Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 02:47:02 PM

Login with username, password and session length

The wonders of Novelty Pop

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

Previous topic - Next topic

Coughlan

The chicken song By Spitting Image has got to be the best novelty song.

The Mumbler

This is what happens when you have to look after very young children from time to time...

Jemble Fred

Kids can't really appreciate Pingu, it's an adult thing. And it's genius.

The first single I ever owned was 'Orville's Song', but I wouldn't call that a novelty, he was just experimenting with his many considerable talents.

The Mumbler

Oh, Pingu is great, but other than in my capacity as very occasional childminder, I haven't really been keeping an eye on much children's TV since about 1990.  Pingu really crept up on me, in that I hadn't seen any of it until about 2000.

Panbaams

Quote from: "The Mumbler"Oh, Pingu is great, but other than in my capacity as very occasional childminder, I haven't really been keeping an eye on much children's TV since about 1990.  Pingu really crept up on me, in that I hadn't seen any of it until about 2000.

CBeebies runs a new Pingu series occasionally. I think the Bob The Builder people have got hold of it... still great fun though. Sails over my daughter's head.

Bob The Builder, now there's a master of the novelty record...

The Mumbler

I've seen a few of the new run, but the voices are markedly different, aren't they?  I heard somewhere that the voice artist from the original shows is either retired or has sadly passed on, but I can't remember the source.  Fortunately, the stories are as barking mad as ever.

Anyone ever see the episode where Pingu and his sister are out playing, and she goes missing?  The bit where he's trudging back home with Robbie the Seal is so forbidding and grim it's untrue.

Lee

My favourite's the one where he's desperate for a piss, but (inexplicably it would seem) he's not allowed to go. Fantastic stuff. If I could get away with it I'd probably nick one of my brother's Pingu videos.

I didn't know that Woody Woodpecker track was actually released. I'll have to look for that now.

mwude

All this talk of Pingu without a single mention of the Pingu Dance?  And yes, it is by David 'No Hassle' Hoff.  "C'mon kids!"  It's quite pleasant in it's own little way.

I always thought that the Bob the Builder theme tune was great.  The version they released had the ever-unecessary Euro-pop beat added to it which ruined it rather, but I still think the theme tune in it's original form was a lovely catchy little melody which I find very hard not to sing along with.

23 Daves

*bump*, because I have some files for you, as you've all been so sweet...

I give you 3 Tiny MP3s. Let us all have a swimming time as we listen to the truly brilliant global warming celebration "The Other Side":

http://s25.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0Y4ZKHTRPLE1Y392Z3KUJW1K28

the tuneful "Coming Home Party":

http://s35.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=25DPY94B6WP2T1UA2DZISX6YQF

and "Daddy Daddy What Is Heaven Like?" which would be saccharine if it weren't so damn disturbing:

http://s35.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3E421R7A1EE5T3W0VLIET29KCV

You can't get these on CD except on Japanese Import, and they do deserve to be heard.  Genius novelty pop with strangely lush production.

Catalogue Trousers

What, no The Laughng Gnome? F'shame!

Always loved that. And Lieutenant Pigeon's very odd Desperate Dan, presumably about the Dandy character and flop follow-up to Mouldy Old Dough.

Fish Heads! Never seen drinking cappucino in Italian restaurants with Oriental women. No. One of Barnes and Barnes was well-known ex-child star turned general cult actor Bill Mumy, by the by.

Does The Funky Gibbon count as a novelty single? If so, then that's another good one an' all!

the hum

Mr Bean & Smear Campaign's version of 'I Want to be elected', with Bruce Dickinson on vocals, is about the only novelty record I own.  Released to tie in with the 92 general election as I recall.

Actually, I think it more to be a searing political commentary of the time - "To prevent pollution in the North Sea, I'm going to stop everyone in Dover from going to the toilet".

Jemble Fred

Quote from: "the hum"Mr Bean & Smear Campaign's version of 'I Want to be elected', with Bruce Dickinson on vocals, is about the only novelty record I own.  Released to tie in with the 92 general election as I recall.
.

TJ! Over here, mate.

Catalogue Trousers

Has bloody awful "Children In Need"-type brass all over the place, especially at the ending, which alas spoils my enjoyment of the rest of the music and some genuinely nice lines from Atkinson ("I'm the nice one in the glasses").

What about Baz Luhrman's 'Everyone's Free to Wear Sunscreen'? Is that 'Novelty Pop'? As annoying as it was to hear it every two hours seeing at Radio 1 had the wisdom to A-list it, I do think at least some of the advice dispensed on it is worthy of heed.

Lee

Bump. Cos it's a great thread.

Should be getting a copy of Lieutenant Pigeon's 'Mouldy Old Music' soon if I'm lucky, as I've thoroughly enjoyed 'Mouldy Old Dough'. Is it really "novelty pop" though? I'd probably put it more in the one-hit wonders category to be honest. Now 'Chocolate Salty Balls', which I found at the end of one of my South Park videos earlier today, that's novelty pop. And it's fantastic too. Far superior to the follow up 'Simultaneous Love' in any case.

23 Daves

There's always been a bit of a debate about whether Lieutenant Pigeon's "Mouldy Old Dough" was novelty pop or just plain weird.  It does sound like a Joe Meek idea of a novelty single with all its echoes and sped-up noises, which makes sense as the band were Meek obsessives.

The B-side "The Villain" is even more bizarre - one and a half minutes of stomping noises, drowned out shouting and a one-note guitar riff.

Egyptian Feast

I'm a huge fan of Heathen Dan's 'I Like', which I found on Rhino's The World's Worst Records comp. It does not deserve to be there...

I can't find any information about the singer, but I get a weird feeling it may be Dan Castellaneta pre-The Simpsons. There's something very Simpsons-esque about the voice and his name is supposedly Dan. If anybody else knows this record and could furnish me with more info, I'd be very grateful.

And it goes a little something like this...

"I like smoking me some grass,
Getting cut with glass,
Snorting my cocaine.....and pain.

I like smacking little boys,
Breaking all their toys,
Needles in my arm......and harm.

And I like you too. etc."

When the fake strings kick in after about two minutes, my eyes begin watering. Extremely catchy, very silly, and kinda beautiful at the same time. An obscure classic.

Egyptian Feast

Also, I'm not sure if they count, but almost every LP spin-off of Sesame Street and The Muppets from the 1970s and early 1980s are wonderful. I particularly recommend the Sesame Street Numbers album with Cookie Monster's divine 'Ten Cookies'.

"Ten cookies, looking mighty fine
Cookie Monster eat one - NNNGHHUMM! NNNGHHUM! NNNGHHUM!
And now there's nine.
Nine cookies where there used to be ten,
Wish that me could have ten cookies again.

Nine cookies, sitting on my plate,
Cookie Monster eat one - NNNGHHUMM! NNNGHHUM! NNNGHHUM!
And now there's eight.
Eight cookies where there used to be ten,
Wish that me could have ten cookies again..etc. etc."

By the time he gets to one cookie, the tension is unbearable, and then he practically has a fucking breakdown. But he gets ten more in the post and the whole thing starts again. Yay!

Bert's ode to the number six is also particularly recommended.