Much like poor Smokey Robinson doing that terrible closing theme for Solarbabies.
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Objection! Hyperbole exceeds federally allowed maximums.
āNoveltyā songs can be great, and are no more or less inclined to inanity than any other genre, and if it seems that they do, itās only because we excuse others. Sir McCartney might complain that āsilly love songsā donāt get a pass, but they really do.
What percentage of the songs in the Halloween thread, e.g., are novelty songs?
Jonathan Coulton, Randy Newman, They Might Be Giants, Weird Al, Tom Lehrer, Frank Zappa!
Here are some classics:
Friendship (Judy and Johnny Mercer)
Lazy Bones (Hoagy Carmichael, lyrics by Mercer)
Hell, Iāll even go with a couple '70s ones:
Unrequited To The Nth Degree (Loudon Wainwright)
I even think āJunk Food Junkieā holds up pretty well despite the many dated references:
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It does have that ultra-bombastic Eighties production, but itās a decent melody for the time and his vocals are appealing. DJ DiscoCat on YouTube has a remix of an 1980 song he did called āStay The Night,ā which I think is better but wasnāt nearly as commercially successful. The production is lighter, so it doesnāt sound so much like Ocean is fighting to be heard above the din.
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Note use of legal wiggle-word āalmostā. This gives me sufficient latitude to allow any exceptions while still painting with a broad brush. I may be a demagogue, but Iām a cheap demagogue. 
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Curse you, SandyFrank! You win this round with your fiendish machinations!
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Iāve read at least one interview with a former Beatle (definitely Paul, possibly George as well) in which they basically said āJohn loved that song, and no matter how hard we tried, we couldnāt talk him out of recording a version.ā So youāre not alone in this opinion.
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Agreed. I mentioned it earlier in the thread. hate this song with the heat of a thousand suns.
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Charleneās āIāve Never Been To Meā has been mentioned several times on this thread. I stumbled across this today - some twisted visionary has turned the song into a short screenplay.
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Aw see now THAT didnāt need to happen.
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In more ways than one.
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Yeah, sorry about that. Just trying to live up to the post title, and that oneās a legit contender.
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Yes. Truly awful.
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If it had been obscure that would have been one thing, but:
hit single, climbing the to No. 6, spending ten weeks in the listings, as well as making it to No. 9 in Ireland and New Zealand and No. 18 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It reached No. 42 in Australia and was also a minor hit in Canada (No. 76). It became a gold record, selling over one million copies in the U.S. alone. āTelephone Manā and āTelephone Line,ā ELOās song, were back-to-back on the Hot 100ās top 40 for two non-consecutive weeks in the summer of 1977.
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I weep for the person who bought the single Telephone Man thinking they were getting ELO.
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āTelephone Lineā is pretty milquetoast itself. Iām much more about āTurn To Stone.ā
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I imagine it took a minute or two to realize their mistake, but maybe not much longer.
/thinlyveileddigatelo>
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āTelephone Lineā is one of the greatest records ever made!
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[shrug] I like them better when theyāre uptempo. As phone-related ballads go, I like Jim Croceās āOperator (Thatās Not The Way It Feels).ā
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I never have, and probably never will, like āI Will Always Love Youā. Not just played to death, itās a sappy song lacking any kind of virtuosity to me. I assume its initial success was due to its cinematic tie-in, and it entered the Hits Canon from there. But I dunna like it at all.
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