FunHouse Radio

Parodies, Novelty Records, Outsider Music, Trite Dance Music, Oddities, Memes, Mashups, Comedy, & Cringe

“The Witch” by Henner Hoir & The Rattles Original 1970 English Version. Check Out The German Version Too. Skip The Re-Recorded Misfire.

Posted on 2022-10-11 by Wacky Alex

The Rattles were a rock band from Hamburg Germany. They are best known for the hit single “The Witch” sung in English and released in 1970 at the height of psychedelia.

Here we have a recovered copy of the original music film, probably from a VHS tape. Someone attempted to re-include the music but it falls out of sync eventually. The colors are muted as well and that makes it extra creepy. What’s not to love about this?

The single reached number 4 in Germany, 8 in the UK and 79 in the US. It was included on the album also called The Witch in 1971. We love the cover-art

Henner Hoir was a band member at the time. He eventually left The Rattles to go solo and perform in other bands. The song was also released under his name and was included on several Henner Hoir greatest hits compilations. For this reason it is frequently credited to him alone rather than the band. It’s kind of odd because he is not even the vocalist. The lead vocals on this track are by Edna Bejarano. She also sang the German version.

Herr Hoir went on to record the song again with an entirely different band called The Rivets. In this writers opinion, it’s a disappointing remake. It’s lacks the energy and pensive character of the original.

The song faded into obscurity in North America but reemerged in recent years as DJS and music fans dig for deeper cuts for their Halloween season playlists. FunHouse Radio is no exception. The remastered English version is in rotation for the season.

“Boris, The Spider” by The Who – Now A Halloween Standard

Posted on 2022-10-04 by Wacky Alex

This classic track by The Who was not intended specifically for Halloween, but in the recent decades, it has been added to the ever growing Halloween music repertoire.

The song may be inaccurate in assuming that the spider is male. Most of the spiders that people encounter are female. I don’t think that The Who intended any sexism, but maybe it should be “Natasha, The Spider”.

It was first released on the debut album The Who in 1966. It also appeared on an EP called A Quick One

“This Is Halloween” from The Nightmare Before Christmas by Broken Peach Live in The Woods But Dead

Posted on 2022-10-01 by Wacky Alex

Danny Elfman wrote the quintessential Halloween carol, “This is Halloween” for Tim Burton’s smash hit movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Every nerd knows the original. A lot of us have heard the song covered by the sicko whom is never mentioned. How excellent it is to have this new version — and (sort of) LIVE.

Broken Peach is dolled up in death skull makup and play the song live to tape on an overcast day in the woods somewhere. The supporting floor tom drums are the perfect finishing touch.GloOooOoMY.

I suspect this track gained them a lot of new fans since its was first published in 2015.

“Take The Skinheads Bowling” by Camper Van Beethoven

Posted on 2022-09-03 by Wacky Alex

U.S. Bowling League Day is recognized every year on September 3rd. Why not celebrate this grand occasion by actually going to a bowling alley? Take it up a notch and shave your heads before you head out.

Bowling is a lot of fun and it is healthy exercise. Pop this track in the car stereo on your way to the bowling alley to really get in the mood.

“Take The Skinheads Bowling” by Camper Van Beethoven was released both as a single and on the album Telephone Free Landslide Victory in 1985. It enjoyed significant airplay in the UK and was featured on the Dr Demento Show here in the USA.

The song was written by band member David Lowery. In his blog he writes,

“The Skinheads Bowling as just a weird nonsensical song. The lyrics were purposely structured so that it would be devoid of meaning. Each subsequent line would undermine any sort of meaning established by the last line. It was the early 80′s and all our peers were writing songs that were full of meaning. It was our way of rebelling.”

We found lyrics on genius.com, but cannot verify that they are 100% correct.

[Verse 1]
Every day, I get up and pray to Jah
And he increases the number of clocks by exactly one
Everybody’s comin’ home for lunch these days
Last night there were skinheads on my lawn

[Chorus]
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling

[Verse 2]
Some people say that bowling alleys got big lanes
(Got big lanes, got big lanes)
Some people say that bowling alleys all look the same
(Look the same, look the same)
There’s not a line that goes here that rhymes with anything
(Anything, anything)
Had a dream last night but I forget what it was
(What it was, what it was)

[Chorus]
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling

[Verse 3]
Had a dream last night about you, my friend
Had a dream–I wanted to sleep next to plastic
Had a dream–I wanted to lick your knees
Had a dream–it was about nothing

[Chorus/Outro]
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling
Take the skinheads bowling
Take them bowling

Before I end this blog, I wanted to remember a cool drone video that was shot at a bowling alley in Minneapolis. The place is called Bryant Lake Bow and I’ve had great times there back in the 2000s.

Get out there and go bowling folks! It’s a great time!

“Addicted To Spuds” by Weird Al Yankovic – LIVE on MTV’s New Year’s Eve Party 1987 – A Parody of “Addicted To Love” by Robert Palmer

Posted on 2022-08-19 by Wacky Alex

First off let me just say that today is National Potato Day. Personally I love potatoes. I like them prepared any which way. If it has potato in it, I’ll eat it. I’ll probably like it too. When I was a kid my Grandma made me the best potato pancakes on earth.

Yes I love the tuber but I am not ready to admit it. I am NOT “Addicted to Spuds”.

This track first appeared on Weird Al’s 1986 release, Polka Party. There is no official music video for it but Al did perform the song live many times. His 1980s performances featured a back up band of giant Mr Potato Heads.

There are a few instances of this on YouTube. All of them are low quality recordings. The audio on this is terrible but the performance is keen. Luckily someone found this on a VHS tape and uploaded it.

Top 10 Most Iconic Songs About The Radio – The Best of All Media Formats

Posted on 2022-08-09 by FunHouse Radio

DJs on the radio are obsessed with music. Musicians sometimes write songs about the radio. Picture a Venn diagram. If you are obsessed with both the radio and music then this list is for you. I asked legendary radio pro Bart Shore to help us compile this list. I think we nailed it.

NUMBER TEN
“Transmission” by Joy Division

NUMBER NINE
“Radio Radio” by Elvis Costello & The Attractions

NUMBER EIGHT
“The Spirit of Radio” by Rush

NUMBER SEVEN
“Radio GaGa” by Queen

NUMBER SIX
“Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles

NUMBER FIVE
“I Can’t Live Without My Radio” by LL Cool J

NUMBER FOUR
“Mexican Radio” by Wall of Woodoo

NUMBER THREE
“On The Radio” by Donna Summer

NUMBER TWO
“Don’t Listen To The Radio” by The Vines

HONORABLE MENTIONS
“Satellite Radio” by Steve Earle
“Devil’s Radio” by George Harrison
“There Ain’t No Tits on The Radio” by Scissor Sisters
“You Turn Me On I’m A Radio” by Joni Mitchell
“Turn Up The Radio” by Autograph
“On The Radio” by The Selector

NUMBER ONE
“Wolfman Jack” by Todd Rundgrend

Trade ad for Wolfman’s radio show. circa 1975

For this one, we have Bart Shore presenting from Time Warp Radio.

Wolfman Jack is considered to be the most iconic Radio DJ ever at this point. His name is synonymous with radio fame and that’s why a song about him made the top of our list. Todd Rundgrend was a great song writer. This track have been a little overlooked.

This has gotten paradoxically meta. Is this Inception? Are we in the movie Inception right now?

-Wacky Alex & Bart Shore

“Sucking On A Chili Dog” parody of “Jack & Diane” by John Mellencamp

Posted on 2022-07-28 by Wacky Alex

Hell yeah! It’s National Chili Dog Day. You may know that I am from Detroit. What most people call a “Detroit-style” chili dog, we actually call a “Coney-Dog”, “Coney” or even “Coney Island”.

This style of hot dog was actually created by Greek immigrants that were living in Detroit after having spent a short time in New York City after entering the country. They borrowed the name from New York but invented it in Detroit.

A proper Detroit-style chili dog uses a ground beef based chili with no beans. It’s really just spiced up ground beef to be honest. Then you add chopped raw onions and mustard. That’s it. That’s a chili dog. I hope you can go suck on one today! And if you are in Detroit try the American Coney Island restaurant. I’d say they have the last word on the subject.

This goofy parody song has been done by a number of people. A guy named Tom McGovern got a lot of press about his version. The one embedded on this page appears to be the original but it is not the original upload. The original upload may have been taken down because of copyright issues. At this point the creator is unknown. If know who it is, let me know.

If you would like to try to make these or yourself, here is a recipe.

“Tequila” by The Champs (as seen in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure) PLUS Collecting The Vinyl & Cassettes

Posted on 2022-07-24 by Wacky Alex

Today is National Tequila Day and I can’t think of a better track to mark the occasion. I don’t drink hard liquor anymore but I used to enjoy Tequila shots.

“Tequila” by The Champs was first released in 1958 and hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was re-released in 1987 as the demand for the track suddenly rose because of it’s appearance in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.

It was available as a 7 inch 45 RPM disc. That version have a long and short version on sides A and B. It had a similar cover to what we see below, which is the 12 inch 45 RPM version.

The surprising thing about the 12 inch version is that the B side contains a rather wacky hip hop track called “Pee-Wee’s Dance” by Joeski Love.

Now I have a new record to add to my list of “grails”. If you are not a vinyl collector, let me explain what a “grail” is. The term comes from the Monte Python movie Quest For The Holy Grail. The records on a collector’s list of grails are usually hard to find items that may have special appeal to the collector.

It was released as a single in it’s own right. As a kid I remember hearing the Joeski Love track on the radio. I had a compilation cassette called Rap’s Greatest Hits that included the song. I used to bump this in my little boom box all day. I would love to find this on vinyl in good condition.

By now you must be wondering what this song sounded like. Well we won’t let you down! Here it is!

Note that the vocals are a little too low in the mix and hard to understand. It’s not you. They needed a better compressor on the vocals. I hope someone finds the master tapes and does up a nice new mix. Then they can re-issue the 12 inch double single again as a remaster.

TAKE MY MONEY!

NUMBER ONE“Wolfman Jack” by Todd Rundgrend

NUMBER ONE
“Wolfman Jack” by Todd Rundgrend