Flashback Friday #77

Dr. Demento

A hearty hello to all my wonderful readers (both of you). In today's post, we touch a topic that has been near and dear to me for many a year. Novelty songs.

When I was but a lad, someone gave us a cassette of "Funny Favorites". This tape contained songs like "Snoopy & The Red Baron", "Ahab The Arab", & "Hot Rod Lincoln". We played that cassette until it literally fell apart. I thought it was the coolest tape ever.

I had a friend ovrer one day, and we were listening to that tape. I told him that I loved the funny songs. He then told me someting that would rock my world, and give my sense of humor a twist. "You know, there is a radio program on every week that plays songs like that." he said. "WHAT!?! Are you serious?" "Where do I find such a place on my radio dial?" He told me that I could find it on Sunday nights at 7PM on a new radio station, WLVQ (that's Q-FM 96) to those in the Columbus area. It played classic rock, but had a two hour program call "The Dr. Demento Show" that was deticated to the twisted humor side of music.

The following Sunday, I sat next to my radio with my tape recorder by my side. I was going to record the songs off the radio, so I needed quiet. With my door shut, I commenced warping my brain with the sounds the emanated from the magic box. There were times I had to hold guffaws & belly laughs back. Not only were songs I had heard before being played, but humorous songs from the 20's, 30's 40's & 50's were mixed in. I was hooked.

I recorded songs every week. I had quite the silly song library. I would play the songs over and over until they were deeply etched in my hard drive. "The Billboard Song", "Punk Polka", "I Love Me", "Cocktails For Two", "Making Love In A Subaru" and "Dueling Tubas" were lodged in my memory bank, set to come out at some random time. It was here that the world was introduced to an accordion playing nutcase who called himself "Wierd Al" Yankovic.

I listened every Sunday for several years. When I started attending Sunday night church services, I could catch some of the program in the car if I drove, or I could catch the last 30 minutes if I didn't.

I haven't heard Dr. Demento in years. I checked him out on line, and he's still around, still on WLVQ, but whether he is at the same time, is any one's guess.

Do you have a favorite "funny song"?