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 (8 squares): Library Book, Physical Book, Not in a Series, Action/Adventure, 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
6. Invisible Emmie--Terri Liberson (2 squares): Character Name in Title, Character Feels Invisible
7. The Blackbird Girls--Anne Blankman (1 square): Family Secret
8. The Girl Who Knew Too Much--Amanda Quick (3 squares): In a Series, Rom-Com, FBI

25 squares completed on April 19

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.