Somebody in a Facebook group asked this question. “Has anyone ever recorded a parody of Weird Al?” That sounds backwards, right? Well, the answer is yes and in the worst way.
“Horoscope For Today” is an original song by Weird Al Yankovic. It is not a parody of anything. It’s a ska-inspired goofy rant about newspaper horoscopes. The track appeared on his 1999 album, Running With Scissors.
“Endoscope” by Steve Goodie is a parody of the Yankovic song and it’s all about having a colonoscopy. Good times. The track appeared on his 2016 release What, And Quit Showbiz??!! and on The Fump Volume 55.
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.
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’.
It’s kind of crazy to hear this take in 2023. New-Jack-Swing beats were on EVERYTHING in 1992, the year this one dropped. At least is slowed down a bit so as to be more tolerable.
The melody is all Sting. He naturally received a writing credit on this track. It’s not quite a parody and not quite a cover. Le’ts call it a reinterpretation. It charted in several countries reaching #30 in the USA and #5 in New Zealand.
courtesy of discogs7 inch single, UK
For your reference, here is the original version by Sting.
Here we have a goofy mash-up/parody of “Tom’s Diner” with the I Dream of Jeanie TV Show Theme.
The DNA remix, rather than the original, became a big hit in 1990. Remixes were relatively new as a concept in pop music at the time. They sometimes charted along side, or even instead of, the album version.
Reruns of the 1960s classic TV sitcom, I Dream of Jeanie, were airing daily in the USA at the time.
It’s seems that the Jeanie parody actually samples the DNA remix. So in that way this is a mashup. While never officially released as a single but word got around about the parody and It was released on a compilation called Tom’s Album the following year.
The video included here contains scenes from the television series as well the promotional spots for the show that aired on Nickelodeon in the 1990s. It’s not an official video but it seems to have been created by the same guy who first created the mashup.
Today is National Opposite Day and this might be the perfect song for the Occasion. We think this live version from 1997 is best but Kit And Kaboodle recorded it again for a studio album.
In English, negation works like multiplication. Two negatives equal a positive. Three equals a negative again. This song is about “nothing but not”. Count the negations. Are they really singing about nothing? What is NOT nothing? Is that automatically something?
Also it is important to remember that an argument is not just contradiction. Or is it?
This is pretty much the best we can do as a nation when it comes to writing songs for our weird Thanksgiving holiday. For some reason we just don’t have that many.
Sandler recorded this again and released it on an album but the original 1992 performance on SNL is the one everyone remembers the fondest.
Today is Micky Mouse’s Birthday. He turns 94. We’ve got a crazy tune here to celebrate. It’s ironically called “Can’t Botch This”. It’s the only good track on an otherwise cringey kid’s album called Mickey Unrapped, released in 1994 back when he was still in his 60s.
As far as the album goes, they botched it. They really really botched it.
Unlike the rest of the album however, The Disney cartoon gang actually sounds believable performing this song. It cracked me up and I bet you will enjoy it too.
FunHouse Radio 