Tag Archives: tv

“Do The Swim” by Bobby Freeman

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Hear the brilliant production of Sly Stone in this number one hit for Bobby Freeman. By late 1964, this track beat out The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Ventures, Jan & Dean and Dusty Springfield. You can already hear Sly Stone’s sound in the arrangement, instrumentation, and production.

The Swim was also a dance. Here is a video of Bobby miming the song while doing the dance. This appeared on a television show that year.

Today is National Learn To Swim Day. Needless to say, everyone should learn to swim. A swim instructor first teaches folks how to breath and float. These two things alone can save your life.

We’re using today as an occasion to turn on the summer music! This classic track is included! So tune in to the live stream to hear our summer tracks in the mix.

-Wacky Alex

Playtex Gentle Glide Tampons Wants You To Know All The Dirty Details About Weird Al Yankovic

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Someone apparently used a VHS to record an episode of VH1 Behind The Music, including commercial breaks, as it aired on cable TV in 1999. The episode focuses on Weird Al Yankovic and treats us to interviews with Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Dr Demento, Doug Feiger (The Knack) and The Weird One, himself.

Many years later someone attempted to transfer the video cassette recording to digital. It seems to have been captured at slower and glitchy frame rates. The contrast is low so everything is grayed out. The sound quality is basic to bad. You can probably find the DVD in a public library if you really want. The YouTube title says “High Quality”. This is a lie.

Still, this beast is watchable and entertaining. It helps if you are a fan of His Weirdness. Furthermore, it’s fascinating because of the commercials. It’s like a time capsule.

Do you think a Tampon or a maxi-pad could feel like a diaper? Do you remember what it feels like to wear a diaper? Well apparently this was a huge problem in 1999 and it needed to be addressed on VH1. Watch for the commercial in the video.

But why would a feminine hygiene product manufacturer want you to know about Weird Al? They didn’t. At the time there was a pretense that the companies running advertisements during live broadcasts were sponsoring the content that it interrupted. This was a carry-over from old time radio and early television.

We cover Yankovic a lot around here and his music is always in rotation on the live stream. We’ve even created a T-Shirt design in his honor. Order one today!

-Wacky Alex

“Money For Nothing / Beverly Hillbillies” by Weird Al Yankovic (from UHF)

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May 15th is International Family Day. It was founded by the United Nations in 1994. What better way to mark the occasion then with a song about the Beverly Hillbillies? The poorest and most rural family imaginable becomes fabulously wealthy by a lucky strike. Hooray!

Weird Al included the music video in the 1989 movie UHF which he co-wrote and starred in. The film is now considered a cult classic and everyone should check it out. The song is a parody of “Money For Nothing” by Dire Straits and the recording features guitarist Mark Knopfler.

-Wacky Alex

“Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That” by Sweet Brown – Super Funky Dance Mix

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It’s been exactly 10 years since Sweet Brown, an Oklahoma City resident, became an internet sensation. People found her appearance on a news report to be endearing and entertaining. She was interviewed by a local TV station after evacuating her apartment building due to fire.

That report became a viral meme. In short order producers created dance tracks with auto-tuned samples from the news report. These too became music-memes. Below is one of the popular ones.

After the video was released, Brown became a minor celebrity. She stared in national commercials. She was on Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 and was even played by Queen Latifah in a skit for Jimmy Kimmel. Beyonce quoted her at the Superbowl. She reprized her interview in the movie Medea’s Christmas.

“Pets” by Porno For Pyros, LIVE on Howard Stern

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The last Sunday in April is National Pet Parent’s Day. Do you have any pets? Do you consider them a member of the family? What if you were the pet? What if an Extra-terrestrial being with a higher intelligence decided to have you as a pet?

The legendary Perry Farrell pontificates on this very situation in this song. It’s a classic Gen-X top-40 rock song for sure but unlike most of the other songs in that category, this one is not about doom, apathy or emotional pain. It’s not even sarcastic.

Perry and the group played a live acoustic version of the song on the Howard Stern Show back in 1997.

Have a great day with your pets!

“Miau Miau” by Stereo Total on The Network Awesome Show

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How is it that we first hear a woman speaking English with a thick French accent and then she starts singing in perfect German? Stereo Total were a duo from Berlin. Françoise Cactus was raised in France before relocating to Berlin in the 1980s. Sadly she died of breast cancer in 2021. The other half of the duo, Brezel Göring is apparently from Berlin.

Of course today is another #Caturday and this song is apparently about cat behavior but I think it’s really a metaphor about a cheating lover. We play the album version of the song on our live stream all the time. Love this!

Both played a number of different instruments during their time as a group. They switched between and blended many different genres, but here we have them sounding something like The White Stripes with a stripped down garage-rock drum, vocal, and guitar performance.

This live performance was recorded in July of 2012 for a European TV show. MEOW!

-Wacky Alex