FunHouse Radio

Novelty Records, Parodies, Weird Covers, Outsider Music, Oddities, Mashups, Comedy, Nonsense & Cringe.

About Wacky Alex

Creator of FunHouse Radio

“Felix The Cat (Theme)” by Ann Bennett – Original Uncut with Discarded Lyrics – Even A Spanish Version

Posted on 2023-08-17 by Wacky Alex

What better way to celebrate Black Cat Appreciation Day then to take a look at our favorite cartoon cat. Felix The Cat has appeared in hundreds of animated features and is still a popular character today. I have a Felix clock on the wall behind my workspace. He’s over 100 years old you know.

Felix was born in 1919 but the theme song that we remember was recorded in the 50s and sung by Ann Bennett.

A longer version of the theme song was recorded around 1957-58 as part of an effort to repackage the old Felix films for television. The producers ended up cutting the song down to one verse and that is a version that we all remember. Who knew there was a slightly longer version of the song?

Apparently somebody was in possession of a test record of the original uncut version and it ended up on SoundCloud.

As it turns out she recorded a version in Spanish too! You can listen to the 30 second clip at the beginning of this soundcloud post. For some reason there is a piece of another song in there afterwards.

By now you must be in the mood to watch a few episodes of the cartoon. We’ll you are in luck. Here’s a playlist with over 100 clips.

By the way, the image at the top of this blog is the title screen for the Nintendo Entertainment Center game. The game was ignored by the public when it was first published but has since become a popular choice for retro-gamers. My friends and I have played it. It’s a fun “platform” game with great boss battles.

Songs About Food – A Delicious Menu of Music – Don’t Look if You’re on a Diet!

Posted on 2023-08-16 by Wacky Alex

Welcome to The FunHouse Diner. Here’s our menu. It’s all food for the soul, really. Take your time perusing. We have many great options for you to consider. My name is Wacky Alex and I’ll be your server today. Can I get you started with a beer or wine song?

We asked our social media communities to come up with songs about food. They delivered, big time! There were so many submissions that we needed to establish some rules to create this menu of music.

No commercial jungles
The song must actually be about real food that people eat. This does not include what animals, zombies, cartoon witches or monsters eat.
No metaphors. No songs that just mention food but are really about something else entirely.
Candy is not food but cookies and pastries are.
Only one song per artist.

If you have more ideas for this menu, feel free to leave a comment.

BEER AND WINE

“Pump Ab Das Bier” by Werner Wichtig – Parody of “Pump Up The Jam” by Technotronic

“Red Red Wine” by UB40 – Written by Neil Diamond

APPETIZERS

“Potato Chips” by Slim Gaillard & His Baker’s Dozen

“Airport Shrimp Cocktail” by The Alton Brown Trio

SOUP AND SALAD

“Chicken Soup For The Rapper’s Soul” by The Whitest Kids You Know

“Beef Stew” by Obie Plenty

“Let’s Make A Salad” by Kenny King

TODAY’S SPECIAL

“All You Can Eat” by (The) Fat Boys – From the movie Krush Groove

MAIN COURSE

“Cheeseburger in Paradise” by Jimmy Buffet

“Two Triple Cheese Side Order of Fries” by Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen

“Lasagna” by Weird Al Yankovic – Parody of La Bamba a Mexican folk song made famous by Ritchie Valens

“Raining Tacos” by Parry Gripp & BooneBum

“My Mother’s Brisket” by Rick Moranis

“Fish Stick Sandwich Burrito” by Robert Benfer

“Eat Steak” by The Reverend Horton Heat

“You Must Give Me Beef” by Powered By Satan

“Hold Tight (I Want Some Seafood Mama)” by Fats Waller

“The All Chicken Restaurant” by Art Paul Schlosser

SIDE ITEMS

“Call Any Vegetable” by Frank Zappa

“Buttermilk Biscuits” by Sir-Mix-A-Lot

“I Love Onions” by Laurie

“Toast” by Heywood Banks

DESERTS

“Savoy Truffle” by Ella Fitzgerald – Cover of the Beatles / George Harrison

“Cheesecake” by Louis Armstrong

“Chocolate Chip Cookies” by Wise Guys (English Version)

“Pee-Wee’s Dance” by Joeski Love – Old School HipHop – Goofy Video

Posted on 2023-08-10 by Wacky Alex

The death of Paul Reubens made me really sad. I spent a week reviewing his appearances on Late Night TV. People posted a lot about him and his work on social media. I waited to write a blog for FunHouse Radio but I didn’t want to just repeat the same stuff.

It seems like a lot of Pee-Wee fans never became familiar this track by Joeski Love. I remember the first time I heard it. I was in a small discount store called Shopper’s World in Detroit. They had a small electronics section that included a selection of boomboxes. This track was blasting through one or more of them.

Believe it or not, it was actually on the radio! There was at least one radio station in Detroit at the time that was playing this amusing track.

At the time though, it was only available as a 12 inch single, in limited numbers and on a small independent label. I never found a copy but the label looked like this.

Eventually I found a cassette tape compilation with the song on it. Rap’s Greatest Hits was released in 1986 and it was my main jam until volume two came out.

The video is another story. I might have seen in on TV a few times as a kid. Is that a young Jack Black playing the teacher? Ha! Made you look! Can you do that move with your neck?

Special thanks to Hip Hop History Guy for sharing this restored-ish version of the video. The original master film is probably now considered lost media. It would be great to get the 4K scan and AI remaster treatment if it ever resurfaces.

If you enjoyed this blog, please share it on your social media! Cheers!

“She Tortures Barbies” by Captain Ambivalent – 2023 lyric video

Posted on 2023-07-29 by Wacky Alex

Not all girls are into Barbie dolls. Barbie is in the headlines and some people have been torturing the dolls for views on YouTube.

Captain Ambivalent has a niece who is no stranger to doll torture. She beat these amatures to the punch back in 2014. “She Tortures Barbies” was track three on Private Ninja Zombie and the young lady had just turned 10 years old. The lyrics recall actual conversations he had with his niece at the time.

This rather disturbing song has been in rotation at FunHouse Radio for two years now. We’ve always been a little unsure of the lyrics none-the-less. Lucky for us, The Good Captain released this new lyric video yesterday. Everything makes so much more sense now.

I look forward to watching the Barbie movie, but in 20 minute segments. I can’t look at the color pink for more than 20 minutes at a time.

“Slimey To The Moon” by Tony Bennett – on Sesame Street – FAR OUT!

Posted on 2023-07-23 by Wacky Alex

For some reason we find Tony Bennett looking at the stars one night atop one of the buildings on Sesame Street. Big Bird decides to join him when Tony breaks into song. Essentially it’s a parody of “Fly Me To The Moon” made famous by Frank Sinatra.

The Lyrics were reworked to pertain to the situation at hand in that particular episode from 1998. Apparently Oscar The Grouch’s little pet, Slimey The Worm decided to become an astronaut. CUTE!

Not to spoil the fun, but I am pretty sure that the first worm in space was a subject of a science experiment. Just sayin’.

“Reasons To Be Miserable” by Marvin, The Paranoid Android – 45 RPM Double B-Side

Posted on 2023-07-20 by Wacky Alex

“Reasons To Be Miserable” was released in 1981 in the UK only. It was the ‘A’-Side of 45 RPM 7 inch release called The Double ‘B’-Side on Depressive Discs (Polydor).

The part of Marvin is voiced by Stephen Moore, the same actor that voiced the emotionally disturbed android in the 1981 BBC Television miniseries based on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy series of novels and stories by Douglas Adams. If you are a fan of the books or the movie, I highly recommend that you check out the BBC TV miniseries. It’s brilliant and campy. I love it. Here is a clip from the series.

You can also check out the BBC Radio series that was first broadcast in 1978.

The song involves Marvin describing his views on life (“I’d feel a little better if they broke me up for spares”, “If I had my time again, I’d rather be a lemming”), to a rather clever synthpop backing track.

Apparently the title is a reference to the hit song “Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3” by Ian Dury and The Blockheads.

You can still find copies of the record for sale today on the secondary market but the prices are kind of out there.

images courtesy of discogs

“I Wear Speedos” by Mikey Bustos – Parody of “Despacito” by Kuis Fonzi

Posted on 2023-06-15 by Wacky Alex

How can you not love this? Mikey Bustos is Filipino-Canadian and he’s made a damn near perfect parody. He’s perfect in the video too. It looks a little higher in budget, but maybe it’s just talent. This track is PERFECT for Summertime. We have this in rotation through the summer.

This writer wore Speedos to swim class back in 1994. I wouldn’t dream of doing that today.

“Human Video Game” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince + Ready Rock C

Posted on 2023-06-14 by Wacky Alex

This was the final track on the epic double LP from Jeff & Will. He’s The DJ, I’m The Rapper was so chaotic that it’s hard to say if this is really just a filler track.

Not all classic Hip-hop is good. A lot of it is SO BAD that it’s good. I think this track would meet criteria for the latter.

Songs about video games were also only being made for 10 years at most by 1988.That gives this track some novelty value as well. “Human Video Game” mentions Donkey Kong and in the longer version also Pac-Man. The cassette release had the longer version.

The “beat box” style of mouth music had been around only a few years by the time this track was recorded. Now this is common place, even quaint. At the time, however, it was mind-blowing. I’m not kidding. I was there. Yeah, I’m old. Shut up.

I was a kid at the time and it was 1988 so naturally I had this on cassette. It was one of the few tapes I owned so it was well played on my little boombox.