The regional goin'-to-the-shore chestnut gets remodeled as a Ziggy-era Mick Ronson production, captured in a wildly live performance. Good, silly, genre-smearing fun.

This one of the most insanely catchy and infectious tracks I've heard in a long time. Opens with a sparse bongo beat, accompanied by 'mouth percussion'. A German voice sounding slightly like aging British radio DJ Tommy Vance starts talking ('Der man, das Zigarillo'), before a catchy piano riff and jaunty easy listening chorus come in. A fun track - nice that compilations like 'pop shopping 2' come out and save things like this from total obscurity.

A solo single from a member of Japanese space rock collective Acid Mothers Temple. For them she plays Synthesiser (a nice old Roland) Cigarettes and Beer. On this she also sings.
Its a strange sounding thing, theres no bass or even much lower mid range. Echo'd synthesiser, a very old sounding drum box, and vocals all occupying the same accoustic space to very psychedelic effect. But yet, very poppy, the vocals stay with you for ages.
Lovely stuff.

It proves once again, that Shel Siverstein was truly more than just a silly writer of poems for kids!

With the exception of the silly dropping "daaaaaayyy" at the very end of this track, it's probably my favorite reworking of a Bowie song. The epic, quickly fading strings and strange raising/falling echoing voices pushing thru Bowie's unchanged vocals, wonderful. The strings add more power to Bowies lyrics.

DeVotchKa are kind of hard to describe... but I'll try... think: Morrissey meets Julio Iglesias meets Henry Mancini meets Jobim...

I was happily surprised to hear their music when I went to see the film 'Little Miss Sunshine' this past weekend.

Ed Lincoln is a Samba Organist and this was probably his best known song at the time, its on all his greatest hits LP's. Its a pretty wild number, with lots of silly organ tricks, a kazoo (!), some Mexican style trumpets and lah, lah vocals. It stops and starts, is groovy, is damn catchy and makes every day a sunny day. (very useful if you live in the UK).

Is it just me, or do the French really have an inferiority complex? Terrifically silly French girlie-pop with great '60s lyrics comparing all the things that are "Made in England" (Mary Quant, the Salvation Army) with all the things that are "Made in France (not made in England)" (Camembert, Charles Aznavour).

Frances and partner Teri wrote this song about their friends. It includes Fran's bother and sister in law (Marty and Vivie), and her poodles, Suzy and Cuddles. It was one of the first gay themed songs to be included with standards on a mainstream album. It is silly, energetic and rhthymic. Fran's voice is a gas. Learm more about Frances online at the Fabulous Frances Faye Archive. Mark Murphy redid the song and credited it to himself on his Lucky to be Me 2002 CD.

Near perfect parody of Je t'aime... moi non plus by Serge Gainsbourg. All the moaing plus Frankie Howerd snoring and then going on about how he's not in the mood. "Not again..." "cut your toenails, woman!" From a 45rpm single.

Otto Preminger's "Skidoo," starring Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, and Groucho Marx, among others, is best described as a psychedelic gangster film. While the film itself is mostly forgotten, Harry Nilsson gave it a memorable soundtrack, including "The Cast and Crew," which was played over the credits.

Wait. Did I say "played over?" This song IS the credits. The COMPLETE credits. Yes, going as far as mentioning the copyright line ("Copyright MCMLXVIII/By Sigma Productions Incorporated/Your seat's on fire") and people such as negative cutters, set directors, etc. And he puts in every little detail:

--"Photographed in Panavision and Technicolor/Director of Photography: Leon Shamroy, A.S.C. Hmph."

--"It's a Paramount (TM) release, a Gulf + Western company." (Yes, he sings "TM" and "plus.")

So, it's the movie credits. But he sings them, and he sings them in an interesting and humorous way. You have to pity the poor guy: he had to take all these names and occupations, fit them into a song, and make it interesting. And he even performed it live on television once, on "Playboy After Dark" in 1968.

german guy with a silly english name. i think there are tons of shit with his name on but this song rocks!

Perky British beat-era novelty hit with great Vic Flick-style twanging guitars and weezy organ. Somehow there's something very distinctive and appealing about the way the guitars sound on UK records before the Beatles. Sort of plonky-plonk deadpan with a slight electric fizz. Or does that just sound silly?

One of those songs that I liked upon first listen. Lisa Ekdahl is a chanteuse from Sweden who had an apparent hit with this track sometime in the 1990s. I don't recall what the words "Vem Vet" mean but according to a few Scandinavian friends, it's something silly. Listening to it now, the opening could be something from the Tijuana Brass. My favorite aspect of this track is her inflection of Vem Vet and the words preceding it. In her native Sweden she comes from a traditional jazz standards background. A few years back she released a record in English titled Lisa Ekdahl sings Salvador Poe (her boyfriend/husband) which I can't rate highly. It is just ok. She probably doesn't have cred like Nina Persson (of Cardigans fame) in the hipster scene but who cares! I see potential in this lady (who has looks to boot) and any Phil Spectors out there who have visions of "pure pop" should get their hands on her now.

Great lo-fi fun music from france. Samples, cheezy keyboards... really sounds like it's made in a bedroom. This song's a bit silly. Latin beat. guitar strums. cha cha cha. Good for fans of Stereo Total

This song is really beautiful. It's eight-odd minutes long, but it doesn't really feel like that. It's full of longing and it just makes you want to reach out for something, but you don't know what...

lyric sample: "thunderous sparks from the dark of the stadium, the music and medicine you needed for comforting. so make all your fat fleshy fingers to moving and pluck all your silly strings, bend all your notes for me..."

The great NYFD firefighter and actor Steve Buscemi immortalizes this song in the otherwise forgettable Adam Sandler vehicle "The Wedding Singer:" he winces, he exhales extra H's, he emotes. Spandau Ballet's lead singer, Tony Hadley, would never have done that; dressed in all his Bryan Ferry finery and sporting his New Romantic do, he stood with the mike pinched in the fingers of his hand... and emoted. "Oh I want the truth to be SAIIIIID [then his voice breaks]. [Pregnant pause.] [And then the Uh-huh-huh-huh-hi comes in again.]

Yes, "True." Performed by a band with one of the most stupid band names imaginable, "True" invaded Philippine airwaves, spawned a silly Spandau Ballet - Duran Duran showdown on DWLS 97.1, and jumpstarted the dead-end careers of a million amateur singers. (A good friend of mine, who actually could sing, once performed this during some high school party, and had it choreographed so that the lights would go out during the "pregnant pause." The women screamed.)

But darn it, the song still gets to me -- not every time, God no, but only when I'm in a semi-nostalgic mood regarding the worst years of my life (high school). That cheesy sax instrumental break that still haunts my dreams! The harmonizing Kemp brothers! "Always in time / But never in line for dreams!" The sound of my soul indeed.

The B-52's were one of several late-'70s bands for which there was no real category. With their modified surf guitar sound, their thrift-shop fashion sense, and their jokey demeanor, they certainly weren't in the rock & roll mainstream, but they exhibited none of punk's sneering rebelliousness or musical aggression, either � the only anarchy that seemed to interest the B-52's was of the sartorial variety. "Rock Lobster" was the first B-52's song to catch popular attention, and it's easy to see why. The minimalist guitar lick is like a beach-bum's rendition of the James Bond theme, the one-note organ ostinato complements it perfectly, and Fred Scheider's campy sprechgesang jumps out at you immediately. Yet despite the song's self-consciously weird texture and silly lyrics about earlobes falling off and communal towel coordination, there's a thread of darkness weaving through it. Make no mistake � this is not a song with hidden meaning lurking below the surface. But its surface is a little more complicated than it seems to be at first. For one thing, it's almost seven minutes long, and it does start to drag toward the end. Right when it does, you notice the mood getting darker � Schneider delivers lines about "having fun" and "baking in the sun" in a hoarse croak, and the guitar starts sounding repetitive in a slightly creepy way. Suddenly you realize that the whole song has been in a minor key, and as Schneider shouts and the guitar barks out its angular riff over and over, you start to wonder if maybe there's some kind of commentary going on here. But then Kate Pierson's angelic voice comes in with a surprisingly pretty falling harmony part that can only be described as a descant, which repeats several times, gradually paring itself down to a single phrase, and abruptly the song is over. The whole song ends up being a goofy party confection with a slightly crunchy center � a pretty satisfying overall flavor combination.
(AMG)

Yes, FRANKIE VALLI and the four seasons. You may be incredulous after listening to the album, as it's the concept excursion that derailed their singles chart streak. It has a nice lurching pop quality. I would put this album on a par with "Odessey and Oracle" and "S.F. Sorrow", but wouldn't that be silly? I think it was on a Rhino CD that's probably long deleted, but if you can find the vinyl with the newsprint insert intact, it makes for some funny reading...

Enormous, gorgeous, hard-rocking (what a silly phrase) song about hedonism/surrender/desperation/"goin' for a ride." Like "Born To Run," "Baba O'Riley," and "Let's Go Crazy" thrown in a blender and soundtracking a black-and-white indie film.

Jellybones, jellybones, jellybones, jellybones. This song is following me around day and night. So silly and cute, it makes my knees turn to, well, you know.
You can listen to Jellybones on The Unicorns' website.

Silly Cha Cha styled soul tune. Titus Turner digs in and gives his all to this throw off song. Excellent. Plus silly girly background vocals!

This is a fun sort of light ska tune. It's a fun song because it is a song about a song that the songwriter is having trouble writing - sort of an anti-song!