The Great American Novelty

My gateway was from that cover album of “Pussycats” the Walkmen did.

(xp) I really hope you said Suicide!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Opz_drg1O8

I would wager that as many people know “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” as any of Nilsson’s songs.

voted "short people" narrowly over "werewolves," the other two get old reeeeeally fast.

imho nilsson is definitely a bigger artist than zevon for the chart-performance reasons others have cited, but to be clear, neither of them, or newman, are remotely at the level of chuck berry or bob dylan in terms of prominence. that's okay tho - the thread doesn't call for airtightness or comprehensiveness the way, say, the "every huge artist" clause of the New Jersey threads does.

Yeah, it was just a spur of the moment thing. I do wish I'd thought of Johnny Cash, who sits in the space between Berry/Dylan at the pinnacle and Newman/Zevon somewhere below,.

Sorry I had to bring up Johnny Cash but it had to be done!

I would wager that as many people know “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” as any of Nilsson’s songs.

Do they know who sang it though?

I tried to troll vote but I don't think it's possible on this poll.

The only Warren Zevon song I've heard is the one listed here. I should probably remedy that but at least in my world of suburban-ish southern americans he was an unknown. Not that Nilsson was anything more either, but "Coconut" reached me by osmosis the same way "Werewolves of London" did.

Do most people know who sang without you or line in the coconut?

Lime that is

"Coconut" I don't know about, I don't think it was a hit single, but "Without You" I would assume so.

"Coconut" was featured on The Muppet Show, which is how little kid me knew the song.

Point of Zevon/Nilsson intersection: two famous Scorsese scenes, "Werewolves" in The Color of Money and "Jump Into the Fire" in Goodfellas. Independent of the who's-more-famous question (if anything, it's another thing on Nilsson's resume I'd forgotten), I think many more people would identify Zevon with "Werewolves" than would know who sings the weird echo-ey thing from the helicopter montage in Goodfellas.

I didn't know either of those songs were in either of those films tbh. I've only saw "The Color of Money" once though.

did “jump in the fire” get classic rock radio play? Feels like I heard it a million times before I knew who did it. I’ve only seen Goodfellas once.

maybe it was like a Wayne’s World/BoRap thing?

The "Werewolves" scene, for me, is one of Scorsese's greatest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsAE2jFPqLw

Not a film I've ever had any great urge to re-watch.

Not sure about "Jump in the Fire." I'd had Nilsson Schmilsson for years when Goodfellas came out, but I bought it for the two hits and never played the whole album much, so when I first saw the film, I had it in my mind that "Jump Into the Fire," which I didn't recognize, must have been "Memo from Turner," which I spotted in the credits and didn't know either.

I actually came to know “werewolves of London” via David Lindsey’s version... “his hair was very very greasy”

lindley (dad was a fan)

In the Kidz Bop version, they sing, “A little old lady got quite a scare the other night...”

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Re-run with "A Boy Named Sue".

That was my idea too--maybe just here, informally. "Werewolves" or "A Boy Named Sue"?

I like "Sue," but "Werewolves" for me.

I love the David Lindley version.

Something that made me laugh: I mentioned this poll to some friends, we got talking about it, and we realized that Ray Stevens' biggest hit was a non-novelty song, "Everything Is Beautiful."

Re-run with "A Boy Named Sue".

― The Fields o' Fat Henry (Tom D.), Saturday, July 4, 2020 7:41 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

speaking of novelty hits, I just head "Dawn of Correction" (#36, 1965) by the Spokesmen, an answer record to "Eve of Destruction" performed by guys who wrote "At the Hop" "You Don't Own Me" "Rock'n'Roll is Here to Stay" etc. Very neolib lyrics:

You tell me that marches won't bring integration
But look what it's done for the voter registration
Be thankful our country allows demonstrations
Instead of condemnin', make some recommendations

You missed all the good in your evaluation
What about the things that deserve commendation?
Where there once was no cure, there's vaccination
Where there once was a desert, there's vegetation
Self-government's replacing colonization
What about the Peace Corp. organization?
Don't forget the work of the United Nations

A playlist I was listening to just reminded me of this piece of crap, which I thought might belong in this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFacWGBJ_cs

Turns out, it was a hit nearly everywhere but the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaddap_You_Face#Charts

A rare way to go, America from me, then!

A Czech interpretation written by Zdeněk Borovec, "Já na bráchu blues", performed by Helena Vondráčková and Jiří Korn, was a hit in Czechoslovakia in 1981.