below.

S: Summertime, Summertime

 

Summertime, Summertime

The Jamies (named for two of its members, Tom Jamison and his sister Serena) had their one big hit with this record that first charted in 1958 and was re-released in 1962. It is known for its opening line, "It's Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime." The song celebrates the end of a high-school year with all the fun to come over summer vacation.

Other artists have covered the song including this one that I'd never heard of. The song also found use in commercials, such as this one for Ken L Ration dog food, and has appeared in movies. 

It is not to be confused with this same-titled dance song from early 1987 🙂

R: Rubber Duckie

 

Rubber Duckie

One nearly everyone is familiar with. It was first heard on Sesame Street in 1970. Written by Jeff Moss and sung by Jim Henson as Ernie, the song was later released as a 45 RPM record, peaking at #16 on Billboard. 

A disco version was also made:

Little Richard appeared on Sesame Street in 1994, doing a rocking version of the song:

A Special Sunday 16

Since I am trying to limit my non-A to Z posts to Sundays, I was unsure about the Thursday 13. I figured I'd be taking the month off. But I got this idea to do a special Sunday 16. This is a mix of random things from this month so far, some related to the A to Z.

1. While trying to decide on songs to pick for the A to Z, I came across some I thought of posting, but felt they were a bit inappropriate. If you want to know what they are, click here and here. 
2. Both songs above were favorites on the syndicated radio show, Dr. Demento.  Anyone remember that? I don't recall it being played on a radio station near me, though I was familiar with the name. Here is some info on Dr. Demento (real name Barret Eugene Hansen). As noted in my entry on "Eat It," Weird Al Yankovic was inspired by listening to Dr. Demento to perform novelty songs and got his start on the show.
3. Sunshine pop is a new musical term that I learned during my research for the A to Z. It is said to be the genre that the remake of "Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead" fall under. It's called a microgenre.
4. Fifth Estate is a socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers, journalists publishing in non-mainstream media outlets, and online social networks. The band The Fifth State said they got it from a magazine out at the time. 
5. A pipkin is an earthenware pot used for cooking over direct heat from coals or a wood fire. They are not held directly in the flame, as it would cause the ceramic to crack.
6. "List song" is another musical term I came upon in my search for songs. It is used to describe on of the songs I picked. This one comes up later, so I cannot say what it is yet :)
7. Some letters that have already come up and some not yet up were hard to find a song for, leading me to find new-to-me songs. It's always fun to find something new. 
8. Other letters offered more than one possible song choice, making it a little hard to choose just one.
9. Bob Dylan's song "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" is about getting stoned, as the lyrics clearly state. Those two numbers multiplied equal 420. One of the things many people have believed to be the origin of 4/20 as the "weed holiday." 
10. It's been just a little over a year since my colonoscopy, which I was told to repeat every five years. I recalled it last year on the blog during a Sunday break post.
11. Other A to Z participants have used music-related themes, including this one, who so far has used two of the same songs as I did! Another music-themed participant is this one.
12. Several bloggers are doing random blogging for the A to Z, without a theme. I may try it that way one year, if I continue to participate in years to come. 
13. Many of the earworms I've gotten these past weeks have been from songs other than those I shared thus far! That was a bit surprising.
14. This was a bonus post I did during last year's A to Z. The first image came up again today on my Facebook memories.
15. The weather in my area has been weird the last few weeks. No rain, but a few dark, gloomy days. I'm hoping that will end soon!
16. And some humor for Easter Sunday today:

Happy Easter to those who celebrate.

Summer Reading Challenge 2025 @ Beyond the Bookends

 One I look forward to each summer. It runs from May 1 to September 1 (Labor Day this year).

1. Book Set at the Beach
2. Fae Book
3. Young Adult Book (May): Beautiful Creatures--Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
4. Book in Translation
5. Book Set in Cornwall
6. Book Set in the 1960s
7. Celebrity Book Club Pick
8. Nonlinear Narrative Book (June)
9. Sci-Fi Book
10. Book About Mothers
11. Newbery Award Winner
12. Book with Summer in the Title
13. Disney Retelling: Cold Hearted--Serena Valentino
14. Popular Thriller Book
15. Ultimate Beach Reads 2025
16. Book Set on a Train
17. Book with Food in the Title (July)
18. Amnesia Book
19. 2025 New Release Book
20. Book by a Writer from Philly
21. Book Set at Camp
22. Epistolary Novel (August)
23. Book About Ballet
24. Forced-Proximity Romance Book
25. Free Space: The Last Letter--Rebecca Yarros

Q: Que Sera, Sera

 

Que Sera, Sera

Some might debate over whether this can be considered a novelty song. I think it comes close, and it's the best I could do for the ever-tricky letter Q. The most famous recording is that by Doris Day in 1956, and according to this site, Day perceived the song as a novelty one and said she preferred more serious songs. Day introduced the song in the Hitchcock film The Man Who Know Too Much.

The title is Spanish and French for "Whatever will be, will be." The song's lyrics were referenced in two later pop songs.  The 1977 Eddie Money hit "Baby Hold On" included the lyrics "Whatever will be, will be / the future is ours to see," which were very similar to the line "Whatever will be, will be / The future's not ours to see" from the original song. Money claimed the similarity was because his music is "a conglomeration of so many kinds of material." [link] The lyrics to "Lost in Emotion," the #1 hit by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam from 1987, reference the title line:

 

Oh, I'm lost in emotion
Telling you things you really shouldn't know
I'm, baby, I'm lost in emotion
Am I a fool? At least my friends think so
Qué será, qué será
Baby, whatever will be
Qué será, qué será
Between you and me (oh-ho-oh)

Shorts on Youtube don't seem to allow embedding, so here is a link to a parody with a cat. It's a fun one.

And here is the song sung for kids with an animated video:

P: Pink Shoe Laces

 

Pink Shoe Laces

One of the letters that had more than one possible choice. I was not completely familiar with this one, but upon listening, I found it to be a fun one.

Some info on the song's content  from the Wikipedia link above:

The song is about a fellow named Dooley, with whom the singer is in love, who has a rather unconventional lifestyle and a decidedly off-the-beaten-pathway fashion sense; his favorite articles of dress being "tan shoes with pink shoelaces, a polka-dot vest, and a big Panama with a purple hatband."

He takes the young lady "deep sea fishing in a submarine", to "drive-in movies in a limousine" and owns a "whirly-birdy and a 12 foot yacht."

When he feels that war is afoot, he enlists in the armed forces, but gets put into the brig for "raising such a storm" when they "tried to put him in a uniform", preferring to wear his unconventional signature garb.

One day, he feels poorly and decides to write out his will, stating: "Just before the angels come to carry me, I want it down in writin' (sic) how to bury me," requesting to be buried in his preferred attire. The voice heard speaking the line was Randy Van Horne, the founder of the Randy Van Horne Singers who sang the themes from The Flintstones, The Jetsons and many others.

It was also done by the Chordettes, best known for the songs "Mr. Sandman" and "Lollipop." 

O: Oh By Jingo!

 

Oh By Jingo!

This was a tricky letter.  When looking up novelty songs beginning with O, I found many I did not know. So I decided to look each of them up and pick one. Most of the ones I found sounded fun, but I ended up choosing this one. It's always fun to find new things. 

The song was one of Tin Pan Alley's biggest hits in the post-World War I era.  According to the link above, it was sung in several movies and in an episode of I Love Lucy. I don't know how I missed this song for so long!

Here are two recordings of the song, as well as a scene from one of the movies in which the song was included. So many people have recorded the song, according to my Youtube search.

N: The Name Game

 

The Name Game

Some people may be familiar with this song, but may not know its title. It's a rhyming song game that creates variations on people's names. Shirley Ellis, who co-wrote and sang the song, based the song on a game she'd played as a child. The rules for the song are as follows:

Using the name Katie as an example, the song follows this pattern:

Katie, Katie, bo-batie,

Bonana-fanna fo-fatie

Fee fi mo-matie

Katie!

A verse can be created for any name, with X as the name and Y as the name without the first consonant sound (if it begins with a consonant), as follows:

(X), (X), bo-b (Y)

Bonana-fanna fo-f (Y)

Fee fi mo-m (Y)

(X)!

If the name starts with a b, f, or m, that sound simply is not repeated. For example: Billy becomes "Billy Billy bo-illy"; Fred becomes "bonana fanna fo-red"; Martha becomes "fee fi mo-artha"^[3]

The song as originally performed gives no indication of what to do with names where the stress falls on a syllable after the first, like Anita or Antoinette, but during the live rendition of the song on The Merv Griffin Show, Ellis uses the same rules as explained above ("Tallulah, Tallulah, bo-ballulah").^[5] However, the cover version on the workout video Sweatin' to the Oldies 3 (vocals by Donna Miller) suggests that the first syllable should be dropped after the name is first said; the name Madonna is sung as "Madonna-donna-bo-bonna," etc.

The song's first verse gives Ellis's first name as an example. The other names used in the original version of the song are Lincoln, Arnold, Tony, Billy, Marsha, and Nick. 

The song was used in a series of commercials for Crest Kids Toothpaste in the 1980s.

M: Monster Mash

 

Monster Mash

This one goes without saying. It's a favorite on people's Halloween playlists every year (including mine). It reached #1 in 1962, just before Halloween. It was re-released in 2021, reaching #37. It thus has had a long-lasting impact.

Bobby Pickett was nicknamed Boris because of his ability to impersonate horror-film legend Boris Karloff. The song is about a mad scientist whose monster arises from its slabs one night and begins a new dance, supposedly inspired by the Mashed Potato dance of the early 1960s. The dance becomes "the hit of the land," and the scientist throws a party at which other monsters, such as the Wolfman, Igor, Dracula and his son. Pickett also impersonated Bela Lugosi as Dracula on the record, as well as impersonating Peter Lorre as the voice of Igor (even though Lorre never played that character). The lyrics ask "Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?" a reference to the popular dance The Twist. The "Transylvania Twist" is now the "Monster Mash." This also may be the only popular song to include the word "electrodes" in the lyrics.

Pickett was never able to repeat the success of "Monster Mash," but the song remains a perennial spooky time favorite.

L: Leader of the Laundromat

 

Leader of the Laundromat

Decades before Weird Al Yankovic and other parody artists of today, there was a group called The Detergents, who specialized in song parodies. The band included Ron Dante, who would later become lead vocalist for the Archies, singing lead on that band's signature hit "Sugar, Sugar." 

"Leader of the Laundromat" was released in 1964, as a parody of the Shangri-Las' then-recent hit, "Leader of the Pack". "Leader of the Laundromat" became a hit in its own right, reaching Billboard's Top Twenty. It wasn't without opposition, though, as the writers of "Leader of the Pack" filed a suit against the Detergents, which was settled out of court. The Detergents remained active until 1966. Two years later, Dante joined the Archies.

Below are both songs. The original is included for comparison. Both can be considered novelty songs.

Book Discussion: Subgenres I Did Not Know About

 

Just when I thought I'd seen everything as far as book subgenres go, I find two I'd never heard of until recently:

Solarpunk

Hopepunk

How many of you have heard those? I won't be surprised if not many of you have, since I just barely learned of them myself.  In looking at the lists from Goodreads, I was surprised to see how many books in each I'd read, not knowing the said subgenres actually existed. There are even more books in the hopepunk list that I have read that in the solarpunk one. To me, they just seemed like fantasy or in some instances climate fiction (cli-fi), a subgenre that was new-to-me several years ago. 

Every year, I get the reading category, "Genre you don't often read" (or some variation on that idea). I immediately think of self-help or westerns when I see this. Those have never been big reads for me. But do subgenres count, even if I have read the main genres? Solarpunk and hopepunk are just subgenres of fantasy. A western romance is just another romance. I won't even get started on romantasy!

I now wonder what other subgenres people will come up with. Are there any others you've found that seemed new and unusual to you?

K: Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)

 

Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)

While looking for novelty songs starting with K, I found many I'm not too fond of, and one that I felt was inappropriate to include. I nearly forgot this about this one. It was well before my time, but I am familiar with this song.

Sung by Connie Stevens and Edd Byrnes, that song refers to Byrnes's character from the TV series 77 Sunset Strip. It was included on Byrnes's album Kookie Star of 77 Sunset Strip.

In the song, she wants him to lend her his comb. When he finally asks why, she says so he can stop combing his hair and kiss her. The song consists of mostly spoken-word lyrics, except when Kookie sings the bridge section.

J: Joy to the World

 

Joy to the World

Some may argue about whether this could be considered a novelty song, but the members of Three Dog Night, who recorded this tune written by Hoyt Axton, have described the song as a "kids' song" and a "silly song." It contains some nonsensical words in the lyrics. The song is most recognized for its opening line, "Jeremiah was a bullfrog." When Axton (whose song "Never Been to Spain" was also a hit for Three Dog Night) presented the song to the group, two of Three Dog Night's lead singers, Cory Wells and Danny Hutton, initially turned it down. But the third singer, Chuck Negron, felt a "silly song" was needed to bring the group back together as a working unit (from the link above). The song became one of the group's best-known hits. 

The song's opening line is referenced in this Far Side cartoon (only those familiar with the song would get the cartoon):

Not to be confused with the traditional Christmas song of the same, though Mariah Carey used the Three Dog Night song's refrain in her 1994 rendition of the Christmas song.

The story behind the song is in this video:

Also see this video of puppets performing the song. Note lyric changes: "Joy to the fishes..." from the original becomes "Joy to the city..." in this cover. Also "...a good wine" is replaced with "...have a good time." Obviously that one needed to be changed for a kids' version :)

I: I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

 

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream

Some letters offered more than one possible song choice, and this was one of them. 

"I Scream..." was first published in 1927 with words and music by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert A. King. After success as a novelty song in the early 1930s, it became a jazz standard. The song's refrain remains a pop culture saying. Many people know the refrain without knowing the rest of the song lyrics. I only knew it by that one line, and had never heard the full song until now. The setting of the song was a fictional college in Alaska, and the refrain was the college cheer. The song has been popular among kids. And some may remember it being used as a commercial jingle.