Goofus / The Thing - Phil Harris
Why included: Best Sellers In Stores Billboard #1 hit in Dec 1950 for 4 weeks
A-side: Goofus
This was not the hit of this single, but I find this much more tolerable than the B-side. Maybe because it is more of an unassuming novelty pop song, it pricks at my nerves far less. Nevertheless, you can expect what you will be getting: big band production, smooth "charming" vocals, the typical melody-making approach of pre-50s pop music, etc. There is practically nothing of note here, and it was rightly forgotten with time. Though, I'm sure fewer radios would have been thrown out the window if this song was the notorious hit.
B-side: The Thing
Dear fucking god, this song really does not have replay value. The story in the lyrics is dumb but amusing (read it here) and the song's theatrics don't annoy too badly the first time one hears it. It's a novelty pop song, which means playing it more than once is like telling someone the same joke three or four times. So, why the hell did people BUY this thing? Did they think the ending was gonna change with the fifth or sixth listen or something? The more I hear this song, the more the humor feels forced and irritating, so best to ignore the thing that ever existed unless you are deeply in love with this sort of pop music.
Verdict: Not recommended
Despite what some people might assume after reading my reviews, I am not necessarily a hater of novelty music. I quite like a lot of that type of stuff, from Huey "Piano" Smith to Bonzo Dog Band to Sparks to TMBG to Ween. Yet, these same bands succeeded because they made sure the actual music itself was interesting outside of the subject matter, but that's certainly not the case here. If the lyrics were sung in Klingon or something, there's no way most people in the West would find this enjoyable, and when the actual lyrics are as dumb as they are here, what's the point?
No comments:
Post a Comment