Fun Rock (4xLP, 1986, various artists)

Archies, Coasters (“Yakety Yak), Champs, and Ernie K. Doe all strong contenders, but i think i’d have to go with Shirelles if i had to vote today. but i’m going to check out the tracks i don’t recognize, although i have a feeling i will have heard many of them

My early exposure to American Werewolf In London means I must go with Blue Moon.

Everything here good to great. Lightnin’ Strikes probably my favorite but it strains against the “fun rock” concept. It’s such a morass of self-loathing sexual compulsion.

Tempted to vote Napoleon XIV, which goes beyond annoying novelty song into sounding genuinely unhinged. Still have no idea whether the final verse is meant to be a “twist” or just particularly aggrieved invective.

What a great concept for coralling songs I love and loathe (ditto fun, I guess)...

Love: McCoys, Sam the Sham, Marcels, Millie Small, Archies, Gene Chandler, Champs, Contours, Kingsmen, Trashmen, Johnny Cash, Shirley Ellis

Loathe: Royal Teens, Steam, Bobby Pickett, Sheb Wooley, Bryan Hyland

A lot of what falls between is on the loathe side of indifference (or maybe I liked them as a kid and got sick of them). Not sure what I'll vote for yet.

Interesting thing my friend posted last week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5tPAzr8qtQ

Thank goodness no “Please Mr. Custer” which used to show up on these novelty rock compilations.

God, those commercials used to be ubiquitous: Goofy Greats, etc. I'm amazed I still like so many of these.

Full disclosure: as a kid, I loved Ray Stevens, who had a corner on this kind of thing.

Obviously, this is where "Gangnam Style" and LMFAO and lots else will end up one day.

the name game!

My dad listened to oldies radio in the car all the time so I know almost all of these except "Lightnin' Strikes" and "Hats Off to Larry".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwJ3FMLlrSQ

i found the unknown-to-me tracks mostly annoying but was reminded how awesome the Contours track is. the Steam track is interesting, basically ruined by its ubiquity, but the chords and structure are truly wild

Skipping the overly novelty songs this could actually be a pretty fun party soundtrack. I’d resequence it. Voted the wicked Pickett.

The Newbeats' "Bread and Butter" is the only one I don't know...don't think I know them, either.

Voted Louie Louie. Can't ever play it loud enough. Has to be top 10 all-time song for me. Amazing story of how this unlikely song became what it is told on Andrew Hickey's History of Rock in 500 songs #106

My band played a party recently where the host requested Louie Louie. We’d never played it together, man it was spontaneous fun.

There were only nine of these where I couldn't summon up any associations, and after sampling them it seems I've never heard them before, and don't really want to hear them again. All the rest had varying levels of omnipresence a few decades ago.
As a hater of fun, I prefer the solemnity of Lou Christie or the Kingsmen to the pathetic attempts at humour here. Wilson Pickett and the Contours are good too, but I think it has to be "Lightnin' Strikes".

God, those commercials used to be ubiquitous

1986 seems a little late for this sort of compilation - I associate the ads for the K-Tel equivalents of this record with being a little kid in the late 70s.

This poll is impossible

The Newbeats' "Bread and Butter" is the only one I don't know...don't think I know them, either.

This I only knew through Devo's cover, same with James Taylor doing "Handy Man".

Surfin' Bird, easy

Woolly Bully

Interesting mix of classic and annoying, with a bunch floating in the space between. I kinda want to own this.

Voted “Do You Love Me.”

Hang on Sloopy

oh this is super cool, never heard of this comp but I have a good followup poll (budget 3LP hits)

some very strong contenders but "Surfin' Bird" must always win

Love - Hang on Sloopy, Blue Moon, My Boy Lollipop, Sugar Sugar, Duke of Earl, Charlie Brown, Yakkety Yak, Mother-in-Law, If You Wanna Be Happy, Louie Louie, Quarter to Three, The Name Game
Like - Little Old Lady from Pasadena, Handy Man, Judy in Disguise, Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, You Talk Too Much, Wild Thing, Surfin' Bird, A Boy Named Sue

It's between the utterly ridiculous Surfin' Bird and the not-ridiculous-at-all Mama Said.

As my favorite song by possibly the greatest girl group, Mama Said gets the win.

"Sugar, Sugar" is great, but in keeping with the concept, there must be four or five bubblegum songs that would have been more suitable (more novelty than "Sugar, Sugar"--"Chewy Chewy," etc.).

The Newbeats' "Bread and Butter" is the only one I don't know...don't think I know them, either.

― clemenza, Tuesday, February 4, 2025 8:49 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Genuinely surprised by this, but then I started to think and I couldn't remember why I knew the song. I figured it must've been in some movie I saw as a kid, but the Wikipedia entry doesn't mention anything I would have seen at the time: I definitely wasn't watching 9 1/2 Weeks in the 80s, and I don't remember ever seeing the show Baby Talk (which turns out to have been a spinoff of Look Who's Talking with Tony Danza in the Bruce Willis talking baby role). Later usages include Simon Birch, Anchorman, The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars and Lizzy Maguire, but I knew the song well before those came out (and haven't seen most of them besides).

Just gave it a listen, and I guess I do know it--although it almost sounds like they took another more famous song and changed the lyrics.

Bread and Butter is pretty good. I know all of these songs, my parents were into the American Graffiti soundtracks and Oldies But Goodies comps.

Never liked "Little Old Lady From Pasadena."

Bread and Butter has been in a bunch of tv commercials.

There are a bunch of cool old tunes in this comp but everything loses (including Louis Louis) to the madness that is Surfin’ Bird.

God, those commercials used to be ubiquitous: Goofy Greats, etc. I'm amazed I still like so many of these.

I have the 40 Funky Hits one, which has several duplicates with this and as you probably guessed, is not very funky at all except for Dyke and the Blazers. It's the one with the blatantly racist caricatures of Stagger Lee and Ahab the Arab on the cover, not to mention the heroine of "You Talk Too Much" *and* the dog mentioned in the song, and yep, Gen. Custer. That must be the most depressing novelty song ever. Listen as the poor bastard singing gets killed in front of you!

Still not sure what I will vote for, but in the amazing (horrifying) commercial, it's a toss-up between the waitress lip-syncing to "Bread and Butter" (she really gets into it) and the woman in the Mondrian sweater doing "Do You Love Me" in the grocery store.

Love nearly everything here. Was tempted by Napoleon but went for My Boy Lollipop

I still wish a violent death on Seth MacFarlane for putting Surfin Bird in Family Guy. And for everything else he ever did

"Surfin' Bird" shoulda been declared off limits in comedy after Pink Flamingos.

otm

What I don't understand is covering "Surfin' Bird." Two of my favorite groups of all time, the Ramones and the Cramps, both did it, and they were both terrible. You can't be more insane than the original recording of "Surfin' Bird," so you shouldn't even try. It's like when musicians re-record A Love Supreme. Don't do it! You will fall short of the mark and sound like a loser by comparison!

hahaha I like the Ramones one but yeah

for me it was between surfin' bird and my boy lollipop and i went bird over lolli. but they are both so heavenly.

You will fall short of the mark and sound like a loser by comparison!

...unless the Trashmen did "A Love Supreme" and Coltrane essayed a 55-minute long version of "Surfin' Bird"

Oh man

What about Charlie Parker?

The Cramps' live version of the bird were pretty extensive, although certainly not better than the original.

So many great song in here, I'm having trouble choosing. Leaning towards Charlie Brown, although that's far from my favorite Coasters track.

Of those I hadn't heard before, I got a guilty chuckle out of Hats Off to Larry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nP_qlLKzSQ

gawd I can’t believe I remember every one of those “performers” from the commercial.

“Bread and Butter” lady ftw.

That ad, of course, is now older than all the music in it was when it was made. The contemporary equivalent ad would feature a food-delivery driver lip-syncing to "Black Hole Sun" and an influencer miming "Doll Parts".

Who is the implied modern-day antithesis to rock with "no message, no meaning"? U2? Tracy Chapman? Master of Puppets?

"modern-day" i.e. 1988

"I really dig Reign in Blood but the message is just too much, why can't they be more like Allan Sherman?"

Oh wow, I totally remember this ad now! To address an issue I raised upthread, I think it might have even been where I knew "Bread and Butter" from.

Doing the math it looks like the contemporary equivalent album would cover songs from 1994/95 to 2006, so you could have those old grunge tunes but then also stuff like "Hey Ya!," "Get the Party Started," and "I Believe in a Thing Called Love." "Losing My Edge" would be like this release's Napoleon XIV song.

Mmmbop!

I just coincidentally heard the Andrew Hickey bonus episode about "Short Shorts" and had to look up the Royal Teens. There's a weird episode of Midnight Special from 1974 that's a nostalgia show with Fabian and Jimmie Rodgers and Frankie Ford, the Fleetwoods, and the Royal Teens doing "Short Shorts." All the artists look so young and look like normal 1970s people.

Someone start a Fun Rock: Millennial Edition playlist.

for your consideration:

SuperBubble (3xLP, 1977, various artists)

the first album I ever owned was one of these collections on cassette. There was an TV ad for it and I asked for it for my birthday. I think I was 7. I played the heck out of it.

Who is the implied modern-day antithesis to rock with "no message, no meaning"?

“We Are the World”

Sam the Sham mocked all that in an interview once: "You've got to respect other people's right to also have a message themselves. Myself, what I'm going to do is rent Town Hall and put about 30 Western Union boys on the bill. I mean, then there'll really be some messages. People will be able to come and hear more messages than they've ever heard before in their life."

Who is the implied modern-day antithesis to rock with "no message, no meaning"?

“We Are the World”

...and yet Bowie and Jagger never get any credit for doing a "fun rock" cover for charity, thus uniting non-meaning and meaning.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

We should poll the actors in the ad next.

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

everybody knows that the bird is a word

What is being reflected in their sunglasses?

"The Troggs – Wild Thing"

Ok @ one vote for this.