Every decade has had it’s novelty songs, from the “Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley in the 1950s to Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy for My Shirt” in the 1990s and beyond. But I’m going to focus on a few from my favorite decade, the 1980s.
Some of these songs were by serious artists (The Smiths and Murray Head, for example), but most of them were by obscure artists: Boys Don’t Cry, Falco and Edelweiss.
We’ll start with “I Wanna Be a Cowboy” by Boys Don’t Cry, released in 1986. Boys Don’t Cry were a British rock band, which formed in 1983. They were eventually discovered by future Trance/Dance artist Paul Oakenfold and released their self-titled debut album in 1986, which contained “I Wanna Be a Cowboy.” It was the first of only two albums for the band.
“I Wanna Be a Cowboy” was a big hit in the USA, peaking at #12 on the Billboard Hot 100. That wasn’t enough to save the album, however, which peaked at #55 on the Top 200 Albums Chart.
Although the band released nine singles in the 1980s, “Cowboy” was the only one to chart. The single released just prior to “Cowboy,” “Lipstick,” was actually a pretty good song and was one of those that fall into the category of “Should’ve been a hit.”
Also released in 1986 was “Rock Me Amadeus” by Austrian pop star Falco. The song took it’s appeal from the Academy Award winning success of the 1984 film Amadeus. “Rock Me Amadeus” was a worldwide hit despite the fact that it was sung in German. Even in the USA, UK and Canada, versions of the song were supplemented by English lyrics here and there, but the lead vocal remained in German. The song was one of the few non-English tracks to ever reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Unfortunately, Falco died in 1998 following a car accident in the Dominican Republic. He managed to escape being a one hit wonder with his follow-up single to “Rock Me Amadeus,” “Vienna Calling.” The song peaked at #18 on the Hot 100, but that marked the end of Falco’s success outside of Europe.
A song that was an even more obscure Austrian single was “Edelweiss” by the band Edelweiss. The song (in it’s extended version) was a big Club hit in 1988 (peaking at #7), but it even managed to climb up the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #24. Although the song was hokey, with its yodeling and nonsensical lyrics, it had a certain catchy charm to it, almost like “Love Shack” by The B-52s– although that was admittedly a much better song.
Edelweiss released only one album, The Wonderful World of Edelweiss, and was never heard from again.
On the more serious side, there were two other songs I consider novelty by more serious artists. The first was “Girlfriend in a Coma” by The Smiths, who were a tremendously popular band in their native England. The band had some success in the USA during the 1980s. Their most successful album in the States–Strangeways, Here We Come— peaked at #55 on the Top 200 Album Chart in 1987. But The Smiths have become more of a retro legend sort of success here since that time.
“Girlfriend in a Coma,” which was also released in 1987, gets its novelty appeal from its title. I personally feel like it is the most unusual-humorous-novelty title for a song– ever. The Smiths were fronted by lead singer Morrissey, who left the band in 1987 to start a solo career, after tensions rose between him and guitarist Johnny Marr. Actually Marr was the first to exit the band. Morrissey was the personality of the band, however, and there was really no way to replace him. So The Smiths found themselves in the same situation that The Doors did in the early 1970s, when lead singer Jim Morrison died.
The last song on my list is actually one of my favorites from the ’80s– “One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head. The song was taken from the play Chess and was Murray Head’s only hit. What makes it a novelty song? Primarily the video, which has a sort of cheesy feel about it. In fact, the one woman who is prominently displayed in the video doesn’t look like a real Asian to me anymore than Mickey Rooney did in Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1961.
“One Night in Bangkok” has a killer beat and baseline– considering it was featured in a Broadway musical– that I’ve always found irresistible. Of the five songs here, it’s my favorite– minus the video.
Meditation to the Groove! 
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