February 28, 2025 • 35 mins
Will and Mango get serious about novelty songs, learning: why there was a Golden Age of this unique music; how the Monster Mash got invented; who was really doing the kung-fu when "everyone" was kung fu fighting; and why a song about Itsy-Bitsy, Teeny-Weeny, Yellow Polka Dot Bikinis isn't what you think it is. Plus: Will and Mango reveal two shocking truths about The Purple People Eater.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Do you know that one of the most popular songs
of the nineteen twenties was inspired by an outbreak of
banana blight? Wait what the song is called? Yes, we
have no bananas. Actually I do know this song, if
I'm not mistaken. You've mentioned this on the show before, right, yeah,
a super long time ago, in our episode about copyrights. Okay,
(00:34):
because the sheet music has finally entered the public domain.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Okay, you know I was hoping you met you were
going to record your own version of it and turn
it into a hit single.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But what happened with that song?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, the good news is that the original recordings of
the song from nineteen twenty three are also in the
public domain right now, which means that this time I
actually get to play you a clip of it. So
take a listen.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
We have no bananas.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
We have no bananas. To day.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We bring means and honions and unions and all kinds
of rum and.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Say, you know, it sounds like most of the lyrics
are just a guy listing produce items.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Am I not mistaken on this.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, so the song's origin is pretty fun. Bananas were
a hot commodity in New York at the turn of
the twentieth century, and the most popular variety at the
time was the Gross Michelle or the big mic But
in the early nineteen twenties, a fungal disease had begun
to spread through the crops, resulting in all these shortages.
So the story goes this lyricist to his name was
(01:39):
Frank Silver. He was trying to buy banana in New
York in nineteen twenty two and he stopped at a
fruit stand. It was owned by a Greek immigrant, and
he's looking around, looking around, can't find the fruit, so
he asked the man if he has any bananas, and
of course the owner didn't have any, you know, thanks
to this blight, But he didn't want to say no
(01:59):
to a customer, so he answers in the affirmative. He goes, yes,
we have no bananas, and then he proceeds to rattle
off a long list of all the fruits and vegetables
he does have. I like it, And Frank Silver was
so abused by this encounter that he wrote lyrics about it,
and then had his friend Irving Cohne, set all of
this to music, and in nineteen twenty three it spent
(02:20):
five straight weeks, five weeks at the top spot of
hit Parade.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
That is pretty ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I love that the number one song in the country
is a novelty song about a grocer having no bananas.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, it's totally bananas. But the nineteen twenties and thirties
were actually chock full of these novelty songs. They were lighthearted,
silly songs that cover offbeat subjects, and back then recording
music was still kind of this new phenomena, so in
a way, every song was kind of a novelty Artists
were just having fun and trying out different sounds and
(02:54):
styles to see what people responded to. But novelty songs
never really went away. They continue to crop up over
the years and became more prominent than ever in the
nineteen fifties and sixties, a time that many music historians
now called the Golden Age of novelty music. So with
all of that in mind, I thought it'd be fun
to explore the history of one of the world's most
(03:15):
enduring but least respected music genres.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I love that that's right. That's exactly what we're gonna do.
We're gonna chart the rise and fall of the novelty
song's popularity. We'll dig into the backstories of some of
the weirdest hits, and we'll try to get a sense
for why people were more open to silly songs back
then than they seem to be today. It's a lot
to cover, so let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners,
(03:56):
welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh how Ticketter
on the other side of that soundproof glass.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
This is an interesting day today.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
He's modeling a pair of and I'm not kidding, the
shortest shorts I think I have ever seen. Also just
showing some incredible ankles. I did not know that Dylan
had these ankles. That is our friend, the producer of
Dylan Fagan. Now, at first I thought he was just
flouting the office dress code for the fun of it,
But now I'm thinking it must be a tribute to
that old short short song by the Royal Teens.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, who wears short shorts? I guess Dylan.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
He wears short shorts.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
He certainly does today, and you know, I guess back
in the late nineteen fifties, so did a lot of people.
The song was inspired by youth fashion trends of the era,
and in particular by the increasingly common side of girls
wearing scandalously short shorts, so Royal teens wrote a song
about it.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Incredibly, pianist Bob Gaudio was only fifteen years old when
he wrote this hit, but it tapped into the zeitgey
so effectively it ended up spending two weeks at number
three on the bill Bord Hot one hundred.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I mean, I think the reason I know the song
is because it was in a commercial for Nair. Was
going to say hair removal product, but I thought it
was just written as a jingle.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
It was reused in those nineteen eighty seven commercials back
when we were kids watching commercials.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
All the time.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
That kind of longevity is impressive for a novelty song,
because so many of them are designed really just to
be disposable.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I have no idea what you mean, which doctor? My
boomerang won't come back? A have the Arab You know
all those songs, they're timeless.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
I think you might have had a cheat sheet of
these days, those songs were canceled.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Mego, yeah, I always got timeless and canceled.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I mean, all three of those songs are offensive by
today's standards, but that's the thing. None of them were
meant to stay relevant forever. Those songs were written during
the post war period when exoticism was really trendy in
America and the public was fascinated by the idea of
distant places and sort of like foreign customs. So musicians
capitalized on that feeling by writing novelty songs meant to
(06:03):
meet the moment. But they didn't expect these songs to
have much of a life beyond that moment. But of course,
there are exceptions to this, like splitch splash, I was
taken a bath. Wasn't inspired by an uptick in people
taking baths, I don't think at least.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
But most novelty songs were.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Inspired by some new trend or current event, like the
boundary pushing shorts that were on everybody's mind when Short
Shorts was.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Written, right, or the banana blate song that led to
Yes we have no bananas. I mean, it kind of
makes sense, and it also helps us nail down kind
of the wonky definition of what exactly a novelty song is.
And of course we're getting pretty technical here, and music
historians disagree about this a little bit, but it's not
really accurate to equate just funny songs with novelty songs,
(06:49):
Like there are a lot of comedy songs that aren't
categorized as novelties, like if you consider like The Flight
of the Conquers or Bo Burnham, like they tell jokes
through mut but that's a little different from a novelty song,
which is mostly just funny because of its subject matter. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, it's a good point actually, also thinking about what
we do with Weird Al's songs, because they're parodies and funny,
but you know, there's also a sense of timeliness there.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah. I mean, people actually have disagreements about these classifications,
but just going by the definition, something novel is something
new or original, and parodies of existing works don't really
hit that mark. But you could maybe make a case
for parodies being a subgenre of novelty songs, I guess though.
Of course, you know, weird Al does have original songs
as well, so for him it's a little tricky. But uh,
(07:38):
I am glad you brought up the idea of newness
because the novelty in novelty songs isn't just a reference
to their humor. The term also has the connotation of
being new and different, whether it's comical or not. And
I think the comedy connection comes from the fact that
many of their early novelty songs got their start in
British music halls and also at American vaudeville sh where
(08:00):
they were strictly played for laughs. In fact, one of
the very first hit novelty songs was George W. Johnson's
The Laughing Song or Laughing Policeman Songs. Hook was unusual
and slightly unsettling. It's a chorus which consists entirely of
the performer's own laughter. And just to give you a
sense of how weird it is, here's a clip from
(08:21):
a nineteen twenty two recording by Charles Penrose.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, I think it's fair to say that is unsettled.
It is funny, but it's definitely unsettled.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, what's interesting is that while novelty songs tend to
be written off as you know, less artistic or meaningful
and quote normal songs, it's their experimental qualities that often
point the way towards new musical styles, you know, many
of which are later put to use in more serious works.
What do you mean by that, Well, it's actually something
you see a lot with the novelty music of the
(09:03):
late nineteen fifties and early sixties. That period was this
weird transitional period in popular music when early rock acts
like Elvis had become passe, but the British Invasion was
still years away from breathing new life into the genre.
So in the meantime, all these creators started experimenting with
new production techniques, hoping to find the next hit sound,
(09:25):
and the result was a slew of really oddball novelty
songs that incorporated unusual instruments and sound effects for the
very first time. In fact, the earliest examples of vocal
manipulation were in songs like the Chipmunk Song, where voices
sing at half speed were played back at normal speed
to make them sound high pitched and squeaky, and a
(09:47):
few years later things like sampling and voice modulation became
standard industry techniques, especially when you get into like psychedelic rock.
You know, it's weird and kind of wild to think
that these novelty song ungs actually pave the way for that.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So if you're a big Sergeant Pepper's fan, you kind
of have the Chipmunks to thank for it. But you know,
there's actually another unexpected benefit that we owe to novelty songs,
which is that listening to them can help improve our
brain function.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Are you sure about that, because when I hear something
like shaving Cream, I usually feel a little dumber or
not smarter.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yeah, but even a silly song like that can be
good for you. And that's because sense of novelty has
been proven to activate the dopamine system.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
In our brains.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So when we see or hear something new or unusual,
our dopamine level spikes and we feel this rush of
happy emotions. And so what's really amazing is that the
positive reinforcement trains our brains to seek out novelty as
much as possible, And that kind of explains why novelty
songs became so popular in the first place.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
You know, our brains are hardwired.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
To light up when we hear them, but I'm guessing
that only happens the first time we hear them, right, Like,
the novelty probably wears.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Off that is true, but novelty songs have another trick
up there. So recent studies have shown that novelty also
stimulates the parts of the brain related to memory and learning.
So if a song lights up your pleasure center the
first time you hear it, you'll remember it more easily
for a long time after. I mean, think about all
the jingles and things like that we know from our
younger years. They stick around forever. And because nostalgia also
(11:20):
triggers the release of those same feel good chemicals like dopamine,
revisiting a novelty song a few years after you hear
it it has the potential to lift your mood all
over again.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I guess I would explain why some of these songs
really have such amazing staying power, right even though they
were kind of flashing the pen hits when they were
first released, They just stick around.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, it's true, all right.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Well, now that we've worked out what a novelty song
is and what makes them popular, I'm glad we worked
our way that.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
We nailed it.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
I think we should take a closer look at a
few of the ones that have left the strongest impressions
on us.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
But before we do that. Let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
And you're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking
about the strangest one hit wonders from the golden age
of novelty music. Okay, Well, so we've established that novelty
songs are part of a long tradition that dates back
to the very beginnings of recorded music. But the genre
(12:28):
truly hits its stride in the post Elvis pre Beatles
days of the late fifties and early sixties. So why
don't you take it from here?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
All right, happy to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So the late fifties and early sixties period is when
dozens of novelty songs start popping on the Billboard Hot
one hundred, with a few of them managing to climb
all the way to the very top spot.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, it feels like people were really chasing that dopamine
from one novelty track to the next, just waiting for
the Beatles to show up.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
No, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
And you know, while there are way too many hits
from that era to cover them all, there is one
that we abbs absolutely have to talk about, and that's
Monster Mash.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Think about it.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Every Halloween, Monster Mash comes back around that was by
Bobby Boris Pickett and the crypt Kickers. Could you have
named that either? It took the research from this episode. Now,
if you've somehow never heard that song before, it tells
the story of a group of monsters who attend to
party at Frankenstein's castle. Now it sung from the perspective
of the doctor himself, who happens to sound a lot
(13:27):
like Boris Karlov, and it recounts how his famous monster
came to life one night and immediately sparked a dance craze.
The monster Mash.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I love how you're describing in detail like the most
popular kids Halloween party song of all time.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Now, we've got listeners from all over the world, Mango,
so we don't get judging here. In fact, it's so
much better just hear these songs. So for the uninitiated,
here is a taste of Monster Mash.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I was looking at the love late modlight. Would my
eyes be heldy height? How my mom stood from his
flab began to rise, and suddenly, to my surprise, he
did the mons Tom.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I mean, we have obviously heard the song over and
over since we were kids, but like I actually remember
being eight at my neighbor Kristin Long's house and wondering
why do people play the song?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
They don't just play it Magno.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
It became the hottest track in the country, and the
reason is it's because one of those stars aligned type moments.
Like a lot of things had to go right to
make this happen. The first factor in the song's success
was that there was a monster movie revival going on
America in the early nineteen sixties. Universal Studios had recently
dusted off its classic Monster catalog. This was back from
(14:46):
the thirties and forties, and what they did was they
repackaged them for TV syndication. So that introduced a whole
new generation of characters like Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, the Mummy,
the Wolfman, which in turn kicked off this monster craze
that would last the rest of the decade. So a
dozen companies cranked out Monster branded merchandise, and it was
(15:07):
really only a matter of time before the music industry
got in on the act as well. But the other
trend that played directly into the song's success was the
series of twist inspired dance crazes that hooked the country
in the early nineteen sixties. This was in the spring
of nineteen sixty two. The hot new novelty dance was
called the Mashed Potato and the song that went along
(15:29):
with it was Mashed Potato Time by D. D.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Sharp.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
So weirdly, the mash in Monster Mash was taken from
Sharp song.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
That is so weird. I didn't know the mash actually
meant something.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, and it's more than that.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Monster Mash's chords, it's melody, lyrical structure are all kind
of pulled from that song. So the story goes. In
nineteen sixty two. Bobby Pickett was an aspiring actor who
made his living singing as the front man in a
local du wop band called the Cordials.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
He was also a lifelong monster movie fan, and one
night during a gig, he did an impression of Frankenstein's
star Boris Karloff during one of their songs, and the
gag went over so well with the crowd that Pickett's bandmate,
Leonard Kapeasi he suggested that they write a song about
monsters to showcase his impression. So Pickett agreed, and later
(16:17):
that summer that duo sat down and they wrote Monster
Mash using the current trendy song mashed Potato Time as
their template. It's so cool, mash potato does right, mashed
Potato Time. And so the resulting song was something of
a monster in itself. It was a do wop parody
about dancing ghouls, sung by a Boris Karloff impersonator and
(16:38):
loaded with haunted house sound effects. Now it doesn't sound
like the recipe for a hit song, I'll give you that,
but in the fall of nineteen sixty two, that's exactly
what it wound up being. But the crazy part is
that the songwriters somehow knew that it could be a hit.
You know, Like we talked about earlier. Pickett and Kapezi
were tapping into the cultural zeitgeist with their novelty song,
(16:58):
so they realized that classic monsters and dance fads were
both having a moment. So by Frank and signing them together,
they wrote a song that really captured the weird, campy
spirit of that era. I like that, but there's no
way to have realized just how big a hit it
would be. So the song hit number one on the
Billboard Singles Chart on October twentieth, nineteen sixty two. This
(17:19):
was in the lead up to Halloween, and it stayed
there for two full weeks, all the way into mid November.
Of course, just like Mashed Potato before it, the Monster
Mash eventually fell out of fashion, but unlike most other
novelty songs, it returned to the charts more than a
decade after its debut.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
This was in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
The song clawed its way back into the Billboard top ten,
and not even at Halloween time either.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
It actually recharted in early August.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
It's crazy, and while a one time revival would have
been impressive enough, Monster Mash has managed to live on
for much much longer, rising from the grave every single October.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, I mean it's basically a Halloween anthem at this point, right, definitely.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
But but you know, while we're speaking about monster themed
novelty songs.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
There's another one that I want to cover.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
It's a bounty little number called The Purple People Leader.
This is so much fun, the nostalgia piece of all
of this. Now, many listeners are probably familiar with it already,
but just in case you've never had the pleasure, here's
a clip.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well, I saw the.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Thing coming out of the sky at a one long horn,
one big guy, right, come, mister shaken in the sit
it looks like a purple people eater. To me, it
was a one eyed, one horn fy and purple people leader. What.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I honestly can't be leave like songs like this hit
the music charts. It's just so insane to me. It
actually wasn't just on the charts.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
It dominated Billboard for six straight weeks back in nineteen
fifty eight. And the song was written and performed by
Chev Woolley, and its kooky premise was inspired by goofy
riddle that Wooey heard from his friend and fellow songwriter
Don Robertson. Now, apparently Robertson's son had overheard this joke
at an elementary school.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I feel like our listeners don't know how much you
love bad monster jokes, like it's actually a thing, but
you should lay this on me.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I literally have books of monster jokes. They're just so
dumb and so wonderful. So here's one.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
What has one eye one horn flies and eats people?
And of course the answer was a one eyed, one
horn flying purple people eater.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
So dumb, but the monster wasn't originally purple right.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Now, this is going to blow your mind, mango. But
the monster was never purple.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
And Willie added the word purple to the chorus to
better fit the rhythm, and because the literation is, of
course fun, but he never meant to suggest that the
creature itself was purple. The alien eats purple people. The
song doesn't actually say what color the creature is.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
That is so insane. Are you sure about this?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
So Gabe fact check this, and he pointed out that
this is explicitly spelled out. And the song's third verse
and it says, and I quote, get ready for this.
I said, mister purple people leader, what's your line? And
he said eating purple people? And it sure is fine.
But that's not the reason I came to Land. I
want to get a job in a rock and roll band.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (20:09):
That is poetry, yes, but you know I never paid
that close attention to this song. I also, somehow, I
guess I missed the part about him whine or like
join a rock band.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Like.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I didn't even hear that part.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I mean, what did you think his horn was for?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I mean, goring people? I guess I assumed it was
part of his body, not like a musical instrument.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Well, this is another Gabe Jim because I didn't realize
this before either, but apparently the horn is both.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
At the end of the song, after the alien has
achieved his dreams of rock and roll stardom, the narrator
tells us he was blowing it out a really knock
him dead, playing rock and roll music through the horn
in his head.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That is incredible. I feel like I've got to listen
to that song in full now.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah, they definitely do well.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
There's another novelty song I want to cover that isn't
quite what it appears to be on the surface. But
before we get into it, another quick break.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Okay, mango, So before the break, you tease this with
another novelty song that challenges the listener's assumptions.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I mean, it's the one and only itsy bitsy teeny
weeny yellow polka dot bikini.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I actually was wondering when this would come up because
it seems like a pretty straightforward track. I'm curious what's
so shocking about it.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Well, before we get to that, let me give you
some quick background.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So, the song was performed and popularized by the teenage
heart throb Brian Hyland, and it became one of the
two summer anthems of nineteen sixty, along with Chubby Checkers
The Twist. It actually sold over a million copies and
spent fifteen weeks on the Billboard Hot one hundred chart,
including one week in the top spot. The song also
(21:59):
reached number one in France and Germany and has since
been covered by a whole bunch of artists from like
Connie Francis to Devo, to Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
And while I'm obviously tempted to play the Muppets version
of this, for the sake of clarity, I want to
play a little clip of Brian Highland's original. She was
afraid to come out and locker she was his nerve
(22:23):
said she he could be.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
She was afraid to come out, locker, she was afraid.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
That's somebody. So two three, four tell the people what
she wore.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
It was its.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Ya she wo. So the story, if you can tell,
is girl goes to the beach, changes into her new
swimsuit and then has second thoughts about wearing something so
revealing in public.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I mean, I guess you could make the case that
it's commentary about the sexual attitudes of mid sense America.
But that honestly feels like a little bit of a stretch.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, I mean it almost feels like some kind of
sexist morning for women not to wear bikinis or they
might get self conscious and have a bad day at
the beach. But according to the songwriter, the song actually
has a much simpler and more innocent origin story. So
although Brian Hyland performed the song, the lyrics and music
were actually the work of Paul Vance and Lee Pocras,
(23:26):
the same songwriting duo behind Perry Como's signature song Catch
a Falling Star and Believe it or Not. The idea
for the song was born out of a real life
incident involving Vance's two year old daughter, Paula.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Oh really.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
According to Vance, the song was inspired by a family
trip to the beach in nineteen fifty nine and little Paula,
this two year old had been reluctant to wear her
new two piece bathing suit because of her two male
cousins who were like kind of teasing her about it.
And from there the day unfolded exactly like in the song.
So the girl is first hiding in the locker room,
then bumbling up in a blanket and ultimately wading into
(24:01):
the water, and the song's catchy chorus came to Vance
on the drive home, and it was based directly on
what his daughter had been wearing, which was a yellow
polka dot bikini. And the reason it was itsy bitsy
teeny weenye is because she was only two years old.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
It certainly cast the song on a new light when
I think about it this way, But I feel like
something like this has to be a tough sell to
the record company, right.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, So apparently, after hearing the demo, the producer David
Capp thought it was too raunchy to be a hit single,
So in what must have been like a very awkward conversation,
Vance had to explain the true story behind the song,
and like, how was actually about a little girl's shyness,
not sexuality. It's just so weird.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, but remind me again. For some reason, I'm having
a hard time remembering what happens at the end of
the song.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Well, the girl musters the courage to go swimming after all,
but then she leaves self conscious again and decides to
stay in the water until everyone leaves, and she stays
so long in fact, that, as the song puts it,
the poor little girl's turning blue.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And so is this part based based on like real
life stuff or what?
Speaker 4 (25:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Apparently the little girl did not turn blue that day,
but the song's unresolved ending did post some troubling questions
like did the girl in the bikini turn blue from hypothermia?
Does she ever make it back to shore? And then
the song never really says, which is a pretty ominous
ending for a novelty song, you know. And the truth is,
we are not the first people to think that it
(25:24):
was ominous, and in fact, less than a month after
the song hit number one, this singer named jerry Lynn
Fraser was so bothered by the ambiguous ending that she
wrote a follow up song to fill in some of
the blanks. And you can take a listen here for.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Six eight tell us please don't make us wait?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, just because you what is it?
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Because? Sorry?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
And so cute.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
So the bikini girl is named Begonia and she turned
blue because she caught pneumonia.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I guess. And this cute ending that Fraser references is
that Bigonia is eventually rescued by a lifeguard and winds
up getting engaged to him. Apparently she had no reason
to be modest.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
After all, you weren't kidding about this song being surprising.
I mean, this.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Story has like a dozen twists in all of them.
To be honest, they're vaguely disturbing.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
That said, it is amazing that someone took the time
to write a fan fiction sequel to itsy bitsy teeny
weeny yellow Polka Dot Bikini, And it really tells you
a lot about the state of mainstream music back in
the nineteen sixties. But of course, novelty songs did continue
to top the charts in the nineteen seventies. You think
about songs like Kung Fu Fighting Steve Martin's King Taught,
of course, but by the.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Eighties it was harder for silly songs to catch fire
like they used to.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, we don't want to make it sound like we
don't have like any novelty songs anymore, right, like who
Let the Dogs out Right? Gungnam Style? I've heard of
out like the modern equivalents what does the Fox Say.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
From Norway Classic?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah, me think there will always be a market for
novelty songs in some form, but I doubt will ever
go back to having a steady stream of them topping
the charts, and honestly, considering how weird things got with
that bikini song, I'm not sure that's such a terrible thing.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, you're probably right, But because I'm not ready to
let the genre go just yet, what do you say
we run down a few more tracks in today's fact off.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
All right, so we mentioned that novelty songs had kind
of fallen off by the nineteen eighties, but one very notable,
very silly exception is a song called General Hospitall. It
was released in nineteen eighty one by a group called
The Afternoon Delights, and as you may have guessed from
the title, it's inspired by the long running TV soap
opera General Hospital, which is obviously a big, big deal
(27:51):
at the time. In fact, the lyrics to the song
is kind of a pop rap mashup. We're mostly just
plot summaries from the show's current season. So, for example,
the first verse says it started out in Port Charlestown,
where Frank Smith's mob used to hang around. No one
could prove that he was a crook till Luke stole
his little black book.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I am so confused by the popularity of this, and
you kind of forget like General Hospital was a really
big part of pop culture in nineteen eighty one. Right yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Mean so the show had been on the air for
eighteen years by that point, but its ratings were at
an all time high, and this was thanks to the
popularity of the show's signature super couple that would be,
of course, Luke and Laura. A lot of our younger
listeners are like, no idea what you're talking about, but
their wedding was, of course a major TV event, but
still like.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
A radio friendly rap song that recaps episodes of General Hospital,
Like who's that even for?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I don't know why this isn't a big deal to you, Maga,
it turns out everybody.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
So the song peaked at number thirty three on the
Billboard Hot one hundred chart, and the single actually sold
nearly a million copies.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
That is insane. So we mentioned Kung Fu Fighting a
few minutes ago, which, of course is that incredibly catchy
but also a problematic disco song about Chinese martial arts.
It was written and recorded by a Jamaican born British singer.
His name was Carl Douglas, and this was back in
nineteen seventy four, it spent two weeks at number one
on the US Singles Chart. The track also went on
(29:17):
to sell more than eleven million copies worldwide, making it
one of the best selling singles in music history. And
all that success was despite the fact that Douglas knew
pretty much nothing about martial arts or Chinese culture, you know,
which is abundantly clear if you actually listened to the song. Yeah,
but the singer did know that martial arts films were
(29:38):
incredibly popular at the time, kind of like the monster
movies we referenced before. And after walking past a group
of kids shadow boxing in London, he thought to himself, Wow,
it looks like everyone is kung fu fighting, and that
phrase stuck in his head and before he knew it,
he'd written an entire song about an imaginary gang fight
in Chinatown. Now. Amazingly, the song appeal didn't stop at
(30:01):
the UK and the US in nineteen seventy five. It
went on to top the charts in ten more countries Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland,
the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and West Germany. But
one place where the song was not well received China, China.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I'm I don't think that was tough to guess that one,
all right.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Well.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Another seventies song that we only mentioned in Passing is
Ray stephens lowbrow chart topper, The Streak, And like Kung
Fu Fighting, it was also inspired by a popular trend
at the time, and this was running naked through public gatherings.
Such a weird fad there, the streaking epidemic spread all
over the country in the early nineteen seventies with cheeky
exhibitionists this robing in all manner of public places. You
(30:43):
have them on college campuses, at movie theaters, and of course,
most famously, at big sporting events. Now, Ray Stevens wasn't
the first to capitalize on the fad by writing a
song about it. In fact, there had already been about
a dozen different records about streaking by the time this
was released. Stephen's take Out paced all the others, rose
to number one on the Singles chart and sold five
(31:05):
million copies. Now, the success wasn't due so much to
the songwriting. I mean, if you look at some of
the lyrics, they included lines like He's just as proud
as he can be of his anatomy. He's gonna give
us a peek. It was actually really more because the
song's release happened to coincide with one of the most
high profile streaks in history. This was just five days
after the track debuted on Nashville radio stations. Advertising executive
(31:28):
Robert Opele ran naked across the stage during the live
telecast of the.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Nineteen seventy four Academy Awards.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
The Oscar streak has become an infamous moment in pop
culture history and helped propel Steven's corny little song into
one of the biggest hits of the year.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
That is amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
All right, Well, here's a weird one that's much more
sweet and innocent. It is a novelty song about a
dairy cow named Elm farm Allie, who, back in nineteen
thirty became the first of her species to be flown
and milked in an airplane.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Wait, she was milked while airborne.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Milked mid air. And because I know you're wondering, yes,
there was a reason for doing this. In fact, there
were two reasons. First, the flight was a publicity stunt
meant to get rural Americans interested in the fledgling aviation industry,
and I guess the idea was to show them that
airplanes could be used to transport livestock between towns, though
obviously the concept never really caught on. But the second
(32:26):
motivation for putting a cow on an airplane was slightly weirder. Apparently,
scientists wanted to observe the cow's behavior as a way
to determine the effects of flights on animals, and in particular,
they were curious of flying would impact a cow's ability
to produce milk and did it. Nope, altitude had zero
effect on all these milk production, and over the course
(32:48):
of a short flight from Bismarck to Saint Louis, the
cow produced a wopping twenty four quarts of milk. And then,
because none of this was silly enough already, all of
that milk was carefully bottled and packed into paper cartons,
which were then dropped from a plane with little parachutes
attached as it flew over as Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Is incredible And there's a song about this.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I mean it's pretty niche compared to most of
the ones we've talked about today. It was composed and
recorded back in nineteen ninety by a guy named Barry Levinson,
who later became the founder and curator of the National
Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I mean, this just keeps getting better.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
He actually wrote an operetta celebrating the cow's life and achievements.
It's an epic eight and a half minute medley called
Madam Butterfat Bovine Cantata in B flat major. It's worth
seeking out for yourself. But my favorite part is the
closing section, which is set to the tune of Beethoven's
Ode to Joy. It goes sing, we praises of that
(33:47):
moo cow airborne once and evermore, kindness, courage, butter, cream, cheese,
These fine things we can't ignore.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
We've shared some really special Lyricsreica.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
You know, it's so weird.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I honestly don't think I could top that story if
I wanted to, And actually I don't want to, you know,
out of respect for Alie.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, well, I will happily take the trophy this week.
This one's for Barry, who is clearly living his best
life over there at the Muster Museum.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Absolutely Barry is the real winner here.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
But that's going to do it for today's Part Time
Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan Mango and me.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Thank you so much for listening now.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
If you enjoy the show, come find us on Instagram
and be sure to tune in next week for a
very special PTG event from Monday to Friday. All week long,
we're going to be counting down our favorite scientific breakthroughs
of the past twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Honestly, it's going to be so much fun. We're running quizzes,
we're giving out so many prizes, and we've even commissioned
our own original novelty song about particles and physics. You
are not going to want to miss it, so please
tune in and thank you, as always for listening. Part
(35:05):
Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This
show is hosted by Will.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Pearson and Me, Mongish.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Chatikler, and research by our goodpal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan,
with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced
for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry, with social
media support from Sasha Gay Trustee Dara Potts and Viny Shorey.
(35:32):
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio. Guess what Will?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Do you know that one of the most popular songs
of the nineteen twenties was inspired by an outbreak of
banana blight? Wait what the song is called? Yes, we
have no bananas. Actually I do know this song, if
I'm not mistaken. You've mentioned this on the show before, right, yeah,
a super long time ago, in our episode about copyrights. Okay,
(00:34):
because the sheet music has finally entered the public domain.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Okay, you know I was hoping you met you were
going to record your own version of it and turn
it into a hit single.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But what happened with that song?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Well, the good news is that the original recordings of
the song from nineteen twenty three are also in the
public domain right now, which means that this time I
actually get to play you a clip of it. So
take a listen.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
We have no bananas.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
We have no bananas. To day.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
We bring means and honions and unions and all kinds
of rum and.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Say, you know, it sounds like most of the lyrics
are just a guy listing produce items.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Am I not mistaken on this.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, so the song's origin is pretty fun. Bananas were
a hot commodity in New York at the turn of
the twentieth century, and the most popular variety at the
time was the Gross Michelle or the big mic But
in the early nineteen twenties, a fungal disease had begun
to spread through the crops, resulting in all these shortages.
So the story goes this lyricist to his name was
(01:39):
Frank Silver. He was trying to buy banana in New
York in nineteen twenty two and he stopped at a
fruit stand. It was owned by a Greek immigrant, and
he's looking around, looking around, can't find the fruit, so
he asked the man if he has any bananas, and
of course the owner didn't have any, you know, thanks
to this blight, But he didn't want to say no
(01:59):
to a customer, so he answers in the affirmative. He goes, yes,
we have no bananas, and then he proceeds to rattle
off a long list of all the fruits and vegetables
he does have. I like it, And Frank Silver was
so abused by this encounter that he wrote lyrics about it,
and then had his friend Irving Cohne, set all of
this to music, and in nineteen twenty three it spent
(02:20):
five straight weeks, five weeks at the top spot of
hit Parade.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
That is pretty ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I love that the number one song in the country
is a novelty song about a grocer having no bananas.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, it's totally bananas. But the nineteen twenties and thirties
were actually chock full of these novelty songs. They were lighthearted,
silly songs that cover offbeat subjects, and back then recording
music was still kind of this new phenomena, so in
a way, every song was kind of a novelty Artists
were just having fun and trying out different sounds and
(02:54):
styles to see what people responded to. But novelty songs
never really went away. They continue to crop up over
the years and became more prominent than ever in the
nineteen fifties and sixties, a time that many music historians
now called the Golden Age of novelty music. So with
all of that in mind, I thought it'd be fun
to explore the history of one of the world's most
(03:15):
enduring but least respected music genres.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
I love that that's right. That's exactly what we're gonna do.
We're gonna chart the rise and fall of the novelty
song's popularity. We'll dig into the backstories of some of
the weirdest hits, and we'll try to get a sense
for why people were more open to silly songs back
then than they seem to be today. It's a lot
to cover, so let's dive in. Hey, their podcast listeners,
(03:56):
welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as
always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh how Ticketter
on the other side of that soundproof glass.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
This is an interesting day today.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
He's modeling a pair of and I'm not kidding, the
shortest shorts I think I have ever seen. Also just
showing some incredible ankles. I did not know that Dylan
had these ankles. That is our friend, the producer of
Dylan Fagan. Now, at first I thought he was just
flouting the office dress code for the fun of it,
But now I'm thinking it must be a tribute to
that old short short song by the Royal Teens.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, who wears short shorts? I guess Dylan.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
He wears short shorts.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
He certainly does today, and you know, I guess back
in the late nineteen fifties, so did a lot of people.
The song was inspired by youth fashion trends of the era,
and in particular by the increasingly common side of girls
wearing scandalously short shorts, so Royal teens wrote a song
about it.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Incredibly, pianist Bob Gaudio was only fifteen years old when
he wrote this hit, but it tapped into the zeitgey
so effectively it ended up spending two weeks at number
three on the bill Bord Hot one hundred.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I mean, I think the reason I know the song
is because it was in a commercial for Nair. Was
going to say hair removal product, but I thought it
was just written as a jingle.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
It was reused in those nineteen eighty seven commercials back
when we were kids watching commercials.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
All the time.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
That kind of longevity is impressive for a novelty song,
because so many of them are designed really just to
be disposable.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
I have no idea what you mean, which doctor? My
boomerang won't come back? A have the Arab You know
all those songs, they're timeless.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
I think you might have had a cheat sheet of
these days, those songs were canceled.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Mego, yeah, I always got timeless and canceled.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I mean, all three of those songs are offensive by
today's standards, but that's the thing. None of them were
meant to stay relevant forever. Those songs were written during
the post war period when exoticism was really trendy in
America and the public was fascinated by the idea of
distant places and sort of like foreign customs. So musicians
capitalized on that feeling by writing novelty songs meant to
(06:03):
meet the moment. But they didn't expect these songs to
have much of a life beyond that moment. But of course,
there are exceptions to this, like splitch splash, I was
taken a bath. Wasn't inspired by an uptick in people
taking baths, I don't think at least.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
But most novelty songs were.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Inspired by some new trend or current event, like the
boundary pushing shorts that were on everybody's mind when Short
Shorts was.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Written, right, or the banana blate song that led to
Yes we have no bananas. I mean, it kind of
makes sense, and it also helps us nail down kind
of the wonky definition of what exactly a novelty song is.
And of course we're getting pretty technical here, and music
historians disagree about this a little bit, but it's not
really accurate to equate just funny songs with novelty songs,
(06:49):
Like there are a lot of comedy songs that aren't
categorized as novelties, like if you consider like The Flight
of the Conquers or Bo Burnham, like they tell jokes
through mut but that's a little different from a novelty song,
which is mostly just funny because of its subject matter. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, it's a good point actually, also thinking about what
we do with Weird Al's songs, because they're parodies and funny,
but you know, there's also a sense of timeliness there.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah. I mean, people actually have disagreements about these classifications,
but just going by the definition, something novel is something
new or original, and parodies of existing works don't really
hit that mark. But you could maybe make a case
for parodies being a subgenre of novelty songs, I guess though.
Of course, you know, weird Al does have original songs
as well, so for him it's a little tricky. But uh,
(07:38):
I am glad you brought up the idea of newness
because the novelty in novelty songs isn't just a reference
to their humor. The term also has the connotation of
being new and different, whether it's comical or not. And
I think the comedy connection comes from the fact that
many of their early novelty songs got their start in
British music halls and also at American vaudeville sh where
(08:00):
they were strictly played for laughs. In fact, one of
the very first hit novelty songs was George W. Johnson's
The Laughing Song or Laughing Policeman Songs. Hook was unusual
and slightly unsettling. It's a chorus which consists entirely of
the performer's own laughter. And just to give you a
sense of how weird it is, here's a clip from
(08:21):
a nineteen twenty two recording by Charles Penrose.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Yeah, I think it's fair to say that is unsettled.
It is funny, but it's definitely unsettled.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, what's interesting is that while novelty songs tend to
be written off as you know, less artistic or meaningful
and quote normal songs, it's their experimental qualities that often
point the way towards new musical styles, you know, many
of which are later put to use in more serious works.
What do you mean by that, Well, it's actually something
you see a lot with the novelty music of the
(09:03):
late nineteen fifties and early sixties. That period was this
weird transitional period in popular music when early rock acts
like Elvis had become passe, but the British Invasion was
still years away from breathing new life into the genre.
So in the meantime, all these creators started experimenting with
new production techniques, hoping to find the next hit sound,
(09:25):
and the result was a slew of really oddball novelty
songs that incorporated unusual instruments and sound effects for the
very first time. In fact, the earliest examples of vocal
manipulation were in songs like the Chipmunk Song, where voices
sing at half speed were played back at normal speed
to make them sound high pitched and squeaky, and a
(09:47):
few years later things like sampling and voice modulation became
standard industry techniques, especially when you get into like psychedelic rock.
You know, it's weird and kind of wild to think
that these novelty song ungs actually pave the way for that.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
So if you're a big Sergeant Pepper's fan, you kind
of have the Chipmunks to thank for it. But you know,
there's actually another unexpected benefit that we owe to novelty songs,
which is that listening to them can help improve our
brain function.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Are you sure about that, because when I hear something
like shaving Cream, I usually feel a little dumber or
not smarter.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Yeah, but even a silly song like that can be
good for you. And that's because sense of novelty has
been proven to activate the dopamine system.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
In our brains.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
So when we see or hear something new or unusual,
our dopamine level spikes and we feel this rush of
happy emotions. And so what's really amazing is that the
positive reinforcement trains our brains to seek out novelty as
much as possible, And that kind of explains why novelty
songs became so popular in the first place.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
You know, our brains are hardwired.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
To light up when we hear them, but I'm guessing
that only happens the first time we hear them, right, Like,
the novelty probably wears.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Off that is true, but novelty songs have another trick
up there. So recent studies have shown that novelty also
stimulates the parts of the brain related to memory and learning.
So if a song lights up your pleasure center the
first time you hear it, you'll remember it more easily
for a long time after. I mean, think about all
the jingles and things like that we know from our
younger years. They stick around forever. And because nostalgia also
(11:20):
triggers the release of those same feel good chemicals like dopamine,
revisiting a novelty song a few years after you hear
it it has the potential to lift your mood all
over again.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I guess I would explain why some of these songs
really have such amazing staying power, right even though they
were kind of flashing the pen hits when they were
first released, They just stick around.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, it's true, all right.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Well, now that we've worked out what a novelty song
is and what makes them popular, I'm glad we worked
our way that.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
We nailed it.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
I think we should take a closer look at a
few of the ones that have left the strongest impressions
on us.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
But before we do that. Let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
And you're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking
about the strangest one hit wonders from the golden age
of novelty music. Okay, Well, so we've established that novelty
songs are part of a long tradition that dates back
to the very beginnings of recorded music. But the genre
(12:28):
truly hits its stride in the post Elvis pre Beatles
days of the late fifties and early sixties. So why
don't you take it from here?
Speaker 2 (12:36):
All right, happy to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
So the late fifties and early sixties period is when
dozens of novelty songs start popping on the Billboard Hot
one hundred, with a few of them managing to climb
all the way to the very top spot.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Yeah, it feels like people were really chasing that dopamine
from one novelty track to the next, just waiting for
the Beatles to show up.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
No, that's exactly right.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
And you know, while there are way too many hits
from that era to cover them all, there is one
that we abbs absolutely have to talk about, and that's
Monster Mash.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
Think about it.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Every Halloween, Monster Mash comes back around that was by
Bobby Boris Pickett and the crypt Kickers. Could you have
named that either? It took the research from this episode. Now,
if you've somehow never heard that song before, it tells
the story of a group of monsters who attend to
party at Frankenstein's castle. Now it sung from the perspective
of the doctor himself, who happens to sound a lot
(13:27):
like Boris Karlov, and it recounts how his famous monster
came to life one night and immediately sparked a dance craze.
The monster Mash.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I love how you're describing in detail like the most
popular kids Halloween party song of all time.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Now, we've got listeners from all over the world, Mango,
so we don't get judging here. In fact, it's so
much better just hear these songs. So for the uninitiated,
here is a taste of Monster Mash.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I was looking at the love late modlight. Would my
eyes be heldy height? How my mom stood from his
flab began to rise, and suddenly, to my surprise, he
did the mons Tom.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
I mean, we have obviously heard the song over and
over since we were kids, but like I actually remember
being eight at my neighbor Kristin Long's house and wondering
why do people play the song?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
They don't just play it Magno.
Speaker 3 (14:25):
It became the hottest track in the country, and the
reason is it's because one of those stars aligned type moments.
Like a lot of things had to go right to
make this happen. The first factor in the song's success
was that there was a monster movie revival going on
America in the early nineteen sixties. Universal Studios had recently
dusted off its classic Monster catalog. This was back from
(14:46):
the thirties and forties, and what they did was they
repackaged them for TV syndication. So that introduced a whole
new generation of characters like Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula, the Mummy,
the Wolfman, which in turn kicked off this monster craze
that would last the rest of the decade. So a
dozen companies cranked out Monster branded merchandise, and it was
(15:07):
really only a matter of time before the music industry
got in on the act as well. But the other
trend that played directly into the song's success was the
series of twist inspired dance crazes that hooked the country
in the early nineteen sixties. This was in the spring
of nineteen sixty two. The hot new novelty dance was
called the Mashed Potato and the song that went along
(15:29):
with it was Mashed Potato Time by D. D.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Sharp.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
So weirdly, the mash in Monster Mash was taken from
Sharp song.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
That is so weird. I didn't know the mash actually
meant something.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Yeah, and it's more than that.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Monster Mash's chords, it's melody, lyrical structure are all kind
of pulled from that song. So the story goes. In
nineteen sixty two. Bobby Pickett was an aspiring actor who
made his living singing as the front man in a
local du wop band called the Cordials.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Now.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
He was also a lifelong monster movie fan, and one
night during a gig, he did an impression of Frankenstein's
star Boris Karloff during one of their songs, and the
gag went over so well with the crowd that Pickett's bandmate,
Leonard Kapeasi he suggested that they write a song about
monsters to showcase his impression. So Pickett agreed, and later
(16:17):
that summer that duo sat down and they wrote Monster
Mash using the current trendy song mashed Potato Time as
their template. It's so cool, mash potato does right, mashed
Potato Time. And so the resulting song was something of
a monster in itself. It was a do wop parody
about dancing ghouls, sung by a Boris Karloff impersonator and
(16:38):
loaded with haunted house sound effects. Now it doesn't sound
like the recipe for a hit song, I'll give you that,
but in the fall of nineteen sixty two, that's exactly
what it wound up being. But the crazy part is
that the songwriters somehow knew that it could be a hit.
You know, Like we talked about earlier. Pickett and Kapezi
were tapping into the cultural zeitgeist with their novelty song,
(16:58):
so they realized that classic monsters and dance fads were
both having a moment. So by Frank and signing them together,
they wrote a song that really captured the weird, campy
spirit of that era. I like that, but there's no
way to have realized just how big a hit it
would be. So the song hit number one on the
Billboard Singles Chart on October twentieth, nineteen sixty two. This
(17:19):
was in the lead up to Halloween, and it stayed
there for two full weeks, all the way into mid November.
Of course, just like Mashed Potato before it, the Monster
Mash eventually fell out of fashion, but unlike most other
novelty songs, it returned to the charts more than a
decade after its debut.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
This was in nineteen seventy three.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
The song clawed its way back into the Billboard top ten,
and not even at Halloween time either.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
It actually recharted in early August.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
It's crazy, and while a one time revival would have
been impressive enough, Monster Mash has managed to live on
for much much longer, rising from the grave every single October.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yeah, I mean it's basically a Halloween anthem at this point, right, definitely.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
But but you know, while we're speaking about monster themed
novelty songs.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
There's another one that I want to cover.
Speaker 3 (18:06):
It's a bounty little number called The Purple People Leader.
This is so much fun, the nostalgia piece of all
of this. Now, many listeners are probably familiar with it already,
but just in case you've never had the pleasure, here's
a clip.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Well, I saw the.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Thing coming out of the sky at a one long horn,
one big guy, right, come, mister shaken in the sit
it looks like a purple people eater. To me, it
was a one eyed, one horn fy and purple people leader. What.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I honestly can't be leave like songs like this hit
the music charts. It's just so insane to me. It
actually wasn't just on the charts.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
It dominated Billboard for six straight weeks back in nineteen
fifty eight. And the song was written and performed by
Chev Woolley, and its kooky premise was inspired by goofy
riddle that Wooey heard from his friend and fellow songwriter
Don Robertson. Now, apparently Robertson's son had overheard this joke
at an elementary school.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
I feel like our listeners don't know how much you
love bad monster jokes, like it's actually a thing, but
you should lay this on me.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I literally have books of monster jokes. They're just so
dumb and so wonderful. So here's one.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
What has one eye one horn flies and eats people?
And of course the answer was a one eyed, one
horn flying purple people eater.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
So dumb, but the monster wasn't originally purple right.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Now, this is going to blow your mind, mango. But
the monster was never purple.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
And Willie added the word purple to the chorus to
better fit the rhythm, and because the literation is, of
course fun, but he never meant to suggest that the
creature itself was purple. The alien eats purple people. The
song doesn't actually say what color the creature is.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
That is so insane. Are you sure about this?
Speaker 3 (19:49):
So Gabe fact check this, and he pointed out that
this is explicitly spelled out. And the song's third verse
and it says, and I quote, get ready for this.
I said, mister purple people leader, what's your line? And
he said eating purple people? And it sure is fine.
But that's not the reason I came to Land. I
want to get a job in a rock and roll band.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (20:09):
That is poetry, yes, but you know I never paid
that close attention to this song. I also, somehow, I
guess I missed the part about him whine or like
join a rock band.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Like.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I didn't even hear that part.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
I mean, what did you think his horn was for?
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I mean, goring people? I guess I assumed it was
part of his body, not like a musical instrument.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Well, this is another Gabe Jim because I didn't realize
this before either, but apparently the horn is both.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
So.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
At the end of the song, after the alien has
achieved his dreams of rock and roll stardom, the narrator
tells us he was blowing it out a really knock
him dead, playing rock and roll music through the horn
in his head.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That is incredible. I feel like I've got to listen
to that song in full now.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah, they definitely do well.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
There's another novelty song I want to cover that isn't
quite what it appears to be on the surface. But
before we get into it, another quick break.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
Okay, mango, So before the break, you tease this with
another novelty song that challenges the listener's assumptions.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
I mean, it's the one and only itsy bitsy teeny
weeny yellow polka dot bikini.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
I actually was wondering when this would come up because
it seems like a pretty straightforward track. I'm curious what's
so shocking about it.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Well, before we get to that, let me give you
some quick background.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So, the song was performed and popularized by the teenage
heart throb Brian Hyland, and it became one of the
two summer anthems of nineteen sixty, along with Chubby Checkers
The Twist. It actually sold over a million copies and
spent fifteen weeks on the Billboard Hot one hundred chart,
including one week in the top spot. The song also
(21:59):
reached number one in France and Germany and has since
been covered by a whole bunch of artists from like
Connie Francis to Devo, to Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy.
And while I'm obviously tempted to play the Muppets version
of this, for the sake of clarity, I want to
play a little clip of Brian Highland's original. She was
afraid to come out and locker she was his nerve
(22:23):
said she he could be.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
She was afraid to come out, locker, she was afraid.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
That's somebody. So two three, four tell the people what
she wore.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
It was its.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Ya she wo. So the story, if you can tell,
is girl goes to the beach, changes into her new
swimsuit and then has second thoughts about wearing something so
revealing in public.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
I mean, I guess you could make the case that
it's commentary about the sexual attitudes of mid sense America.
But that honestly feels like a little bit of a stretch.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
Yeah, I mean it almost feels like some kind of
sexist morning for women not to wear bikinis or they
might get self conscious and have a bad day at
the beach. But according to the songwriter, the song actually
has a much simpler and more innocent origin story. So
although Brian Hyland performed the song, the lyrics and music
were actually the work of Paul Vance and Lee Pocras,
(23:26):
the same songwriting duo behind Perry Como's signature song Catch
a Falling Star and Believe it or Not. The idea
for the song was born out of a real life
incident involving Vance's two year old daughter, Paula.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Oh really.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
According to Vance, the song was inspired by a family
trip to the beach in nineteen fifty nine and little Paula,
this two year old had been reluctant to wear her
new two piece bathing suit because of her two male
cousins who were like kind of teasing her about it.
And from there the day unfolded exactly like in the song.
So the girl is first hiding in the locker room,
then bumbling up in a blanket and ultimately wading into
(24:01):
the water, and the song's catchy chorus came to Vance
on the drive home, and it was based directly on
what his daughter had been wearing, which was a yellow
polka dot bikini. And the reason it was itsy bitsy
teeny weenye is because she was only two years old.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
It certainly cast the song on a new light when
I think about it this way, But I feel like
something like this has to be a tough sell to
the record company, right.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Yeah, So apparently, after hearing the demo, the producer David
Capp thought it was too raunchy to be a hit single,
So in what must have been like a very awkward conversation,
Vance had to explain the true story behind the song,
and like, how was actually about a little girl's shyness,
not sexuality. It's just so weird.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Yeah, but remind me again. For some reason, I'm having
a hard time remembering what happens at the end of
the song.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Well, the girl musters the courage to go swimming after all,
but then she leaves self conscious again and decides to
stay in the water until everyone leaves, and she stays
so long in fact, that, as the song puts it,
the poor little girl's turning blue.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
And so is this part based based on like real
life stuff or what?
Speaker 4 (25:02):
No?
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Apparently the little girl did not turn blue that day,
but the song's unresolved ending did post some troubling questions
like did the girl in the bikini turn blue from hypothermia?
Does she ever make it back to shore? And then
the song never really says, which is a pretty ominous
ending for a novelty song, you know. And the truth is,
we are not the first people to think that it
(25:24):
was ominous, and in fact, less than a month after
the song hit number one, this singer named jerry Lynn
Fraser was so bothered by the ambiguous ending that she
wrote a follow up song to fill in some of
the blanks. And you can take a listen here for.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Six eight tell us please don't make us wait?
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Yeah, just because you what is it?
Speaker 4 (25:54):
Because? Sorry?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
And so cute.
Speaker 3 (26:02):
So the bikini girl is named Begonia and she turned
blue because she caught pneumonia.
Speaker 1 (26:06):
I guess. And this cute ending that Fraser references is
that Bigonia is eventually rescued by a lifeguard and winds
up getting engaged to him. Apparently she had no reason
to be modest.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
After all, you weren't kidding about this song being surprising.
I mean, this.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Story has like a dozen twists in all of them.
To be honest, they're vaguely disturbing.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
That said, it is amazing that someone took the time
to write a fan fiction sequel to itsy bitsy teeny
weeny yellow Polka Dot Bikini, And it really tells you
a lot about the state of mainstream music back in
the nineteen sixties. But of course, novelty songs did continue
to top the charts in the nineteen seventies. You think
about songs like Kung Fu Fighting Steve Martin's King Taught,
of course, but by the.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
Eighties it was harder for silly songs to catch fire
like they used to.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Well, we don't want to make it sound like we
don't have like any novelty songs anymore, right, like who
Let the Dogs out Right? Gungnam Style? I've heard of
out like the modern equivalents what does the Fox Say.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
From Norway Classic?
Speaker 3 (27:05):
Yeah, me think there will always be a market for
novelty songs in some form, but I doubt will ever
go back to having a steady stream of them topping
the charts, and honestly, considering how weird things got with
that bikini song, I'm not sure that's such a terrible thing.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Yeah, you're probably right, But because I'm not ready to
let the genre go just yet, what do you say
we run down a few more tracks in today's fact off.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
All right, so we mentioned that novelty songs had kind
of fallen off by the nineteen eighties, but one very notable,
very silly exception is a song called General Hospitall. It
was released in nineteen eighty one by a group called
The Afternoon Delights, and as you may have guessed from
the title, it's inspired by the long running TV soap
opera General Hospital, which is obviously a big, big deal
(27:51):
at the time. In fact, the lyrics to the song
is kind of a pop rap mashup. We're mostly just
plot summaries from the show's current season. So, for example,
the first verse says it started out in Port Charlestown,
where Frank Smith's mob used to hang around. No one
could prove that he was a crook till Luke stole
his little black book.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I am so confused by the popularity of this, and
you kind of forget like General Hospital was a really
big part of pop culture in nineteen eighty one. Right yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Mean so the show had been on the air for
eighteen years by that point, but its ratings were at
an all time high, and this was thanks to the
popularity of the show's signature super couple that would be,
of course, Luke and Laura. A lot of our younger
listeners are like, no idea what you're talking about, but
their wedding was, of course a major TV event, but
still like.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
A radio friendly rap song that recaps episodes of General Hospital,
Like who's that even for?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I don't know why this isn't a big deal to you, Maga,
it turns out everybody.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
So the song peaked at number thirty three on the
Billboard Hot one hundred chart, and the single actually sold
nearly a million copies.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
That is insane. So we mentioned Kung Fu Fighting a
few minutes ago, which, of course is that incredibly catchy
but also a problematic disco song about Chinese martial arts.
It was written and recorded by a Jamaican born British singer.
His name was Carl Douglas, and this was back in
nineteen seventy four, it spent two weeks at number one
on the US Singles Chart. The track also went on
(29:17):
to sell more than eleven million copies worldwide, making it
one of the best selling singles in music history. And
all that success was despite the fact that Douglas knew
pretty much nothing about martial arts or Chinese culture, you know,
which is abundantly clear if you actually listened to the song. Yeah,
but the singer did know that martial arts films were
(29:38):
incredibly popular at the time, kind of like the monster
movies we referenced before. And after walking past a group
of kids shadow boxing in London, he thought to himself, Wow,
it looks like everyone is kung fu fighting, and that
phrase stuck in his head and before he knew it,
he'd written an entire song about an imaginary gang fight
in Chinatown. Now. Amazingly, the song appeal didn't stop at
(30:01):
the UK and the US in nineteen seventy five. It
went on to top the charts in ten more countries Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Ireland,
the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa and West Germany. But
one place where the song was not well received China, China.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
I'm I don't think that was tough to guess that one,
all right.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Well.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
Another seventies song that we only mentioned in Passing is
Ray stephens lowbrow chart topper, The Streak, And like Kung
Fu Fighting, it was also inspired by a popular trend
at the time, and this was running naked through public gatherings.
Such a weird fad there, the streaking epidemic spread all
over the country in the early nineteen seventies with cheeky
exhibitionists this robing in all manner of public places. You
(30:43):
have them on college campuses, at movie theaters, and of course,
most famously, at big sporting events. Now, Ray Stevens wasn't
the first to capitalize on the fad by writing a
song about it. In fact, there had already been about
a dozen different records about streaking by the time this
was released. Stephen's take Out paced all the others, rose
to number one on the Singles chart and sold five
(31:05):
million copies. Now, the success wasn't due so much to
the songwriting. I mean, if you look at some of
the lyrics, they included lines like He's just as proud
as he can be of his anatomy. He's gonna give
us a peek. It was actually really more because the
song's release happened to coincide with one of the most
high profile streaks in history. This was just five days
after the track debuted on Nashville radio stations. Advertising executive
(31:28):
Robert Opele ran naked across the stage during the live
telecast of the.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
Nineteen seventy four Academy Awards.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
The Oscar streak has become an infamous moment in pop
culture history and helped propel Steven's corny little song into
one of the biggest hits of the year.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
That is amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
All right, Well, here's a weird one that's much more
sweet and innocent. It is a novelty song about a
dairy cow named Elm farm Allie, who, back in nineteen
thirty became the first of her species to be flown
and milked in an airplane.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Wait, she was milked while airborne.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Milked mid air. And because I know you're wondering, yes,
there was a reason for doing this. In fact, there
were two reasons. First, the flight was a publicity stunt
meant to get rural Americans interested in the fledgling aviation industry,
and I guess the idea was to show them that
airplanes could be used to transport livestock between towns, though
obviously the concept never really caught on. But the second
(32:26):
motivation for putting a cow on an airplane was slightly weirder. Apparently,
scientists wanted to observe the cow's behavior as a way
to determine the effects of flights on animals, and in particular,
they were curious of flying would impact a cow's ability
to produce milk and did it. Nope, altitude had zero
effect on all these milk production, and over the course
(32:48):
of a short flight from Bismarck to Saint Louis, the
cow produced a wopping twenty four quarts of milk. And then,
because none of this was silly enough already, all of
that milk was carefully bottled and packed into paper cartons,
which were then dropped from a plane with little parachutes
attached as it flew over as Saint Louis.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Is incredible And there's a song about this.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, I mean it's pretty niche compared to most of
the ones we've talked about today. It was composed and
recorded back in nineteen ninety by a guy named Barry Levinson,
who later became the founder and curator of the National
Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
I mean, this just keeps getting better.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
He actually wrote an operetta celebrating the cow's life and achievements.
It's an epic eight and a half minute medley called
Madam Butterfat Bovine Cantata in B flat major. It's worth
seeking out for yourself. But my favorite part is the
closing section, which is set to the tune of Beethoven's
Ode to Joy. It goes sing, we praises of that
(33:47):
moo cow airborne once and evermore, kindness, courage, butter, cream, cheese,
These fine things we can't ignore.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
We've shared some really special Lyricsreica.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
You know, it's so weird.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
I honestly don't think I could top that story if
I wanted to, And actually I don't want to, you know,
out of respect for Alie.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, well, I will happily take the trophy this week.
This one's for Barry, who is clearly living his best
life over there at the Muster Museum.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Absolutely Barry is the real winner here.
Speaker 3 (34:17):
But that's going to do it for today's Part Time
Genius from Mary Gabe, Dylan Mango and me.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Thank you so much for listening now.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
If you enjoy the show, come find us on Instagram
and be sure to tune in next week for a
very special PTG event from Monday to Friday. All week long,
we're going to be counting down our favorite scientific breakthroughs
of the past twenty five years.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Honestly, it's going to be so much fun. We're running quizzes,
we're giving out so many prizes, and we've even commissioned
our own original novelty song about particles and physics. You
are not going to want to miss it, so please
tune in and thank you, as always for listening. Part
(35:05):
Time Genius is a production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This
show is hosted by Will.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Pearson and Me, Mongish.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Chatikler, and research by our goodpal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's
episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan,
with support from Tyler Klang. The show is executive produced
for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry, with social
media support from Sasha Gay Trustee Dara Potts and Viny Shorey.
(35:32):
For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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