A funky, rollicking medley of "Funkytown" and "I Feel Good" by three New York City bands - Lucky Chops, Moon Hooch and Too Many Zooz. Three baritone saxes, an alto sax, a trumpet, a trombone, a sousaphone and two drummers. This would have been great to see live.

Back in 1979, Ray Stevens parodied Barry Manilow and took it to the extreme. The album art is a parody of Manilow's Tryin' to Get the Feeling. This song also mentions several Manilow songs (and pokes fun at the fact that Manilow didn't write the hit "I Write the Songs").

Here's an old favorite of mine that's kinda sad, but still brings back happy memories when you listen to those lyrics and remember the good times.

A great example of what you find when you look into a band further. In 1972, Boston-area folk/country rock band Clean Living became famous among fans of novelty songs for their recording of "In Heaven There Is No Beer". In reality they were a talented, serious band, who had only recorded that song to fill out the B side of their first album (though it's unclear where they learned it given that it wouldn't have been very well known to anyone who wasn't familiar with Frankie Yankovic and/or polka music in general), but Vanguard decided to release that song as the A side of the band's first single. This song ended up being their second single and appeared on their second album, Meadowmuffin, in 1973.

A one-hit-wonder from 1973/1974 (1973 in parts of Europe, 1974 in the UK). The Peppers were from France and released 3 or 4 singles before breaking up.

A fun novelty tune from 1947. This probably wouldn't be considered acceptable today.

Michael, I remember "Huggin' and Chalkin'" -  very popular when I was in the 7th grade.  Played constantly on all the pop radio stations in the Los Angeles area.  There were other songs that were even worse, that would be banned in today's world.   

This one would get banned today as well. At least this one has someone who appreciates the woman for who she is.

Leon was great. I still have a copy of On the Track somewhere

Here's one you've probably never heard (at least not this version). The original version of Gary Lewis and The Playboys' hit "Sure Gonna Miss Her". Written by Bobby Russell (who wrote "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia" among other things, in addition to recording his own records), this was done by one of a number of studio acts who recorded soundalike covers of popular songs for budget label Hit Records. Originally these releases contained cover recordings on both sides, but at some point they switched to including recordings of original songs on the B side, mostly written by their in-house songwriters.

Another song that would be politically incorrect these days. This was originally recorded as "Monsieur Cannibale" by French artist Sacha Distel. In the original, a man is kidnapped by a cannibal and tries various things to avoid being eaten by said cannibal. In this version, the singer begs the cannibal to eat him "again" (only in German for some reason - probably to avoid the censors). This has also been done in German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Dutch - apparently it was quite a popular song across Europe.

A bluegrass version of Del Shannon's hit "Runaway". The record label refers to a real festival (apparently sponsored by KFC) that took place in Louisville, Kentucky (from the 60s at least through 1987)

I never would have guessed that was Del Shannon's Runaway.  Interesting, but I prefer the original.     

Another interesting bluegrass cover. This is a cover of the 1955 song "Memories Are Made of This", which was a big hit for Dean Martin that year.

That's a beautiful rendition of,  "They Can't Take That Away From Me". I enjoyed listening to it. 

"Listen to the Rhythm  of the Falling Rain", which I've been doing for the past two months.

So easy to listen too.

Acker Bilk was one of the first Brits to hit the top spot here in the US with the classic "Stranger on the Shore". Very talented musician.

Here's a classic from 1958. This was The Diamonds' biggest hit, peaking at #2 in the US and #3 in the UK, and the first of what would be 5 straight top 20 hits for the group.

From the "what were they thinking" department. Apparently an attempt to further capitalize on the popularity of surfing in the mid-1960s, someone decided it was a good idea to have Annette Funicello release an album of covers of popular surf songs. Here's her take on the classic Jan & Dean song "Ride the Wild Surf". Not terrible but nobody did Jan & Dean songs like Jan & Dean (except for The Beach Boys maybe)

"Peel me a 'nanner, toss me a peanut, you sure made a monkey out of me!" 

Written by the great Bill Anderson. This is from 1963.

A fun Bluegrass tune from the mid-70s.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

A smoking cha cha rendition of "El choclo" (aka "Kiss of Fire") by saxophonist Earl Bostic and his orchestra from 1959. He also did a bossa nova version of this a few years later.

Turn,Turn,Turn -  For Everything there is a Season. Written by Pete Seeger.
He adapted the lyrics from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, from one of the "wisdom books" of the Old Testament, collections of truths and sayings. "A time to be born, a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap; a time to kill, a time to heal," etc. Seeger took the text almost verbatim. He added the "turn, turn, turn" to build a chorus and tacked on his own hopeful concluding line: "A time of peace; I swear it's not too late."  (Copied from an internet article about the song.)

For some reason, Earl Bostic also decided to do a cha cha version of "La Cucaracha"...

Found this just now. Wycliffe Gordon and the One o'Clock Lab Band from the University of North Texas.

Good, bright sunny morning!

That's a catchy tune. I always liked it.