40 Fun Facts About Novelty Songs

Which rock and roll pioneer's only US number one single was the 1972 novelty song My Ding-a-Ling?

Chuck Berry topped the Hot 100 for the only time with a live singalong version in 1972. Some radio stations refused to air it even when it reached number one.

Which pop superstar sang uncredited backing vocals on the 1990 Simpsons single Do the Bartman?

Michael Jackson sang on and produced the track for Bart's voice actor Nancy Cartwright. Matt Groening later said an Epic Records contract kept the star's name off it.

The animated Crazy Frog's 2005 ringtone hit Axel F remade the theme from which Eddie Murphy film?

Beverly Hills Cop introduced Harold Faltermeyer's synth theme in 1984. The Crazy Frog began as an animation made to go with a man's imitation of a two-stroke engine.

Boots Randolph's 1963 saxophone romp Yakety Sax became famous as the chase music on which British comedy series?

The Benny Hill Show made the tune shorthand for a silly chase, though the single only reached number 35 in the US. Randolph was inspired by the sax solo on Yakety Yak.

Bobby Pickett narrated the 1962 Halloween hit Monster Mash in an impression of which horror film actor?

Boris Karloff was the voice Pickett borrowed, after an impression in his band's stage act went down well. The BBC kept the record off air in 1962 as too morbid.

Which toy company sued over Aqua's 1997 hit Barbie Girl and lost in court?

Mattel accused Aqua's label of tarnishing its doll's image, but the courts ruled the song a protected parody. The appeal judge ended by advising both sides to chill.

Which 2012 viral hit became the first YouTube video to reach a billion views?

Gangnam Style passed a billion views in December 2012. Psy settled on its horse-trot dance only after trying out panda and kangaroo moves with his choreographer.

Which children's author and cartoonist wrote Johnny Cash's 1969 hit A Boy Named Sue?

Shel Silverstein wrote the comic tale, and Johnny Cash recorded it live at San Quentin prison. It became the country star's only top ten single on the Hot 100.

Ray Stevens topped the US and UK charts in 1974 with The Streak, a comic song about a craze for doing what?

Running naked through public places, known as streaking, was the fad of 1974. Ray Stevens said 15 other songs about it were already out when his was released.

Which 2000 hit by Bahamian band Baha Men won the Grammy for Best Dance Recording?

Who Let the Dogs Out began as a 1998 Trinidadian song called Doggie. The Baha Men cover took off after it appeared in Rugrats in Paris: The Movie.

Which instrument is the trademark of parody star "Weird Al" Yankovic?

Accordion lessons began the day before his seventh birthday, after a door-to-door salesman offered his parents a choice between that and the guitar.

Which cartoon chipmunk ignores David Seville until he yells the name in the 1958 Christmas hit The Chipmunk Song?

Alvin and his bandmates were all voiced by creator Ross Bagdasarian, who varied the tape speed to get the squeaky sound. The record won three awards at the first Grammys.

Which dance-craze hit by Spanish duo Los del Río spent 14 weeks at number one in the US in 1996?

Macarena was a 1993 Spanish album track until Miami producers the Bayside Boys added English lyrics. That remix stalled at number 45 before returning to top the Hot 100.

Allan Sherman's 1963 hit Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh is sung as a child's letter home from what kind of place?

Summer camp complaints in letters from Sherman's own son inspired the lyrics. He set them to Dance of the Hours, ballet music from a Ponchielli opera.

C. W. McCall's 1975 trucker anthem Convoy cashed in on a nationwide fad for which gadget?

CB radio slang runs through the whole record. C. W. McCall was a character invented for bread commercials by Bill Fries, an art director at an Omaha advertising agency.

Sheb Wooley's 1958 US number one was about which alien creature that comes to Earth to join a rock band?

The Purple People Eater grew out of a riddle told by a friend's child, and Wooley wrote it within an hour. MGM first turned it down as not their kind of music.

Which rapper objected to "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody Amish Paradise, then years later called his own refusal stupid?

Coolio had turned down the request to spoof Gangsta's Paradise, but his record label granted the rights anyway. Yankovic later sent him a letter of apology.

Buckner & Garcia's 1981 novelty single, a US top ten hit, celebrated a nationwide craze for which arcade game?

Pac-Man gave the jingle-writing duo a number nine hit in 1982. Their follow-up, a dance record about Donkey Kong, stalled just outside the Hot 100.

The Royal Guardsmen's 1966 hit pitted which Peanuts character against a German flying ace, the Red Baron?

Snoopy was written into an older, shelved song about the Red Baron after its producer saw the beagle's flying-ace daydreams in the comic strip. The single peaked at number two.

Which Sesame Street Muppet, performed by Jim Henson, reached the US top 20 in 1970 singing Rubber Duckie?

Ernie took the ode to a favourite toy to number 16 on the Hot 100. It then lost a Grammy to a Sesame Street album that contained the very same song.

Tom Lehrer, who set the chemical elements to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune, taught which subject at MIT and Harvard?

Mathematics was his day job at MIT, Harvard and UC Santa Cruz, where he taught a last class, on infinity, in 2001. He called his course for arts students Math for Tenors.

Sheb Wooley, a novelty singer and Western actor, is believed to have voiced which famous stock sound effect?

The Wilhelm scream, a stock cry reused by sound teams in hundreds of films, is thought to be his voice. On screen he played an outlaw in High Noon and a drover in Rawhide.

Novelty singer Tiny Tim married Miss Vicki in 1969 in front of a huge television audience on which programme?

The Tonight Show staged the wedding in December 1969. Tiny Tim had first reached a national audience in 1968 on Laugh-In, arriving with his ukulele in a shopping bag.

What did Napoleon XIV put on the B-side of the 1966 hit They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!?

The same song backwards filled the flip side, and most of its label was printed as a mirror image. Jerry Samuels made his voice climb in pitch by changing the tape speed.

Memphis DJ Rick Dees was forbidden by his station to play which 1976 US number one of his own?

Disco Duck got almost no airplay in Memphis, since rival stations would not promote a competitor's DJ either. Dees said it took a day to write and three months to get anyone to perform it.

Elmo Shropshire, who sang the 1979 hit Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, trained for which profession?

Veterinarian was his first career: he treated racehorses at New York tracks, then opened a pet hospital in San Francisco, the city where the record was first self-released.

Which Star Trek actor recorded the 1967 novelty single The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins, about Tolkien's hobbit?

Leonard Nimoy mimed to the single on a 1967 TV variety show, dancing on a beach with a group of young women in plastic pointed ears.

Ten-year-old Gayla Peevey's 1953 Christmas novelty hit led her home city's zoo to raise funds for which animal?

A hippopotamus was bought by an Oklahoma City fund set up after the song took off. Peevey was presented with the animal and, as planned all along, gave it to the zoo.

Musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, Grammy winners for Best Comedy Album, formed in which country?

New Zealand's capital Wellington is where university flatmates Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement formed the duo in 1998. An earlier five-man group of theirs included Taika Waititi.

Which 1963 Trashmen hit stitched together two songs by R&B group the Rivingtons and later obsessed Peter Griffin?

Surfin' Bird was thrown together for a gig after the Trashmen saw another band play a Rivingtons tune. A 2008 Family Guy episode made it Peter's favourite childhood song.

O-Zone, the group behind the 2004 Numa Numa hit Dragostea Din Tei, formed in which country?

Moldova's O-Zone sang the track in Romanian and still topped charts across Europe. An American vlogger's Numa Numa Dance video then made it a viral hit online.

The Muppets' nonsense tune Mah Nà Mah Nà first appeared in a 1968 Italian film named after which country?

Sweden: Heaven and Hell, an Italian mondo film, was where Piero Umiliani's tune first appeared. Jim Henson's puppets took it up in 1969, and it featured in the first Muppet Show.

Joe Dolce's 1981 novelty hit Shaddap You Face kept which Ultravox single off the UK number one spot?

Vienna was kept off the top for the whole of Dolce's three-week run. Shaddap You Face was a number one in 11 other countries too, with eight weeks on top in Australia.

Which bandleader and his City Slickers punctuated 1940s hits with gunshots, cowbells, whistles and hiccups?

Spike Jones toured the act as The Musical Depreciation Revue. One early City Slickers record was the theme of a Disney anti-Nazi cartoon, issued before the film came out.

Which radio persona did Barret Hansen create in 1970 to host a weekly show devoted to novelty records?

Dr. Demento got the name when a fellow DJ said Hansen had to be demented to play Transfusion by Nervous Norvus. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974.

Which character from the TV show Noel's House Party had the UK Christmas number one in 1993?

Mr Blobby was knocked off the top by Take That's Babe, then climbed back to claim the Christmas number one. A Telegraph critic later ranked it the worst festive chart-topper in history.

The Wurzels' 1976 UK number one The Combine Harvester parodied Brand New Key, a hit for which American singer?

Melanie sang about roller skating in 1971, and the parody swapped in farm machinery. Brendan Grace took the song to number one in Ireland a year before the Wurzels did in Britain.

Bill Mumy, half of the Fish Heads duo Barnes & Barnes, was a child star of which 1960s science fiction series?

Lost in Space was cancelled in 1968, and Mumy began home recordings with a school friend two years later. On record the pair posed as twin brothers from a fictional civilization, Lumania.

The Hampsterdance Song is built on a sped-up Roger Miller tune from which animated Disney film?

Robin Hood opens with the minstrel Alan-a-Dale singing Whistle-Stop. A Canadian art student looped the sped-up tune on a 1998 web page, and a full single followed.

Peter Schickele's comic composer P. D. Q. was billed as the only forgotten son of which great composer?

J. S. Bach is given a 21st child in Schickele's spoof biography, which credits the composer with only 20. Schickele performed the supposedly discovered works for five decades.