Top 10 Novelty Songs

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Top 10 Novelty Songs

 

Guide Picks

From Bill Lamb,

Your Guide to Top 40 / Pop.

 

 

In the wake of Crazy Frog's assault on the pop charts, this is a tribute to the great novelty songs, those hits with a gimmick. From Yankovic to Zappa and chipmunks to CB's, these are the top 10 novelty songs of all time, arranged in alphabetical order by artist.

1) Buckner & Garcia - Pac-Man Fever (1982)

Jerry Buckner and Gary Garcia were radio ad jingle writers and voice artists. In the midst of the early 80's video game boom, they came up with this tribute to Pac-Man, the most popular video game of all. The song took off from airplay on radio morning shows. Soon major label CBS Records signed the duo and "Pac-Man Fever" was a top 10 pop hit in 1982. A full-length album sold well, but the followup single "Do the Donkey Kong" flopped and the duo soon faded again into obscurity.

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2) Rick Dees and His Cast Of Idiots - Disco Duck (1976)

Rick Dees has been one of the top dj's in the U.S. for three decades. His countdown show Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 is heard every week around the world. In the mid-70's, while working as a Memphis dj, Dees recorded "Disco Duck." It features Dees in a Donald Duck style voice detailing his disco adventures. The song hit #1 on the pop singles chart and was one of the biggest selling records of the 70's.

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3) Steve Martin - King Tut (1978)

In the late 70's acclaimed actor Steve Martin emerged as the most popular stand-up comic in the U.S. His frequent appearances on Saturday Night Live solidified his national acclaim. Steve Martin's career took another leap forward when he began releasing comedy albums. His first, 1977's Let's Get Small reached the top 10 on the albums chart. The second A Wild and Crazy Guy included the top 20 hit single "King Tut" which parodies the national obsession with Egyptian king Tutankhamen.

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4) C.W. McCall - Convoy (1975)

C.W. McCall is the alter-ego of advertising executive William Fries. He created the C.W. McCall character as a fictional character who drove a truck for an Omaha area bread company. The radio ad campaigns using the McCall character were so successful Fries won the advertising industry's Clio award. Soon Fries began recording music as C.W. McCall and the song "Convoy" rode the mid-70's CB radio craze to be a #1 pop hit in 1975.

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5) Adam Sandler - The Chanukah Song (1996)

Adam Sandler signed on as a regular cast member of Saturday Night Live in 1989 shortly after receiving a fine arts college degree from New York University. In the midst of his comedy success, he began releasing comedy albums. Some of his best-loved comedy standup pieces are song parodies. "The Chanukah Song," included on his second album What the Hell Happened To Me? has become a holiday classic.

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6) David Seville - The Chipmunk Song (1958)

David Seville was the pseudonym for pop songwriter and producer Ross Bagdasarian. The speeded-up voice that became the basis for the Chipmunks first made its appearance in the #1 pop hit "The Witch Doctor" released in 1958. Later in 1958 "The Chipmunk Song" introduced the characters of Alvin, Simon and Theodore and topped the pop singles chart for 4 weeks. Ross Bagdasarian passed away in 1972, but his heirs led the Chipmunks to renewed success in the early 80's with the album Chipmunk Punk.

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7) Allen Sherman - Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh (1963)

Allen Sherman already had an established career as a comedy writer and television show producer when he decided to record albums featuring his song parodies. The first 2 albums topped the pop albums chart. The 3rd, My Son, the Nut, was the most successful. It spent 8 weeks at the top of the chart and included Sherman's first hit single, the letters home from summer camp classic "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh," based on "Dance Of the Hours" from Amilcare Ponchielli's 1876 opera La Gioconda.

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8) Ray Stevens - The Streak (1974)

Ray Stevens is arguably the most successful performer of novelty and comedy songs ever. He is responsible for classics like "Ahab the Arab," "Gitarzan," and "Along Came Jones." In 1974, at the peak of streaking (running naked in public) as a national fad, Stevens put together "The Streak," a song featuring fake news reports of a streaker in various settings. It became one of his biggest hits and topped the pop singles chart.

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9) Weird Al Yankovic - Eat It (1984)

Weird Al Yankovic has been the foremost performer of song parodies for the past 25 years. A protege of legendary radio performer Dr. Demento, Yankovic first gained national attention in 1980 with his parody of the Knack's "My Sharona" titled "My Bologna." "Eat It," his parody of Michael Jackson's breakthrough hit "Beat It" features a guitar solo by rock musician Rick Derringer replacing Eddie Van Halen's original. The song nearly reached the pop top 10 and is Yankovic's biggest hit.

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10) Frank Zappa - Valley Girl (1982)

Despite a lengthy career as one of the most creative performers in the history of rock, Frank Zappa's only true hit single is this novelty classic. Featuring an improvised vocal peformance by Zappa's daughter Moon Unit, the song pokes fun at a particular type of speaking developed by teenage girls in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley. In response to the song, Valspeak swept the country with phrases ranging from "gag me with a spoon" to "fersure"