Subscribe via RSS IconRSS or e-mail About this Site Legal Stuff Privacy Policy
Link To Us Sites We Like

Archive for the ‘Music - Songs’ Category

category icon

The Chicken Song

Posted by Big Boo on June 2nd, 2008

The Chicken SongReleased in 1986, The Chicken Song spent three weeks in the UK number one slot, despite it being one of the most irritating novelty songs ever written. To be fair though, being irritating was always the point of the song as it was intended to be a parody of songs such as Agadoo and Superman, and any of the rest of cringe worthy group Black Lace’s records.

The song was penned by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, the creators of sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf, when they were writers for the satirical adult puppet show Spitting Image, which featured rubber charicatures of famous people of the day, the majority of whom were political in nature, although anybody famous was a possible target. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President Ronald Reagan were two particularly memorable puppets from the show. The song featured in the show initially, but eventually was released as a single where it found success amongst young and old alike.

Read more…

category icon

Billy Joel - Uptown Girl

Posted by Big Boo on April 10th, 2008

Billy Joel - Uptown GirlBilly Joel stormed the charts in 1983 with his classic song Uptown Girl, reaching number three in the US and claiming the top spot in the UK for five weeks, knocking Culture Club’s Karam Chameleon off. The song was incredibly popular due to it’s catchy tune and simple to learn lyrics, and is the song most people will think of first when asked to name a Billy Joel song.

The song itself tells the story of a regular bloke (referred to as a downtown man in the song) who is smitten with a class socialite woman (the uptown girl of the title). The lyrics describe how this man thinks he would treat this woman were he ever to get the chance, claiming that whilst he may not be able to “buy her pearls” he would treat her well and provide the best life he could for her.

The song was written by Joel with supermodel Christie Brinkley in mind. She was his girlfriend (and later wife) and so the song is somewhat autobiographical in nature, as Joel often wondered how he could have been so lucky to end up with Brinkley as a partner. Unfortunately they divorced in 1994.

Read more…

category icon

Star Trekkin’

Posted by Big Boo on March 14th, 2008

Star Trekkin’ across the universe!June 1987, and the UK goes barmy for Star Trekkin’, a single celebrating all that was great (and stereotypical) about the classic Star Trek series - i.e. the series with Captain Kirk and Spock. No Trek cliche was left unused, except perhaps the one about Kirk always kissing the pretty female guest character. The song knocked Whitney Houston’s I Wanna Dance With Somebody off the top of the charts (thank God) although it was only at number one for two weeks (also thank God!).

The song can be credited to a group called The Firm, though confusingly there have been three bands with the same name including a rock band formed in 1984 and a hip hop group - well, sort of, the full band name appears to have been Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album. Anyway, the “The Firm” that was responsible for Star Trekkin’ were also responsible for another TV programme related novelty song, Arthur Daley E’s Alright, based of course on Minder.

Star Trekkin’ is a song in the mould of “The Music Man” or “The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”, with each new verse added to the last so that by the end of the song it consists of five lines instead of the original one. Each new line was delivered by a different Star Trek character, the basics of which were as follows:-

Uhura: There’s Klingons on the starboard bow!
Spock: It’s life Jim, but not as we know it.
Dr. McCoy: It’s worse than that he’s dead Jim.
Kirk: We come in peace, shoot to kill.
Scotty: Ye cannae change the laws ae physics.

Read more…

category icon

Junior Senior - Move Your Feet

Posted by Big Boo on February 6th, 2008

Junior Senior - Move Your FeetJunior Senior are a Dutch band formed in 1998 comprising of Jesper Mortensen and Jeppe Laursen, who were both previously members of the band Ludo-X. So what are they doing being featured in a sight about the 1980’s, I hear you cry? Well, the reason is for the amazing pixellated video that accompanies one of their best known songs, Move Your Feet.

The video is extremely colourful and animated in a way that anyone familiar with computer systems such as the Commodore Amiga will instantly feel a pang of nostalgia for. It was created by design outfit Shynola, and it’s best watched rather than described, so hit the play button below and enjoy! The video is also included as a multimedia extra on the bands album D-D-D-Don’t Stop the Beat, which incidentally is one of the songs lyrics.

category icon

Joe Dolce - Shaddup You Face

Posted by Big Boo on February 4th, 2008

Joe Dolce - Shaddup You FaceIt may be looked back on with distaste now, but at the time Joe Dolce’s hit Shaddup You Face stormed the charts around the world. The song was first released in Australia in 1980, where it went to number one and was the most successful Australian produced single in Australian music history for 26 years, selling over 350,000 copies. Total sales worldwide of the song including the 35 different foreign language versions (including the aboriginal dialect Indjubundji) are set at 4 million copies!

The song also stormed the charts in the UK, hitting the top spot on February 17, 1981, denying Ultravox from reaching number one with their hit Vienna. In total, it reached number one in no less than 15 countries!

It was sung in a broad Italian accent (presumably not Joe Dolce’s normal voice), with the main chorus being the unforgettable:-

Whassamatta you?
Gotta no respect?
Whaddaya think ya do?
Why you look-a so sad?
It’s-a not so bad.
It’s-a nice-a place.
Ah Shaddup you face.

Read more…

category icon category icon

Rupert and the Frog Song

Posted by Big Boo on November 14th, 2007

Rupert and the Frog SongThe adventures of the little white bear called Rupert have been popular for many many years. Paul McCartney was a fan as a child, and when he realised that his own children loved Rupert just as much as he had done, it gave him the idea of creating an animated Rupert film.

In 1979 he set to work writing songs for the film, but sadly it was never to be. However, in 1981 he teamed up with animator Geoff Dunbar and brought one of those songs to life - Rupert and the Frog Song.

Finally released in 1984, the single reached number 3 in the UK charts, whilst the cartoon was the biggest selling video of the following year. The song, actually called “We All Stand Together“, is fondly remembered today for the “Bom, bom bom” sound made by a group of large backing frogs, and it’s simple but memorable chorus which goes like this:-

“Win or lose, sink or swim,
One thing is certain we’ll never give in,
Side by side, hand in hand,
We all stand together”
(bom-bom!)

Read more…

category icon

The Birdie Song

Posted by Big Boo on August 14th, 2007

The Birdie SongWhich song is still the staple method employed by wedding disco DJ’s of trying to get everyone up on the dance floor to embarrass themselves after all these years? The answer is, of course, The Birdie Song. There will come a time during most wedding receptions that The Birdie Song will be put on, and everybody with no shame, from the tiniest tot to the drunkest uncle gets up to make their hands look like bird beaks, flap their arms like wings, wiggle their backside and then skip round in a circle.

The record was released in the UK by a band called The Tweet’s in 1981, and somehow made it to number 2 in the charts (probably through all those wedding disco DJ’s snapping up a copy). The band consisted of people dressed as birds playing the various musical instruments - the bird costumes being necessary in order to protect their real identities no doubt. There was a follow up single entitled Let’s all Sing like the Birdie’s Sing, but it sunk without trace.

Read more…