This 'n That Thursdays: Silly Songs of the '60s

From Amazon.com

Last week I took you on a trip down memory lane via silly '70s songs, so this week I thought we would continue our journey with equally silly songs from the '60s!

1) "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" (1960) by Rolf Harris

2) "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini" (1962) by Brian Hyland

3) "Monster Mash" (1962) by Bobby ("Boris") Pickett

4) "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" (1963) by Allan Sherman*

5) "Don't Let the Rain Come Down" (1964) by The Serendipity Singers

6) "Leader of the Laudromat" (1964) by The Detergents**

7) "The Name Game" (1964) by Shirley Ellis (I still sing this one, and I'm really good at it!)

8) "MacArthur Park" (1969) by Richard Harris

9) "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" (1968) by Tiny Tim (yes, this is a man singing!)

10) "Gitarzan" (1969) by Ray Stevens***

While listening to the falsetto voice of Tiny Tim is difficult, for a truly unpleasant auditory experience from the 1960s just play anything by Mrs. Miller.  This woman, bless her heart, truly did have aspirations as a singer, but unfortunately not the talent.  Even more unfortunately, her recording company decided to capitalize on her lack of talent, and she became quite a sensation of a sort.  She did soon come to realize that she was being used, but played along because you can't knock success, no matter how convoluted!  Here is just one of many examples of her recordings ("Downtown", released in 1966 on her Greatest Hits album):

For better or worse, these songs were a part of my formative years, and it is fun to listen to them occasionally (but not too often, because one can only handle so much silliness!).  I hope you enjoyed this brief foray into the world of weird music as much as I did, and I promise to avoid this topic from now on (at least for a little while)!

*The parents of a childhood friend had the Allan Sherman album, and this song was our favorite by far!

**For those who may be too young to know, this song is a parody of the popular "Leader of the Pack" (1964) by The Shangri-Las, which is a silly song in its own right.

***Ray Stevens has made a career of singing hilariously offbeat tunes.  Check out the rest of the Gitarzan album for more of his unique brand of musical humor; there are also several Ray Stevens playlists on YouTube if you just can't get enough!