Back in the seventies, K-Tel Records (ah, the immortal K-Tel records…!) released these compilations of novelty songs from various eras, some oldies and some only a few years old. The first of these was called “Looney Tunes” and the second that came out (I think) a few years later was called “Goofy Greats”. Now, I don’t remember these two LPs being advertised, but somehow, it seemed like all our classmates had them…and BOY, were we jealous!
These albums had some GREAT songs for kids, catchy and fun songs to sing, songs like the Royal Guardsmen’s SNOOPY VS THE RED BARON, the Rivingtons' PAPA-OOM-MOW-MOW, Jumping Gene Simons’ HAUNTED HOUSE and other zany songs like Ray Stevens’ THE STREAK, Sam The Sham and the Pharaohs' WOOLY BULLY and the awesomely demented TRANSFUSION by Nervous Norvous! We’d go to our friends houses and listen to the songs, wishing with all out might that we might get our very own copies of these great albums, but to no avail!
Pink Shoelaces: Dodie Stevens
Then one day (around…oh…1977 or so), during our afternoon cartoons, Mighty K-Tel announced their LATEST novelty record collection!! It trumpeted a new bunch of songs to love- we got snippets of songs like “Pink Shoelaces” by Dodie Stevens, “Monster Mash” by Bobby Boris Pickett, “Beans In My Ears” by the Serendipity Singers and “I’m a Nut” by Leroy Pullins, among others! We begged to get this album for Christmas, and our Grandma granted our wishes, bestowing the highly anticipated album upon us!
My Ding-a-ling: Chuck Berry
Beans In My Ears: Serendipity Singers
Well, the album didn’t disappoint, and as we listened to the songs we’d learned from the TV commercial, we started falling in love with almost all the other songs,too! I think I mentioned in an earlier post that back then, me, my sibs and our friends would get together and act out New Mickey Mouse Club skits? Well, the “Dumb Ditties” album became THE new source of entertainment, as we learned the songs and designated “roles” to specific friends, all to put on insane “shows” for my Mother and her friends-our “audience/victims, as it were!
Yes, “Monster Mash” was a gimme, with everyone staggering around like zombies, as well as “Martian Hop” by the Galaxies and that fun “I’m A Nut” song . These were the “free-for-all” songs that basically was us running around being crazy, but then there were the songs like “Alvin’s Harmonica” and “I Tawt I Taw A Puddy-Tat” that required actual concentration! Nobody better forget their line! Ahahahahaaa…I have distinct memories of my little brother acting out the part of Alvin, but not being old enough to memorize the words to "speak", would just open and close his mouth during his lines!
Alvin's Harmonica
One song I really ended up loving was this one by Paul Evans called “Seven Little Girls Sitting in the Back Seat” about this guy driving around with a bunch of chicks who only have eyes for his friend in the back seat with them.
Seven Little Girls Sitting In The Back Seat
I remember we’d drag out the kitchen table chairs and set them up so they looked like a car, and we’d crack up acting out the song, but it was one of the first times I noticed what a great pop song sounded like- the “structure” of a tune, the sweet backing vocals, the way that each verse went a little higher, and the last verse back to normal, as the guy gives up, and I remember thinking how great the song was!
Bridget The Midget (The Queen Of The Blues)
But of all the great tunes on the album, by far the one we loved the MOST was Ray Stevens’ absolutely explosive “Bridget The Midget: The Queen Of The Blues”! This was a little masterpiece of his: An overzealous announcer introduces the energetic Bridget who proceeds to belt out the tunes while a drunken fan continually tries to get onto the stage…this was a song just MADE for us to act out, and all our friends would get into it, and I remember my little sister and me cracking up whenever it came to the part for our brother to be the drunken fan! I didn’t realize at the time that the voices were probably ALL Ray Stevens, sped up or slowed down, and now I can appreciate it on a whole new level! (and another side-note is that whenever I used to listen to this song, I never imagined Bridget to look like a midget.. In my head I always imagined the only “Bridget” I knew of: Richard Scarry’s character Sergeant Murphy’s little daughter! Ahahaha!)
What a bunch of crazy hams we all were…miniature Shecky Greenes, that was us!
The Ballad of Irving: Fank Gallop
But the point is how much we embraced and adored that album. All the songs were new to us, and I think we learned “Alvin’s Harmonica” before we’d ever heard of “The Chipmunk Song” (that Christmas one), “My Ding-A Ling” by Chuck Berry before “Johnny Be Goode, and my sibs and friends may be the only people around who consider The Kingsmen’s song “Louie Louie” as the OTHER song sung by the group that sang “The Jolly Green Giant”!!!
The Jolly Green Giant: Kingsmen
And here’s a funny thing: We had no idea just how “old” some of the songs were. For the most part, we thought these songs were made for the album! I remember my mother telling us that “Monster Mash” came out when she was a teenager, and well, THAT was a shock! When I was older, and listened to the Oldies channel, I was surprised how many of these “Dumb Ditties” like “If You Wanna Be Happy” By Jimmy Soul (Fave quote: I seen your wife the other day, and she’s UGLYYYYYYYY- but she sure can cook, baby!) Dodie Stevens’ “Pink Shoelaces” and Barry Mann’s “Who Put The Bomp (In the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp) were real, respected songs being rotated on playlists all the time! I was also pretty surprised to find that almost all of the tunes from Dumb Ditties were “edited”, and was constantly surprised to hear extra verses I never knew playing on the radio!
Mr Bass Man Johnny Cymbal
When I was older, and I’d hear some of those tunes on the radio, it would always remind me of my childhood, and I’d wished our Dumb Ditties LP had survived so I could sit down and maybe listen to it again. But it hadn’t. There was just no WAY..we really loved that album to death! So I kind of always hoped in the back of my head that they’d have the humor to re-release some of those compilations on CD.
If You Wanna Be Happy: Jimmy Soul
I'm A Nut: Leroy Pullins
Occasionally I’d see Novelty CD compilations, some even with the same names like “Goofy Greats, Looney Tunes, etc, but they’re (for the most part) unrelated packaged novelty songs; fun, but NOT the ones I grew up with. So the next hope was, of course, ebay.! After almost a year of (on and off) perusing the listings, one day I came across a seller offering a “like new” copy of the album, the very album these MP3 rips are from…YES, I HAVE a copy in my possession once more!
Martian Hop: The Galaxies
Ah, the nostalgic times are here again…
