| | Dave Barry's Book of Really Bad SongsI've ordered this book through Amazon and am looking forward to receiving it. I've read one of Dave Barry's novels, called Tricky Business, which is hilarious. He writes in a similar vein, and sets his stories in a similar environment as Carl Hiaasen does. 'Big Trouble', another of his books arrived this week but my daughter gets first read. I love books that make me laugh out loud... when strangers on the train start laughing with you, even though they don't know what you're reading, you know you are really expressing your enjoyment!
The worst songs ever, according to the Miami Herald survey, which formed the basis for Dave's book, are:
- MacArthur Park as sung by Richard Harris
- Yummy Yummy Yummy (I Got Love In My Tummy) performed by Ohio Express
- (You're) Having My Baby by Paul Anka
- Honey by Bobby Goldsboro
- Timothy written by Rupert Holmes and performed by The Buoys
- Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus
I never minded MacArthur Park - I quite liked the dramatic orchestral score, and Harris had quite a nice falsetto. The words are pretty silly though. And of course Yummy Yummy Yummy is Bubblegum Pop, but it has quite a nice tune and is fairly innocuous. You're having my baby I have always loathed. It's execrable. I haven't heard Timothy, but I think Rupert Holmes was responsible for the Pina Colada song, so that doesn't bode well for Timothy. And Achy Breaky Heart is fairly ghastly, as is the mullet of the man who sang it! I'll discuss the other 'Really Bad Songs' after I've read the book, but there are some that really must be included, like Seasons in the Sun, Leader of the Pack, Hungry like the Wolf, and anything by Tiny Tim, just for starters.
Dave's book also, I believe discusses Mondegreens. From Wikipedia...
A Mondegreen is a line of lyrics people hear incorrectly, the term was coined by
The American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term mondegreen in an essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen," which was published in Harper's Magazine in November 1954.[1] In the essay, Wright described how, as a young girl, she misheard the final line from the 17th century ballad "The Bonnie Earl O' Murray." She wrote:
- When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me from Percy's Reliques, and one of my favorite poems began, as I remember:
-
- Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
- Oh, where hae ye been?
- They hae slain the Earl Amurray, [sic]
- And Lady Mondegreen.
The actual fourth line is "And laid him on the green." As Wright
explained the need for a new term, "The point about what I shall
hereafter call mondegreens, since no one else has thought up a word for
them, is that they are better than the original." The "top 3" mondegreens according to one writer are:
- Gladly the cross-eyed bear (from the line in the hymn "Keep Thou My Way" by Fanny Crosby, "Kept by Thy tender care, gladly the cross I'll bear")
- There's a bathroom on the right (the line at the end of each verse of "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival: "There's a bad moon on the rise")
- 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy (from a lyric in the song "Purple Haze", by Jimi Hendrix: "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky").
The first line of the Australian National Anthem "Advance Australia
Fair" was originally written as "Australia’s Sons let us rejoice, for
we are young and free". According to Wikipedia, the song became popularly known as "The Ostrich
Song" after the mondegreen "Australia, Sunset Ostriches for we are
young and free".
We now sing 'Australians all let us rejoice' - a bit more inclusive! And ostriches aren't native to Australia, though the Emu, one of its relatives, most definitely is!
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I liked Richard Harris singing MacArthur Park, Yummy, Yummy, Yummy, Honey, and even Achy Breaky Heart! Didn't like the Billy Ray Cyru's mullet though. 
