h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've always preferred the humorous to the heartfelt, some favorites:

"MTA" by the Kingston Trio

"Super Skier" by the Chad Mitchell Trio

"The Marvellous Toy" by Tom Paxton

"Plastic Jesus" as sung by Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke"

"Draft Dodger Rag" by Phil Ochs

"I'm in Love with a Big Blue Frog" by Peter, Paul & Mary

"Mercedes Benz" by Janis Joplin

"No, Really, I Can Drive" by Carolyn Wonderland

I certainly agree! The songs of Tom Lehrer are also especially good - I'm listening to them right now, in fact. For example:

Fight Fiercely, Harvard
Oedipus Rex
National Brotherhood Week
Obscenity
So Long, Mom
Be Prepared
The Element Song
I Got It From Agnes
Plagiarize
The Scotsman's Kilt

All excellent if you like a bit of a laugh!

Yes, Lehrer is a favorite of mine, also, I even have the boxed set, "The Remains of Tom Lehrer". I don't buy many boxed sets, preferring used CD's (" ... so tight I squeak"), but there are a few exceptions, including Randy Newman ("Short people"! Another good novelty song!), Janis Joplin, ...

Great lyrics, as in "So Long Mom":

"While we're attacking frontally
Watch Brinkally and Huntally
Describing contrapuntally
The cities we have lost ..."



I recall Lehrer (a Harvard instructor by day, I think) talking about being invited to a party. He asked if there would be a piano, and was told no. So he accepted.

Yes, he was a Harvard math professor. He also went there.

"Fight fiercely, Harvard! Fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless, we have the will!"
etc.
One of my favourites. My Academic League team uses it as our cheer.

Lehrer was a genius. I was brought up with my father singing (badly) and playing "poisoning pigeons in the park" and the one about the bullfight.
Ace!

I think that right now he's at the University of California-Santa Barbara, teaching math, though he's rather old now, I'd guess.

The booklet in my boxed set (intro by Dr. Demento ) says Tom Lehrer was born in 1928, and graduated from Harvard at age 18.

I didn't remember the bullfight song until I found it in the set - "In Old Mexico", ah, yes, now I remember - "A single man facing a half ton of angry pot roast ..."

If anybody's interested, I've put a few of my favourites

*The Bee Song (Arthur Askey)
*A Policeman's Lot
*When Father Papered the Parlour
*The Old Dun Cow

in my blog at http://360.yahoo.com/kittybriton

Interesting site, altho I could not find some of those songs, e.g. "The Bee Song". The Blog link took me to a page with some songs, but not that one? I did find "Funeral March of the Marionettes", a favorite, and converted it to a MIDI song file with your supplied link. Pretty nice, altho the tempo is too fast - I saved the *.mid file and may try to slow it down.

I've been listening to a new novelty discovery, "A Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request" by Steve Goodman (who also wrote "City of New Orleans"):

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_cubs.shtml

Unsurprisingly, this does not get played at Cubs games, with lines like "doormat of the National League". But Goodman also wrote "Go, Cubs, Go" that DOES get sung at Cubs games. A lot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dQPiCi38po

Has anyone heard Tom Paxtons album Rambling Boy, two of the best novelty songs are on that album, namely "Goin' to the Zoo" and "Daily News", quote "Daily News, Daily Blues Pick up a copy any time you choose, 7 little pennies in the news boys hand and you ride right along to never never land."

No, but I do really like Paxton's "Marvellous Toy":

"It went zip when it moved and pop when it stopped,
And whirrrrrr when it stood still.
I never knew just what it was and I guess I never will."

It is surprising how many humourous and novelty songs Tom Paxton has written, the ones already mentioned above and the classic "Talking Vietnam Pot Luck Blues". I don't remember which album thats on but it's well worth a listen if you can find it.