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The wonders of Novelty Pop

Started by 23 Daves, June 28, 2005, 05:28:06 PM

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23 Daves

It's probably not a subject that most people will tolerate at the moment given that "Crazy Frog" has dominated the charts, but nonetheless I do have a peculiar fascination for the world of the novelty record.

Of course, the vast majority of these works are awful, but then there are moments that are downright sublime.  The KLF's alter-egos The Timelords' head-spinningly bizarre work "Doctorin' The Tardis" is naturally a favourite of mine – after all, it was the Doctor Who theme set to a Glitter Band stomp with a video (and sleeve) that promoted a talking police car called Ford Timelord.  There were no commercial tie-ins to this at all, no Ford Timelord toys, cartoons or TV series in the works, they did it purely for the absurd thrill of doing it.  To add brilliance to the whole venture, journalists were only granted interviews with the car (some bloke wired up to a radio mic provided the voice) and he was given an Essex accent.  This wasn't a doodle of a record or a straightforward gimmick, it seemed to have an enormous amount of planning behind it.  The book "The Manual – How To Have A Number One The Easy Way" reveals more, though some of it is almost certainly exaggerated for effect.

Another favourite of mine, and much more fondly regarded in America than in this country, is Tiny Tim.  Besides releasing the utterly daft falsetto ditty "Tiptoe Thru The Tulips", he also issued the wonderful album "God Bless Tiny Tim", a masterpiece which encompasses pop-psychedelia, self-duets (Tiny was a master of doing the voices of men and women, though for some reason the ladies always sounded rather like David Walliams out of Little Britain doing Emily the Rubbish Transvestite) and rather dark humour.  The highlights are unquestionably "The Other Side", a rather ahead-of-its-time psychedelic ditty musing upon the effects of global warming with the rousing falsetto chorus of "The icecaps are melting/ Oh ho ho ho!", and "Daddy Daddy What Is Heaven Like?".  Sadly, this album has only been issued on CD in Japan, a situation Warner Brothers really ought to rectify.

Then of course there are the outright flops that nobody bought – somewhere in my collection I've got dubious records by the Lampies ("Light Up With The Lampies For Christmas", I think), Grahame Lister with "Fish and Chips In Spain" (not that Graham Lister, though) which features the memorable if rather useless lyric "Si si seniorita Monty Pyfon is me bruvver in law", and a bit of Jimmy Cauty fluff called "I Wanna 1-2-1 With You" with a mobile phone ring as its main riff.  And Denim's "Novelty Rock" album took the concept to ludicrous extremes, though I do have a soft spot for "We Are The New Potatoes".  

Has anyone got any more they'd like to mention?  Or any they particularly despise?

Jemble Fred

Star Trekkin' is a pain in the arse. Even now.

But generally I love novelty singles. Even Pump Up The Bitter.

swarfmonkey


Lee

Quote from: "23 Daves""The Manual – How To Have A Number One The Easy Way"
I got that for my birthday, it's a bloody good read. Reading Bill's epilogue at the end (written in 1998) did manage to ruin the whole thing, by saying that writing the book was basically a really stupid idea, and how it wasn't right to try and transfer the creation of a number one single into simple stages. That said, I suspect most of it is probably quite accurate, even today, although the new download charts will probably put a stop to that.

Swarfmonkey's already mentioned Blobby, so, um... Chocolate Salty Balls.

lazyhour

Great idea for a thread!

Quote from: "23 Daves"And Denim's "Novelty Rock" album took the concept to ludicrous extremes, though I do have a soft spot for "We Are The New Potatoes".

How about this for a coincidence:  I bought the CD of this album today, for £2.00.  I already had the mp3s but jumped at the chance to upgrade.  Highlight for me is the track "Internet Curtains", which has the following excellent lyrics (this is from 1997):

Quote from: "Bitter, miserable sod Lawrence, formerly of Felt"We ain't been going very long
We've only written one good song
And here it is, we will play
The best song that we've got, it's called "Internet Curtains"
I know the intro's far too long, and the middle bit's all wrong
But even so it's still our song
So when the chorus comes please sing along

Internet Curtains!

And now we've got ourselves a hit
Because Chris Evans played it
Every day, on his show
I owe it all to as song called "Internet Curtains"

Goes rather well with Helen Love's sort-of novelty record "Long Live The UK Music Scene", don't you think?  "Novelty Rock" is not a great album by any stretch of the imagination, but Denim's earlier LP "Denim On Ice" is one of my favourite pop records.  I'll hopefully put a few Denim tracks up later.

Ciarán2

I'm right with Lawrence on this one, novelty rock is staggeringly radical - there's nothing like a crazy frog to put paid to the designs of a big record company's Coldplay-like assault on the charts. Novelty records are like cultural interruptions, sometimes harmless and jokey ("Doctorin' The Tardis"), sometimes wreaking havoc dow the years (The Frog's "Axel F", "The Birdie Song") and some are just plain lovely ("Son of My Father"). Rock theorists can't account for the populaity of things like "The Cheeky Song", these records seem to come out of nowhere. They are usually delightful. Novelty rock "does" politics better than McCarthy or Billy Bragg do, because these novelty things infest everything, Crazy Frog is particularly potent in this regard as it has the added bonus of ringtone infiltration.  Novelty recrds = situationism (maybe).

Regarding "Novelty Rock", I've alwayds thought it a very underrated album (although not a patch on "Back In Denim"). "I Will Cry At Christmas" is my favourite one on it, "On A Chicory Tip" would be a close second. And isn't "The New Potatoes" a Devo pastiche? I've always thought so. Where Lawrence really went apeshit, is on Go-Kart Mozart's "Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture" - that's a great title isn't it? I'm looking forward to the new album but I'll be hesitant to play it to any friends at first.

lazyhour

Quote from: "Ciarán"Regarding "Novelty Rock", I've alwayds thought it a very underrated album (although not a patch on "Back In Denim").
Have you heard "Denim On Ice"?  I reckon it beats both of 'em.  There's some great stuff on "lost" follow-up LP "Denim Take Over", too.

QuoteAnd isn't "The New Potatoes" a Devo pastiche? I've always thought so.
I can't personally hear much of a Devo thing going on there.  I thought it's more to do with the Smash instant mash robots - promotional in-character jingles and songs and stuff like that.  I'm not basing that on anything, though.

QuoteWhere Lawrence really went apeshit, is on Go-Kart Mozart's "Instant Wigwam and Igloo Mixture" - that's a great title isn't it?
Yeah, the single "We're Selfish And Lazy And Greedy" occasionally tops my Audioscrobbler most-played list!  Nothing else on the LP can compare to it, I don't think, which is a shame.

QuoteI'm looking forward to the new album but I'll be hesitant to play it to any friends at first.
What's this??

Ciarán2

I do own "Denim On Ice", it was the first Denim thing I got and there are some great tracks on it particularly; "The Great Pub Rock Revival", "Mrs Mils", "Synthesizers I The Rain" and "Job Centre". There are others I can take or leave though ("Jane Suck Died In 77", "Grandad's False Teeth", "Silly Rabbit").  I haven't heard "Denim Take Over" - you lucky sod - and to make things worse I passed up the opportunity to buy the "Sumer Smash" single on its fleeting apearace in the Virgin Megastore in August 97! Grr. Still, nothing can top "The Osmonds" for me. I find "Denim On Ice" strains to hard to amuse, whereas "Back In Denim" is just naturally plain jaw-dropping. And I won't be rolling joints for you no more. Brlliant!

The new album I refer to is "Go-Kart Mozart Tear Up The Charts", it was reviewed by Bob Stanley in Uncut last month, he gave it 4 stars (but then he is mates with Lawrence, it was Lawrence who introduced Sarah Cracknell to St Etienne - she was his ex).

Adrian Brezhnev

Meaningless Songs in High Voices by the HeeBeeGeeBees is still (almost) very funny, especially as the record was an EP with other great tracks like parody of The Police with Too Depressed to Commit Suicide.

The Mumbler

It's barely believable that Meaningless Songs flopped - it had a ton of airplay on Radio 1 (I remember both Tony Blackburn and Paul Burnett playing it to death), and there were a few TV appearances to boot.  

With a lot of novelty hits, you can trace the public demand back to one single DJ.  Noel Edmonds' Sunday morning show on R1 was singularly responsible for the chart success of Keith Michell's Captain Beaky and Suicide Is Painless from the M.A.S.H. film.  Simon Mayo's breakfast show encouraged re-releases and top ten hits for Andy Stewart's Donald Where's Your Troosers (1989) and Honor Blackman & Patrick Macnee's Kinky Boots (1990).  John Peel was the first to play Laurie Anderson's O Superman, but it was Peter Powell who turned it into a hit.

So with that in mind, how did Red Sovine's treacly country ballad Teddy Bear become a posthumous hit in 1981?  And why did Honey by Bobby Goldsboro get to number two a second time in 1975?  Did Tony Blackburn really play it all the time after Tessa Wyatt ran off with Richard O'Sullivan (as Smashie & Nicey's End of an Era suggested)?

Boss Mew

John Peel also played The Cuban Boys 'Hamster Dance' record as well.
Number one in one of his Festive Fifties as well

Personally I think my love of novelty pop stems from my 'Father Abraham and The Smurfs' album I had as a kid.
(I still like 'The Magic Smurf' even now)


And, oh the shame, I quite like Crazy Frog's 'Axel F'

The Mumbler

Anyone know who broke the UK release of Shaddap You Face by Joe Dolce Music Theatre (as he was officially known)?  It had already been number one in Australia for nine weeks, which is absurd, but I still can't hate that record.  Not least because whenever I think of it, I automatically think of Nick Hancock on Radio Room 101 retorting, "Yeah, Giuseppe gonna flunka-da school, 'cos Giuseppe's as thick as shit".

geeef

Quote from: "Ciarán"I find "Denim On Ice" strains to hard to amuse, whereas "Back In Denim" is just naturally plain jaw-dropping. And I won't be rolling joints for you no more. Brlliant!

The new album I refer to is "Go-Kart Mozart Tear Up The Charts", it was reviewed by Bob Stanley in Uncut last month, he gave it 4 stars (but then he is mates with Lawrence, it was Lawrence who introduced Sarah Cracknell to St Etienne - she was his ex).
I've read a couple of positive reviews of the new one. I've only got the "Selfish and Lazy and greedy" single by Go-Kart Mozart, but I think I'll try the new album.
I've got Denim on Ice and Back in Denim, both quite wonderful. I haven't heard any of their other stuff. Wasn't there going to be a single called "Summer smash", that was withdrawn for some reason? ISTR it might have been because of the Princess Di demise, but I can't see why.

dan dirty ape

The first thing that popped into my mind is that song that's just a clock ticking and a high pitched voice saying 'fish heads, fish heads, roly poly fish heads, fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum'. Google investigation reveals it's by Barnes and Barnes. What an odd record.

I heard 'O Superman' again worse for wear at the end of a party at the weekend. Still spooks the bejeezus out of me.

The Mumbler

Quote from: "Ciarán"The new album I refer to is "Go-Kart Mozart Tear Up The Charts", it was reviewed by Bob Stanley in Uncut last month, he gave it 4 stars (but then he is mates with Lawrence, it was Lawrence who introduced Sarah Cracknell to St Etienne - she was his ex).

Wow, never knew that.  Maurice Deebank played guitar on a couple of tracks too.  Paper (B-side of Avenue) is just sumptuous.

SurferGhost

My favourite HeeBeeGeeBees tune is the Status Quo one, Boring Song. Even better than Heads-down, No-nonsense, Mindless Boogie by Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias.
And speaking of them, I've posted this in SDJ but technically it belongs here, Dave Edmunds/Nick Lowe fans:
Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias - I Love The Sound Of Stolen Riffs

Hm, I'm balking a bit at the inclusion of O Superman, but I can see why it's here. If you think that's spooky though you should hear some of her other stuff...

TJ

Quote from: "The Mumbler"So with that in mind, how did Red Sovine's treacly country ballad Teddy Bear become a posthumous hit in 1981?

Everett's second Bottom Thirty in 1980 takes the credit for that one. Although personally, I'd rather have seen Tony Blackburn's 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow' emerge as the big revived hit.

The Mumbler

Fantastically, the TOTP Archive notes that, although it didn't get a slot on the show when it originally charted, O Superman was featured in the Christmas Day 1981 compilation - with the accompaniment of new dance troupe Zoo...  No, I don't think they did play the full eight-minute version.

Re: Sovine.  Thanks Teej, I had a feeling that was the reason.  Awful record.

lazyhour

Should we have a Denim thread?

Denim Take Over, the unreleased 1998 follow-up to Novelty Rock.  A full completed album which apparently the record company just didn't want to release.  This may or may not be the full story.  Sound quality is a little fuzzy but still great.  Hope Ciarán and any other Denim fans enjoy it.

# Mr. A&R man, he don't understand, it's like 'da da da we're a novelty band'

http://www.qfile.de/dl/55211/unreleased_denim_lp_denim_take_over.zip.html
(48MB zipped folder of mp3s.  Shared via Qfile)

Tracks:
1. Island In The Sun
2. Delta Echo
3. Lorra Laughs, Cilla
4. Denim Take Over
5. West Brom Blues
6. Olly Olly
7. Transgressions
8. City Centre
9. Synth Wizard
10. Robot Voice
11. City Of The Dead
12. Men Look At Women

Warning: This album contains late-90s English novelty music.

23 Daves

Rather surprised nobody's mentioned Lieutenant Pigeon yet, the great seventies home-recorded act who had their mother playing honky-tonk piano.  I only really paid any attention to them when I found three of their singles going incredibly cheaply in a second hand store – the B sides "Opus 3000" and "The Villain" are actually quite disturbing, almost up there with "O Superman" in the "wtf?" stakes.

Also, the Archies "Sugar Sugar" is bereft of mentions, though to be fair if this had been issued by The Turtles or someone rather more credible, it's doubtful we'd be discussing its novelty status.  There was a very polished pop song going on there which just happened to be fronted by a cartoon.  It's one of my wife's favourite singles of all time, which I find periodically trying, but I have to admit it will continue to be played on the radio long after "Crazy Frog" bites the dust.

TOTP2 on UKG 2 played an intensely aggravating ditty the other night called "Telephone Man" by Mare Wilson as well (and no, not Mari Wilson, another one apparently).  She sang about getting a telephone connected in a kind of Betty Boop voice, and there really seemed to be absolutely no point to the record at all.  It didn't even seem to have much of a chorus, it was just like a really bad advert for BT in seven inch form.  The on-screen text tellingly revealed that nobody knew what became of the singer after the single finished its chart run.  I suspect murder, personally.

What was interesting is I don't believe I'd heard the aforementioned track before, and this is often the case with novelty pop – it has a sell-by date, and if it ever gets played again on the radio a year after its finished its chart run, it's a very peculiar occurrence.  This means there are probably also large volumes of other small novelty hits I've never heard.

And I must upload that Tiny Tim stuff sometime – though I don't know when, because I'm going to have to rip it from vinyl which will be a pain in the arse.  I might do a Soulseek search first, just to see if anyone else has bothered.

Adrian Brezhnev

Telephones and telephone calls are, curiously, often the subject of novelty records, especially in the early 1980s.

I'm in love with Michael Jackson's Answerphone by Julie was a funny one, particularly the answerphone message that appeared on it.

Peking O

I'm not sure if this counts, but "Poing" by Rotterdam Termination Source is a favourite novelty record of mine. If you listen for it too long it's almost impossible not to want it to stop, and although technically it is dance music, I can't imagine it filled too many dance floors.

The Mumbler

Quote from: "23 Daves"TOTP2 on UKG 2 played an intensely aggravating ditty the other night called "Telephone Man" by Mare Wilson as well (and no, not Mari Wilson, another one apparently)..

Actually, Meri Wilson is dead.  Killed in a car crash in December 2002.  There are obits around the net. So there you go.  And fans of Victor Lewis Smith's R1 show will know that one show opened with a parody of Telephone Man, about mobile phones.

TJ

Quote from: "The Mumbler"And fans of Victor Lewis Smith's R1 show will know that one show opened with a parody of Telephone Man, about mobile phones.

"...it worked once for twenty minutes, and when he got the bill, it was higher than the National Debt of Brazil..."

dan dirty ape

Quote from: "Peking O"I'm not sure if this counts, but "Poing" by Rotterdam Termination Source is a favourite novelty record of mine. If you listen for it too long it's almost impossible not to want it to stop, and although technically it is dance music, I can't imagine it filled too many dance floors.

God. The memory of 'Poing' has just come rushing back from the corner of the brain where it hitherto dwelled. The best bit was when the 'poings' briefly speeded up. 'Poing...poing...poing...poing..poingpoingpoingpoingpoingpoingpoingpoing..poing..poing..poing..poing.' A mate at school had reams of similarly punishing European quasi-dance records on tape he'd bring in. One of them went 'jerk...jerk..jerk the penis' in a McBain accent over and over again, in what I'd like to believe was some kind of Teutonic disco instructional manual for first time masturbators.

Panbaams

Has anyone heard of "1986" by Philip Jeck? It's a very 80s dance record with a Woody Woodpecker laugh sample on it. It was on Pingu a few months back. Did it chart? I was sure I'd heard it years ago...

Phil_A

I swear I once heard "Mouldy Old Dough" playing over the PA in Woolworths

Some excellent novelty tunes:

White Noise - "Here Come The Fleas"
Trio - "Da Da Da"
Jon Pertwee - "Who Is The Doctor"
The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown - "Fire"
Nina - "99 Red Balloons"
The Beatles - "You Know My Name(Look Up The Number)"

I think one of the good things about TOTP2 was getting to hear all those mostly forgotten novelty songs as well as the "serious" artists . Although I think I could live without hearing "The Streak" by Ray Stevens again.

Jemble Fred

I have to admit that I simply adored 'Doop' when it was first released – I would have been a 15-year-old cider junkie at the time, and it made a great change at the Young Farmer discos to do a bit of the charleston rather than all that 'big fish, little fish, cardboard box' shit. Tough on the calves though.

The Mumbler

Quote from: "Panbaams"Has anyone heard of "1986" by Philip Jeck? It's a very 80s dance record with a Woody Woodpecker laugh sample on it. It was on Pingu a few months back. Did it chart? I was sure I'd heard it years ago...

Ah, now, this has come up before in a sense.  I've seen/heard the version you mention (on the TV versions of Pingu)*, but on the commercially-released video of Pingu (don't ask), it's replaced by The Video Kids' "Woodpeckers From Space".  Pingu Clearance Edit News there.

*It's in the episode where Pingu's young sister is about to be born, and he has to sit on the egg while his mother goes off somewhere.  Whereupon he puts his record player on, and 1986/Woodpeckers From Space (depending on which version you hear) comes on, whereupon Pingu and the egg do some mad dancing.

Darrell

I am once again inordinately delighted at your encyclopaedic knowledge of Pingu.