FunHouse Radio

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

“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!

“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.

Snopp Dogg Bit Somebody Hard – The No Shizzle Truth Behind Snoop-Speak

Posted on 2023-06-12 by Wacky Alex

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”.

“Back That Thang Up” by Devo Spice – Juvenile Parody

Posted on 2023-01-03 by Wacky Alex

It’s January. Have you backed up your data lately? It’s probably time. We are doing it here at FunHouse Radio. Don’t wait. You will thank us later.

Our parody song here, in my opinion is better than the original. Let this be your inspiration and don’t half-ass it.

If you know what this is then you are truly outrageous

“U Can’t Botch This” by Micky Mouse & Friends – Parody of “U Can’t Touch This” by MC Hammer – It’s Goofy

Posted on 2022-11-18 by Wacky Alex

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.

Happy Birthday Mickey!

“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!

“Square Dance Rap” by Sir Mix-A-Lot

Posted on 2022-07-03 by Wacky Alex

Today is American Redneck Day. Y’all ready to get busy? I’m crazy therefore this was the first song that came to mind for the occasion.

Sir Mix-A-Lot had an album and singles out on the scene long before “Baby Got Back”. His album Swass came out in 1988 on the strength of their single “Posse on Broadway” which was not a a comedy track like this one. I had the album on cassette.

“Square Dance Rap” was actually released as a single. I first heard the song on the radio but was a different mix. The version that appeared on the album had some editing done to it that makes it a little more goofy.

My fifth grade teacher managed to get our class to square dance back in 1985. Square dancing was really a thing in American culture, even as recently as the 1980s. The photo above was found on this great article about the square dancing fad. It’s from 1986 and shows an Ohio square dance club enjoying one of their twice monthly dances.

Have you ever learned to Square Dance? Let us know in the comments.

-Wacky Alex

“Stonks Only Go Up” by Devo Spice

Posted on 2022-05-16 by Wacky Alex

Have you been experiencing pain lately when loigging into your Crypto Wallet or 401K dashboard? It may help to know that you don’t actually loose anything until the act of selling. If that doesn’t make you feel better maybe this track will.

Devo Spice published this track on The FuMP Volume 85 compilation. It does not appear on any of his albums. It is a parody of “All The Way Up” by Fat Joe & Remy Ma ft. French Montana & Infared

Stonk is a deliberate misspelling of stock (meaning “a value share of a corporation which can be traded as an investment”). The term was coined in a 2017 meme. It’s often used sarcastically to imply a vague understanding of the securities market.

-Wacky Alex