Swan Dive

It all started with a bunch of bananas. Or rather a shortage of bananas. In 1923, a fungus called Panama Disease had ravaged the harvest of the world’s favorite fruit. Cut to a greengrocer’s in Long Island, where songwriting duo Frank Silver and Irving Cohn stopped for a snack on their way to work. The owner, a Greek immigrant named Jimmy Costas, told the tunesmiths in broken English, “Yes! we have no bananas today.”

Silver and Cohn turned that phrase into one of the most popular songs of the ‘20s, and created a booming industry around the novelty song. Though the genre’s popularity has waxed and waned – and mostly waned in recent years - it lives on in oldies radio playlists and with torch-bearing vets Weird Al Yankovic, Ray Stevens and Cletus T. Judd, as well as brilliant newcomers Flight Of The Conchords.

As the name suggests, novelty songs latch onto something new in the culture – a news story, a slang catchphrase, a dance craze – goose it with humor, then render it into a catchy three-minute bundle. Constructed to have shelf lives shorter than, well, bananas, many novelty songs, from “The Monster Mash” to “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” to “Axel F” (reimagined as the Crazy Frog ringtone smash last year), have survived as goofy perennials. Others, like “Ringo” and “Pac Man Fever” haven’t been so lucky.

Here are ten faves:

“Poisoning Pigeons In The Park” (1959)
Written by Tom Lehrer
Performed by Tom Lehrer

Dr. Demento once called him “the greatest satirist of the 20th Century.” On this bouncy number, Lehrer paints an idyllic portrait of spring, then goes pitch black on couplets like: When they see us coming the birdies all try and hide / But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyanide.

“Monster Mash” (1962)
Written by Bobby Pickett and Leonard Capizzi
Performed by Bobby Boris Pickett & The Crypt Kickers
Chart position: #1

Wannabe actor Bobby Pickett had a knack for impersonations, among them Boris Karloff. On weekends, he played in a cover band. One stormy night, Pickett mixed Karloff with “Little Darlin’”, and “The Monster Mash” was created.

“They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-ha” (1966)
Written by Jerry Samuels
Performed by Napoleon XIV
Chart position: #3

Recording engineer Jerry Samuels had once spent eight months in a psychiatric hospital. Apparently the experience left an impression. This monologue of a man driven insane by his badly behaved dog was demented when played forward. And even more so on the B-side, where it’s recorded backwards!

“Tiptoe Through the Tulips” (1968)
Written by Al Dubin and Joe Burke
Performed by Tiny Tim
Chart Position: #17

With his wobbly falsetto, dippy looks and beat-up uke, Tiny Tim (née Herbert Khaury) was like some intergalactic vaudeville star. This update of a 1929 tune was his biggest hit. Tim later died of cardiac arrest singing it on stage at a benefit in 1996.

“Convoy” (1975)
Written by William Fries and Louis Davis
Performed by C.W. McCall
Chart position: #1

As the CB Radio fad swept the country, one C.W. McCall (Fries’ stage name) lent his drawl to a trucker’s drama loaded full of jargon. “10-4, good buddy” became a national catchphrase.

“King Tut” (1978)
Written by Steve Martin
Performed by Steve Martin & the Toot Uncommons
Chart position: #17

Boy King meets Wild and Crazy Guy. Spoofing the Tutankhamun exhibit that was touring museums in 1978, Martin wrapped every mummy cliché in the book around this hit. Best line: “A condo made a stone-ah.”

“Eat It” (1984)
Written by Weird Al Yankovic
Performed by Weird Al Yankovic
Chart position: #12

Michael Jackson reportedly thought it was amusing enough to grant permission. The first in a long string of charting parody hits for the accordion-playing Yankovic. Produced by guitar slinger Rick Derringer.

“Bowie’s In Space” (2006)
Written by Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement
Performed by Flight of the Conchords

After New Zealand’s fourth most popular folk duo receive some counseling from an apparition of David Bowie, they sing this parody tribute. Best line: “I’m jamming out with the Mick Jagger-nauts / Ooh, and they think it’s pretty cool.