As a GenXer with extensive knowledge about popular music, I find it difficult to resolve this question. The question is, who has had more influence on music and music culture?
This short video piece by DW proudly claims that the answer is Kraftwerk. It’s fun to watch because they didn’t get the same respect in Germany that they first got in places like Detroit, New York and Sao Paulo until many decades later.
I am not sure I can agree with the video or not. I would love to find out what our readers think. Please, by all means, leave a comment below!
Back in 1987, The Star Trek franchise had established a strong cult following after a string of successful motion pictures and decades of reruns of the original series on TV. Public enthusiasm was so strong that the now ubiquitous reboot, Star Trek: The Next Generation. began in the Fall.
But this song is not about TNG. A British novelty music act called The Firm created “this song”Star Trekkin'” with lyrics based on catch phrases and dialog from Star Trek: The Original Series which originally aired in the 1960s.
They tried to get the track published on a major label but they all declined. So the band decided self-published single on 7 in 45 RPM. The original run was just 500 copies. These original pressings are highly collectible today.
The song caught on, but not in North America, It hit number one in The UK and charted in Australia, Japan and parts of Europe. The group subsequently included the song on their first album.
The music video is weird and goofy. It utilized crude puppetry and stop frame animation. It’s so bad that it’s good. It kind of reminds me of Robot Chicken. The original print is believed to be lost today. YouTube has a a few attempts at recovery. The best one I could find is included at the top
Back in North America, “Star Trekkin'” was released on Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty CD of All Time in 1988, Dr. Demento: 20th Anniversary Collection in 1991, and Dr. Demento: Hits from Outer Space in 2006.
I had a very cool and strange roommate my sophomore year in college. He was lucky enough to own one of the compilations. I had never heard the syndicated radio show, but I had seen music video specials, so I was aware of the good doctor. This was not quite the beginning of my love affair with novelty records but Dr D has obviously been a huge influence on me and this radio channel.
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.
courtesy of ebay
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.
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“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.
front side of the sleeveback side of the sleeveclose up on the label
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.
The first time I heard Snoop Dogg say “Fo Shizzle My Nizzle”, I knew he didn’t come up with that himself. My theory is that he heard a classic disco song playing on the radio called “Double Dutch Bus” by Frankie Smith. He’re a clip from YouTube. Decide for yourself.
I guess it’s not a big secret because discogs reports, “His classic “Double Dutch Bus” popularized his nonsensical form of slang that influenced later rappers like Snoop Dogg and E-40.”
In the HipHop world the term “bite” means to borrow an phrase or an idea from another artists, usually a rapper. That’s why I used it as click-bait.
Frankie Smith released a very similar sounding song as a single back in 1973. It was called “Double Dutch” without the “Bus”. From what I can tell the song failed to chart at the time. (citation needed)
In 1980, He re-cut the vocals and modified the lyrics, releasing it as a 12 inch single, with his original 1973 track on the flip-side. The clubs started to play the record and it ended up at Number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Number 1 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.
So the question remains, Did Smith come up with this kind of jibberish/code speak or did he learn it from someone? I think he heard the kids in his neighborhood doing it back in the early seventies. So we may never know who really invented “Snoop-Speak”.
The Last Polka is a mockumentary film. It was written by and starred John Candy and Eugene Levy. It was produced for and first broadcast on the HBO cable TV network in 1985. A limited number of VHS copies were produced as well.
In a similar fashion to VH1 Behind The Music, The Last Polka follows the life, careers, and then the final concert of Yosh and Stan Shmenge, brothers from the fictional country of Leutonia. Somehow they become the biggest polka duo in the world at the time.
One scene has The Shmenges performing an outdoor stadium Michael Jackson salute concert, complete with glitter outfits, sequin glove, and a polka version of “Beat It”.
The Shmenges were originally created as characters for the television series Second City TV. SCTV performers including Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, and Robin Duke appear in the film.
Thanksgiving doesn’t have enough songs to mark the occasion. We’ve decided this year that Weird Al’s “Eat It” should be officially canonized as an unofficial Thanksgiving song.
Here we have a stunning 4K scan and remaster. The audio, on the other hand, suffers from some destructive remastering. We’ll take the first press of the LP over that any day.
The owner of the video has disabled third-party embedding but you can watch it on youtube. It’s 4K so put it on full screen! The levels seem off though. You might need to adjust brightness.
That thing about “Beat It” was just a joke. It’s a reference to the Al’s new movie Weird. If you haven’t seen it, it’s free on the Roku Channel. Go see it!
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