Novelty song

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Novelty songs
Stylistic origins
Cultural origins
1910s United States
Typical instruments
Guitar, Bass, Drums, often also Keyboards
Mainstream popularity Grammy category beginning 1959
Other topics
Parody music - Comedy rock - Geek rock

A novelty song is a silly or nonsensical song, performed principally for its comical effect. Humorous songs, or those containing humorous elements, are not necessarily novelty songs. The term arose in Tin Pan Alley to describe one of the major divisions of popular music. The other two divisions were ballads and dance music.[1] Novelty songs achieved great popularity during the 1920s and 30s.[2][3]

Novelty songs are often a parody or humor song, and may apply to a current event such as a holiday or a fad such as a dance. Many use unusual lyrics, subjects, sounds, or instrumentation, and may not even be musical. The #1 Greatest Novelty Song, "They're Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!", has little music and is set to a rhythm tapped out on a snare drum and tambourine. One novelty song, a remix of "Axel F", started as a mobile phone ring-tone.

Contents

[edit] History

An early novelty songs was the 1941 "Der Fuehrer's Face", and the 1952 #1 single "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" became notable for extensive play and backlash because the song became annoying. Dickie Goodman, the godfather of the genre, faced a lawsuit for his 1956 "The Flying Saucer" novelty song which used sampling. "Yakety Yak" became a #1 single on July 21, 1958, and is the only novelty song (#346) of the Songs of the Century. The first Best Comedy Recording Grammy was awarded to "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)", which used a speeded-up voice technique to simulate a chipmunk voice.[4] In 1964, the Grammy for Best Country and Western Album was awarded to Roger Miller's Dang Me/Chug-a-Lug, which had several novelty songs.

In 1985, "The Stonk" novelty song raised over £100,000 for the Comic Relief charity. After P.D.Q. Bach repeatedly won the Best Comedy Album Grammy from 1990-1993, the category was changed to Best Spoken Comedy Album, and when Best Comedy Album was reinstated in 2004, "Weird Al" Yankovic won for Poodle Hat.

[edit] List of novelty songs

A-E
F-M
N-Z

[edit] Performers notable for novelty songs

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hamm, Irving Berlin Early Songs, p. xxxiv: "The text of a novelty song sketches a vignette or a brief story of an amusing or provocative nature. ... noted for portraying characters of specific ethnicity or those finding themselves in certain comic or melodramatic situations, ..."
  2. ^ Axford, Song Sheets to Software, p. 20: "As sentimental songs were the mainstay of Tin Pan Alley, novelty and comical songs helped to break the monotony, developing in the twenties and thirties as signs of the times."
  3. ^ Tawa, Supremely American, p. 55: "... in the 1920s, novelty songs offset the intensely serious and lachrymose ballads. nonsensical novelty songs, reproducing the irrational and meaningless side of the twenties, made frequent appearances."
  4. ^ Hoffman, Dr Frank. Novelty Songs (html). Jeff O's Retro Music. Jeff O'Corbett. Retrieved on 2008-02-23.

The D. Sticker Ensemble

[edit] Bibliography

  • Aquila, Richard, That Old-time Rock & Roll: A Chronicle of an Era, 1954-1963. University of Illinois Press, 2000. ISBN 0-252-06919-6
  • Axford, Elizabeth C. Song Sheets to Software: A Guide to Print Music, Software, and Web Sites for Musicians. Scarecrow Press, 2004. ISBN 0-8108-5027-3
  • Hamm, Charles (ed.). Irving Berlin Early Songs. Marcel Dekker, 1995. ISBN 0895793059
  • Tawa, Nicholas E. Supremely American: Popular Song in the 20th Century . Scarecrow Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8108-5295-0