Month: May 2019

This early equivalent to awful internet meme songs in the “Friday” vein was based on the “Whistle-Stop” title theme from Disney’s dreary Robin Hood film, which was written by Roger Miller during the ‘blackout drunk’ era of his career, and remains the worst piece of music ever written for a theatrical Disney animated film. And believe me, the last thing that abomination needed was to be sped up into a chipmunk voice and played on an endless loop.

Verdict: Actually worse than the song it’s based on, which is saying something

This song’s bad reputation can be chalked up to a simple misunderstanding. This was originally a song from the musical Hair, and its sappy tone and nonsense-word chorus made perfect sense in the context of a Hippie-themed Rock musical. But when you take it out of the show and try to market it as a pop tune, it just seems pretentious and ridiculous, and as catchy as it is, it may not have been the best choice from the Hair score to become a hit single.

Verdict: Good in its original context, but I understand why some people find it annoying.

This song tends to get its reputation as a ‘bad song list’ staple from people who hate Novelty Songs by definition, but as Country novelty songs of the era go, it’s not really that bad. True, it’s not on the level of Roger Miller or Shel Silverstein’s work in the genre, but the colorfully incomprehensible trucker lingo that makes up the lyrics is oddly fascinating in terms of pure sound, and the lead singer gives a superb performance. Yes, it’s silly and ridiculous, but calling a Novelty Song ‘bad’ for that is kind of missing the entire point of the genre, and this song, while not exactly ‘funny’ in the classic sense of the word, is bizarre and colorful enough to qualify as a success on Novelty-Song terms.

Verdict: Good

I understand that this song was going for a biting satire of then-contemporary pop culture, and if you manage to listen long enough to catch the lyrics, some of them are actually rather disturbing (“Make me walk, make me talk/Do whatever you please/I can act like a star/I can beg on my knees”). The problem is that the music and the vocals are so intensely annoying that the lyrical content is ultimately beside the point; virtually no-one is ever going to be able to tolerate the song’s sound long enough to appreciate its intended point, and frankly the songwriters have no-one to blame but themselves.

Verdict: Bad

This song has become a bit overexposed over the years, but it isn’t really all that bad. True, it’s a watered-down pop version of a classic Folk song, but like “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh” by Allan Sherman, that stills puts it ahead of the vast majority of novelty hits from that era that aren’t based on great musicals classics of the past.

Verdict: Good, but the original “Wimoweh” is about ten times better