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 coming 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.

H: Hot Rod Lincoln

 

Hot Rod Lincoln

Originally recorded by Charlie Ryan in 1955, "Hot Rod Lincoln" was an "answer song" to an earlier record, "Hot Rod Race."   

The song's premise is described below (from link above):

It describes a drive north on US Route 99 (predecessor to Interstate 5) from San Pedro, Los Angeles, and over "Grapevine Hill" which soon becomes a hot rod race that ends with serious consequences.

The car race is described between two hot rod cars, the narrator's Ford Model A (with a Lincoln motor) and a Cadillac. The song says the Ford's "got 12 cylinders", overdrive, a four-barrel carburetor, 4.11:1 gear ratio, and safety tubes. The narrator ends up being arrested by the police for his high-speed driving, and is thrown into jail, where the narrator calls his father to bail him out, and describes the exasperation of his father: "He said, 'Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin' / If you don't quit (or "Stop") drivin' that hot rod Lincoln!'"

Country singer Johnny Bond also recorded the song in 1960, with a few lyrical changes  (See Wikipedia link for details). The most successful version of the song, however, is that by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in 1971. As with Steely Dan, Jethro Tull and Lynyrd Skynyrd, no one in the group was named Cody. Rather "Commander Cody" was an alias used by frontman George Frayne IV. Commander Cody's rendition of "Hot Rod Lincoln" reached #9 on Billboard. This version retained some of the lyrical changes from the Johnny Bond version, but also changed the lyrics to further maintain the original story.  Below is Commander Cody's version with the lyrics in the video description.

G: Gimme Dat Ding

 

Gimme Dat Ding

This was the lone chart hit by The Pipkins, a short-lived duo consisting of songwriter Roger Greenaway and singer Tony Burrows. Burrows had also performed in several other groups, often simultaneously. These groups included Edison Lighthouse ("Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes"), the Brotherhood of Man ("United We Stand") White Plains ("My Baby Loves Loving") and First Class ("Beach Baby"). 

The song was written by Albert Hammond (who would score a hit several years later with "It Never Rains in Southern California") and Mike Hazelwood. From this link:

“Gimme Dat Ding” was a novelty song written by Albert Hammond (the guy who had an earlier hit with “It Never Rains in Southern California“) and Mike Hazelwood. It was written for a British children’s television show called Little Big Time, which happened to be hosted by Freddie and the Dreamers, a group that was big during the early years of the British Invasion. The show was about a boy (played by Freddie) seeking the parts to fix a broken grandfather clock named Oliver. “Gimme Dat Ding” was sung by a talking metronome who’d been expelled from the machine kingdom called the Overworld by the Clockwork King. It seems that a once-evil machine called the Undercog had stolen the “ding” from the metronome, and the song was about the metronome trying to get his “ding” back—hence the lyrics and the title, “Gimme Dat Ding.”

Knowing that, the otherwise-nonsense lyrics now make sense:

A-ooh, what good’s a metronome without a bell for ringing?

How fast can anybody ever tell he swinging?

How can you tell the rhythm written on a bar?

How can you ever hope to know just where you are?

Ah, gimme dat, gimme dat, gimme, gimme, gimme dat

Gimme dat ding, gimme dat, gimme, gimme dat

The Pipkins were just two guys, Tony Burrows and his mate (and fellow Brotherhood of Manner) Roger Greenaway. That’s Mr. Burrows singing the Arte Johnson-like old man part* and Mr. Greenaway doing the slightly crazed higher part. Hey, it was a kids’ show.

              * See this link 

I thought he sounded like Wolfman Jack 🙂

And if you don't know what a metronome is, click here 🙂

F: Fast Food Song

 

Fast Food Song

This is a new one to me. Finding a novelty song for this letter was a little hard, so I looked at this list on Wikipedia and decided to look up this song. It's by a British group called Fast Food Rockers. It was primarily a hit in the UK, which explains why I never knew about it until now. I decided to give the song a listen and thought it was good.

The song was based on a children's playground song and its chorus is based on a Moroccan tune "A Ram Sam Sam."  KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut are all name-dropped in the song. The playground song mentions other fast-food chains not mentioned in the "Fast Food Song."

Sunday Break #1

I'm so glad we get Sundays off from the A to Z. It gives participants more time to blog hop and comment, and do stuff at home. Since all my posts have been scheduled, I have a little more time to hop around and comment, and check for comments on my posts. 

I wasn't so sure how often I would be on the blog outside of the A to Z, though I may try to throw in some posts like this on Sundays. I hope to get a Book Blog Discussion post on one of the free days, as I did a year ago. It was planned the day of. And I still don't know about Thursday 13 since I want to limit my non-A to Z posts to Sundays this month. I usually post the Bingo card when it comes out on the 3rd of each month. No medical procedures so far, at least not for the remainder of this month.

Tomorrow we resume with the letter F. See you then.

April Bookish Bingo

Here is the new card for April. 

My books:

1. Around the World in 80 Days--Jules Verne (10 squares): Library Book, Physical Book, Not in a Series, Character Feels Invisible, Action/Adventure, FBI, Bargain, Manipulation, Water on Cover, Free Space
2. Jazz--Walter Dean Myers (1 square): Audiobook
3. Earth's Wild Music--Kathleen Dean Moore (2 squares): E-Book, Wilderness
4. Prodigal Summer--Barbara Kingslover (6 squares): Free Book, Shelf Love, Author Read Before, Book Club Read, Egg, Siblings
5. Banned Book Club--Kim Hyun Sook (2 squares): Library, Academic Setting

E: Eat It

 

Eat It

"Weird Al" Yankovic is a comedic singer-songwriter known for parodying other people's songs and also for original songs that parody different styles, such as polka. He has played the accordion on many of his songs. His inspiration for playing such music came from listening to Dr. Demento, a syndicated radio show that specialized in playing novelty songs. His parody of Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust," called "Another One Rides the Bus," was recorded live on Dr. Demento in September 1980. Among other songs, he also parodied Toni Basil's "Mickey" as "Ricky" (an homage to I Love Lucy), a video favorite during the early years of MTV. 

Yankovic's biggest hit however, came in 1984 when he released "Eat It," a parody of Michael Jackson's number-one hit from the previous year, "Beat It."  The parody lyrics are about a parent trying to get their fussy child to eat anything, much less eat properly. The video for "Eat It" even parodies the original, including the red jacket. Unfortunately, the video doesn't allow playback on other sites, so here is the link.  There is also this "coverage take" video:

"Weird Al" also wrote and starred in the 1989 movie UHF and had The Weird Al Show on CBS in 1997, as well as producing two satirical movies on his life, The Compleat Al in 1985 and the recent biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, with Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe as Yankovic. 

D: Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead

 

Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead

This, of course, is from The Wizard of Oz. It is one of several individual songs in an extended set-piece performed by the Munchkins, Glinda and Dorothy,  highlighted by a chorus of some of the Munchkins. The song was also sung by studio singers, and also by the Winkie soldiers. This group of songs celebrates the death of the Wicked Witch of the East when Dorothy's house falls onto her. The song was composed by Harold Arlen, and the lyrics written by E. Y. Harburg, the same team behind  the movie's signature song, "Over the Rainbow."

The song reached #2 on the UK Singles chart in 2013, following the death of Margaret Thatcher. 

In 1967, the band Fifth Estate scored their biggest hit with a cover of the song that included an interlude from the "Terpsichore Suite" by Michael Praetorius. The song was released in five different languages and achieved the highest American chart position of any Harold Arlen or Wizard of Oz song. An article on the band can be found here. 

C: Convoy

 

Convoy

A song by C.W. McCall (real name William Dale Fries, Jr.) about the CB radio craze of the 1970s, "Convoy" reached #1 on Billboard in 1975. The song contained an imagined conversation between truckers via CB radio, with CB slang. Users had handles (call signs or nicknames), which they used to address other truckers while conversing. "Breaker" was how users informed each other of wanting to start a transmission on a  channel. Channel 19 was the mostly commonly used channel, hence the term "Breaker 1-9, this is ..."

The references made in the song (see link above for explanations) may seem foreign to people of today who have grown up on cell phones and text speak. I was only a little girl when the song came out and I have very few, if any, memories of anyone using CB radios. This meme has shown up on the web:

I guess, in a way, that was true. Check out this video to see a CB radio.

The song and the CB/trucking craze inspired a 1978 movie of the same name. Earlier movies, like Duel and Smokey and the Bandit were also inspired by the craze. Trucking and CB radios were then at their peak.

The song must have been a favorite of the producers of The Simpsons, as one episode had Homer singing the song and another had a parody called "Christmas Convoy."

B: Barbie Girl

 

Barbie Girl

This runs piggyback to my Barbie theme last year. Someone who was doing a "silly songs" theme then (similar to my theme this year) mentioned having posted this song. I was not aware of the song until then. It was released in 1997, many years before the movie, and recorded by the Danish-Norwegian dance-pop group Aqua. One of the group's members wrote the song after seeing an exhibit on kitsch culture in Denmark that featured Barbie dolls. I did not know a lot of the "new" songs that came out in the 1990s. Perhaps the success of the Barbie movie has made (or will make) this song more popular now.

From link above:

Mattel sued Aqua for basically slandering the name of Barbie Doll. There was a big brouhaha about it, taken to several courts, but the case was ultimately dismissed. Later Mattel did use the song in promotions, only with a few modified lyrics.

Above is the official video by Aqua. The singer Tori V also recorded the song, and her video is below:

I also found this video of a kids' dance set to "Barbie Girl": 

A: All Together Now

Let Blogging A to Z 2025 begin! My theme this year is Novelty Songs. For Day One, I present:

All Together Now

Written primarily by Paul McCartney (but credited to Lennon and McCartney), "All Together Now" was recorded during the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour period, but not released until it was included on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.  

From Wikipedia:

McCartney described the song as a children's sing-along with the title phrase inspired by the music hall tradition of asking the audience to join in. He also described a "subcurrent" in the song, a dual-meaning where "we are all together now". According to music critic Tom Maginnis of AllMusic, McCartney created the song "to match the same light-hearted spirit" of "Yellow Submarine."

"All Together Now" appears in an animated sequence in the film Yellow Submarine, and is also introduced by the Beatles themselves in a final live-action scene of the film. During the latter scene, translations of "All Together Now" into various languages appear written on-screen.

 While searching Youtube, I came across this children's version of the song: