Tag Archives: 1980s

Ten Songs About Robots Just For You Meat-bags

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This list is a result of both serious research and personal taste. Your personal top ten may be different. Let us know in the comments! In evaluating the songs we did consider the chart positions but this was not the sole criteria by any means.

Does the song have staying power? Has it become legendary? Was it groundbreaking in it’s time? These are the types of questions considered in creating the list. Also, we did not want to include the same artist twice, so one does pop up again in the honorable mentions.


NUMBER TEN
“The Robot Song” by Yo Gabba Gabba (Spanish version)



NUMBER NINE
“Monkey Vs. Robot” by James Kochalka Superstar



NUMBER EIGHT
“Robot Boy” by Robyn



NUMBER SEVEN
“Robots on Parade” by They Might Be Giants



NUMBER SIX
“Transformers Opening Theme” (1980s original)



NUMBER FIVE
“Robot Rock” by Daft Punk



NUMBER FOUR
“Robots” by Flight of The Conchords



NUMBER THREE
“Mechanical Man” by Devo



NUMBER TWO
“The Robots” by Kraftwerk


HONORABLE MENTIONS
“The Girl And The Robot” by Röyksopp ft. Robyn
“Ya Robot” – Yury Chemnavsky
“Theme From Robot Hamster” – Parry Gripp



NUMBER ONE
“Mr Roboto” by Styx

Thanks for checking out our list of robot songs. We hope you enjoyed reviewing it as much as we did creating it.

-Wacky Alex & Robot Don

Illustration on the top of this page by BenMonster (benmonster.tv)

“Walk The Dinosaur” by Was (Not) Was

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April 18 is National Velociraptor Awareness Day! The first velociraptor fossil was found in 1923. That’s not that long ago! It seems fairly odd to me that people had no awareness of the Tyrannosaurus until the Roaring Twenties.

The Dinosaur was a dance step that people did in the 1980s. One could WALK The Dinosaur and even KILL The Dinosaur.

The song “Walk The Dinosaur” reached No. 7 on the US chart in 1989, two years after hitting No. 10 in the UK. It became the biggest hit single for Was (Not) Was in the USA. It’s certainly not the band’s best track in my opinion, but it’s good fun.

The Song That Got Me in Trouble Back in My 5th Grade Catholic School Music Class

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For some reason, our music teacher decided that we should get into groups of three. Each group would practice a song together and then present to the class as a group. The best part was that we were allowed to pick any song we wanted. In 5th grade I was a bit of a prankster. This was a golden opportunity to get a laugh from my classmates and sweet exasperation from our music teacher.

I easily talked the other two kids in my group into my plan to disrupt the class. We were going to sing “Song of the Pious Itinerant”, also known as “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum”.

The song had been recorded by several performers over the years, but I learned the song from The New Christy Minstrels. Apparently my uncle had originally purchased a copy of their album, Tall Tales! Legends & Nonsense. I found it among other records that had been collected before I was born, but ended up at grandma’s house.

Finally it was our turn to sing our song in front of the class. I even had typed lyric sheets.

First, the intro.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Of course this was taken directly from Handel’s Messiah. In the Catholic Church this is considered sacred music. We got through the intro with only a stern glance from the teacher.

Then the song goes right into a chorus

Hallelujah, I’m a bum
Hallelujah, bum again
Hallelujah, give me handout
And you’ll be my friend

My little singing group got through nearly a minute of the song when the teacher demanded that we stop. She told us to step out to the hall and wait for her. Shortly thereafter I was in the principal’s office.

It turns out that we were committing blasphemy. WHOOPS! The reason they gave was that the music to Handel’s Messiah was too sacred to mock by using it as an intro for such a vulgar song. They sent me home with a note to my parents. My mother saw the note and asked me what happened at school. I told her. She laughed. I hope you did too.

Have you ever gotten in trouble at school for singing a song? What song? Did you sing it for class like I did, or maybe got caught in the hallway in between class? Let me know in the comments!

-Wacky Alex