Author Topic: The Jukebox from Hell (Read 77851 times)

240B · « **Reply #150 on:** December 23, 2012, 04:24:54 pm »

"Fairytale of New York" by The Pogues (1987) is a depressing song about Irish immigrants full of hope and wonder coming to America only to have their dreams and spirits crushed. The Pogues are a Celtic punk band from London, formed in 1982. It is difficult to label this song 'bad' since so many people seem to love it. In fact, it was voted 'Best Christmas Song Ever' by VH1 in 2004.

I will let you be the judge but certainly no list of Christmas music in the internationally acclaimed and world renown 'Jukebox from Hell' would be complete without it. And therefore, I present the Pogues (which is a shortened version of the term 'kiss my arse' in Celtic) and their hit about coming to New York. Enjoy!

Fairytale of New York by the pogues with lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv0hlbWpa1w

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #151 on:** December 23, 2012, 07:34:12 pm »

By the way that was Christmas number two in 1987. They were beat by the Pet Shop Boys. Weak year I guess.

There are quite a few people who love that tune, so I was hesitant to include it.

240B · « **Reply #152 on:** December 23, 2012, 10:11:22 pm »

Quote from: jmyrlefuller on December 23, 2012, 07:34:12 pm

By the way that was Christmas number two in 1987. They were beat by the Pet Shop Boys. Weak year I guess.

There are quite a few people who love that tune, so I was hesitant to include it.

Yeah, I know. I was really surprised at how much people like it. I personally think it is a terrible song. I mean the Irish lilt is catchy and all, but the subject matter and lyrics are definitely dark.

That is why I presented it as, 'to each his own'. But, I thought it belongs here, if for nothing more than thoroughness.

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #153 on:** December 24, 2012, 07:33:24 am »

It's Christmas Eve, in other words, Day 24 in the Jukebox from Hell Christmas Style. The penultimate song I feature is a viral hit from Youtube with several million views. The tune is a parody of one of the most popular Christmas pop songs in modern times, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," and the artist to her credit does a great job looking and sounding like the real Carey. However, it's one of those songs that makes you go "what the...?!"

Here is "All I Want for Christmas Is... Jews."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=z8LmMtScH3g

240B · « **Reply #154 on:** December 24, 2012, 08:41:11 am »

UUUUUUuuugggh. This was the number one Christmas song in the U.K. in 1973. It is by a British rock group called Slade which dominated pop (glam rock) music from 1971-1973 with 17 consecutive Top 20 hits and six number ones in the U.K. This song and the band's popularity, proves beyond doubt that the 70s were a different dimension in time, a rift so to speak, and heavy drugs must have been involved.

Everyone involved in the making of this song and video should be shot. From the hairdresser (beard with no mustache, ouch), to the tailor (cyan leisure suit with no shirt? red vest, yellow shirt, pink sport jacket?), to the writer (the whole song is a series of questions and the music is banal and inane), and on and on.

Everything about this song is BAD, and the video is worse! This is my second attempt to submit this video to the tempermental 'GOPBR Jukebox from Hell'. The first time it puked it back up and slapped me. Anyway, anyone wishing a ride in Mr. Peabody's way-back machine to the early 70s, I present for your amusement SLADE with Merry Christmas Everybody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0A8KT365wlA

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #155 on:** December 25, 2012, 10:17:22 am »

Oh, so many bad Christmas tunes. We wrap things up for the bad Christmas tunes today, Day 25 of the Jukebox from Hell, Christmas Style.

According to surveys, the most hated Christmas song is usually Don Charles's Singing Dogs' version of "Jingle Bells." (That is, the barking dogs version.) I featured that act a couple months ago, and I generally have a policy against repeating artists here if I can avoid it (I was going to break that deal for the Christmas stuff, but it turns out I haven't needed to.)

In a close second is this tune. From the TV series South Park, here's Eric Cartman (Trey Parker) performing "O Holy Night."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NHFuZxxghs

I now return you to your regularly scheduled bad music.

240B · « **Reply #156 on:** December 25, 2012, 10:57:50 am »

No explanations. No dissertations. No nothing at all. In the broader spirit of the Jukebox from Hell, here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_prEUsYkYo

240B · « **Reply #157 on:** December 30, 2012, 08:25:13 pm »

TV's most annoying theme song is, of course, the theme from the origional Star Trek. Star Trek was not taken seriously when it debuted in 1966. And Desilu productions was a small and struggling production company. This combination caused many composers of the time to turn down the opportunity to write the theme song for the Star Trek series. However, Alexander Courage lived up to his name and created the now famous theme song sung by soprano Loulie Jean Norman.

Unknown to Courage at the time, he was on his way to a fortune in royalties from his creation. He was paid every time the Star Trek theme was played. His windfall lasted only one year. Gene Roddenberry, an iconic hero to many, screwed Courage out of half the royalties by writing lyrics to the opening theme song. The lyrics were never recorded, and never used. Nonetheless, Roddenberry claimed credit to half of the theme song royalties merely because lyrics had been written. Courage quit the show after this stunt by Roddenberry. Whether they were used or not, the fact remains that the lyrics exist and could be used was Roddenberry's position and Courage did not challenge him legally. He simply walked away. Here are the 'lost' lyrics to the original Star Trek theme song.

Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand'ring in star-flight
I know
He'll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me

Numerous versions of the Star Trek theme song were released in the following years including a disco version and a version by Uhura in her own release of a Star Trek themed album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrckNMfQj6c

Anyway, no Jukebox from Hell would be complete without the screaming theme song of the original Star Trek that many consider to be the worst TV theme song ever. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdjL8WXjlGI

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #158 on:** January 04, 2013, 05:02:35 pm »

After a few days off, I return today with a tune by Jimmy Webb, one of the most prolific songwriters of the 1960s.Webb is best known for “MacArthur Park,” made (in)famous by actor Richard Harris and later turned into a 19-minute disco by the late Donna Summer, in which Webb strangely compares a failed relationship to… a melting cake.

However, as bizarre as that song is, this tune is downright creepy. Depending on how you interpret the lyrics, the singer is either obsessed wih his absent lover and hears her when she's not there, or worse, is using his job as a telephone lineman to eavesdrop on his lover's conversations.

Here is Glen Campbell (Webb's usual choice to sing his songs) with “Wichita Lineman.”

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4qoymGCDYzU

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #159 on:** January 12, 2013, 11:34:11 am »

Today's entry is one that was long overdue.

Herbert "Tiny Tim" Khaury was a musician who rocketed to fame in the 1960s with his ukulele and falsetto voice. Although his 15 minutes of fame were mostly done by 1970, he had one more moment in the limelight: the disco era. He recorded the next entry at least twice: once in its original disco and the other in his more usual Tin Pan Alley arrangement. This entry is much more of a fit for this collection... especially since he isn't nearly as "tiny" as his stage name implies.

From The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, I present Tiny Tim with a cover of Rod Stewart's "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBhkvlTcAag

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #160 on:** January 13, 2013, 07:16:04 pm »

The next entry is a cautionary tale about the dangers of psychedelic drug abuse.

Roger "Syd" Barrett was a founding member of the band Pink Floyd and wrote virtually all of the band's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. However, the sudden success of the album proved to be too much to handle for Barrett. As the band promoted Piper, Barrett's behavior became increasingly erratic: freezing in the middle of concerts, greeting questions with nonsensical responses and blank stares, and the like.

Eventually, David Gilmour was brought in, Barrett was thrown out, and the rest was history. Barrett's decline impacted the band profoundly, and its influence can be found in many of its best known works. Barrett tried to stay in music for a few more years, but his attempts at solo albums and a brief second band project, Stars, failed to pan out. He went into seclusion for the rest of his life. He died in 2006.

Here's a song that is indicative of Barrett's mind, "Bike."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9U-Rzd7Lqs

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #161 on:** January 15, 2013, 10:40:46 pm »

WARNING: This next entry features extreme and pervasive adult content.

The next band made its name in shock rock and made the rounds on the talk show circuit in the 1990s. The song is so offensive that I can't even mention the name here. I will allude to its content with an old Johnny Carson joke:

What to Iranian men do when their wives refuse them by night? Ghotzbadeh.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present GWAR.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vCNYK_9hKDk

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #162 on:** January 24, 2013, 06:25:55 pm »

AC/DC's fifth major album, Back in Black, is considered a legendary rock album. It proved to the world that the band could survive the loss of original lead singer Bon Scott and brought the band from Scott's style of humorous, rebellious rhythm-and-blues to smooth, hard-driving stadium rock under new lead singer Brian Johnson. One of the best known singles from that album was a perfect mix between the two: "You Shook Me All Night Long," which combines the wry sexual humor of the Scott era with the power vocals of Johnson.

Then Celine Dion decided to cover it. Yes, Celine Dion, the queen of schmaltzy love songs, decided to absolutely butcher it. OK, she also had Anastacia (a funky blue-eyed soul-rock singer who MIGHT, in her own right, pull it off) to help, but she still looks ridiculous. So ridiculous, in fact, that a poll by Total Guitar ranked this tune as the worst cover song of all time.

Here's Celine Dion with "You Shook Me All Night Long."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULmC8JTTVy0

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #163 on:** January 30, 2013, 03:49:53 pm »

Meet Lucia Pamela Irwin. Lucia, a resident of St. Louis, Missouri, spent some time as a big-band leader in the early to mid-20th century. She has one recorded album to her credit, Into Outer Space with Lucia Pamela. Part concept album, part novelty, part kiddie fare, and part totally bizarre strangeness, the album capitalized on the moon landing and the country's fascination with the space race at the time. The album was mostly a flop, although it was discovered by a handful of DJs, including "outsider music" aficionado Irwin Chusid, who arrnged for a re-release in 1992.

Lucia's daughter ended up doing much better for herself. Georgia Frontiere ended up marrying Los Angeles Rams owner Carroll Rosenbloom, and as a result, she ended up a billionaire when Rosenbloom died and she inherited the team (which she promptly moved back to St. Louis). As for Lucia herself, she died in 2002, age 98.

Here's a cut from Into Outer Space with Lucia Pamela. It's called "Walking on the Moon." (And no, ladies and gentlemen, there are no cows on the moon.)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Rqm4BVFYHd8

andy58-in-nh · « **Reply #164 on:** January 30, 2013, 04:32:55 pm »

Quote from: jmyrlefuller on January 15, 2013, 10:40:46 pm

WARNING: This next entry features extreme and pervasive adult content.

The next band made its name in shock rock and made the rounds on the talk show circuit in the 1990s. The song is so offensive that I can't even mention the name here. I will allude to its content with an old Johnny Carson joke:

What to Iranian men do when their wives refuse them by night? Ghotzbadeh.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present GWAR.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vCNYK_9hKDk

Okay, it was almost as disgusting as Obama's inaugural address, but admittedly, that's a low standard.

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #165 on:** February 12, 2013, 08:07:46 pm »

Three concepts that don't naturally go together: rap, Mr. T and moral lessons for teenagers.

They painfully collide in this early 1980s clip… ladies and gentlemen, I present to the Jukebox from Hell "Treat Your Mother Right."

And yes… I pity the fool who has to listen to this.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xhZRqPPTNjE

240B · « **Reply #166 on:** February 12, 2013, 08:27:54 pm »

My computer is disfunctional. It is an old computer, almost two years old. It has lost the ability to play any audio. I'll buy another one soon and be back with you directly.

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #167 on:** February 22, 2013, 04:33:18 pm »

One of the most notorious British musicians of the 1960s, and one that didn't really make it here across the pond (thank God!), was David "Screaming Lord" Sutch. Sutch was a pioneer in the creation of "shock rock," with his injection of horror themes into his stage shows. His most famous tune was a tune called "Jack the Ripper." He also was marked by his almost complete lack of singing ability.

In 1970, Sutch managed to land some session time with some serious names: Jimmy Page and John Bonham (Led Zeppelin), Jeff Beck (The Yardbirds), Noel Redding (The Jimi Hendrix Experience), and Nicky Hopkins (session organist to the stars), among others. The end result, Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends, was such a disaster that Sutch's collaborators disowned it. Page swore the sessions were only intended to be demo-quality and were not meant to be released to the public. It ranks among one of the worst records ever made in Colin Larkin's book The Top 1000 Albums of All Time and a 1998 BBC poll of the worst records ever made.

Sutch, both before and after he had made his mark in music, would become better known for his perennial candidacies in British politics, eventually leading to the formation of Sutch's "Official Monster Raving Loony Party." The description fit Sutch's personality pretty well: his manic-depressive tendencies led to him committing suicide in 1998.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Briefing Room, I present to the Jukebox from Hell a cut from Lord Sutch and Heavy Friends, "Thumping Beat."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1x6fkK4lKE

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #168 on:** February 27, 2013, 06:16:27 pm »

Those of you who know me know that I have a certain fondness for good old-fashioned country western music. Within that genre are some powerful anthems that espouse the small-town life: faith in God, hard work, modest living, raising a family, and yes, a few beers at the end of the week. It's not always pretty, but the good country western musician embraces it.

Today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell does the exact opposite. The singer is an atheist and fits the archetype: she's miserable, resents everyone around her from the church she's forced to attend to her family (which apparently is filled with drug-addled cheaters), and blames the small-town life for the reason she, who is apparently too bourgeois for kids, is constantly "bored" and has signed up for welfare to constantly buy distractions for herself. Now, I'm not saying it's a crime to shed light on the less flattering aspects of rural life, but this way manages to insult pretty much everyone who has ever lived it.Appallingly, this song is currently a hit on the country charts.

Here's Kacey Musgraves with "Merry Go 'Round."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJjeWDvh6J0

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #169 on:** March 10, 2013, 10:57:38 pm »

Ladies and gentlemen, the ultimate waste of 1960s British rock talent. John Lennon on rhythm guitar, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Mitch Mitchell on drums, Keith Richards on bass... and Yoko Ono screeching nonsense beginning about a minute into the record. No Jukebox from Hell would be complete without Yoko.

Here's The Dirty Mac with "Whole Lotta Yoko."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIzJON-teng

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #170 on:** March 13, 2013, 06:37:21 pm »

Time for another awkward example of celebrities narrating the lyrics to a song instead of singing them.

Today's entry is Liberace, pianist extraordinaire. The recording dates to no earlier than the late 1970s, when the song was a hit. Now, something to keep in mind is that although Liberace was extremely talented in terms of showmanship and pure ability to play the instrument, 1) he wasn't much for keeping a steady beat and was prone to frequent speed-ups and slow-downs, which fit his dramatic style; 2) he wasn't much of a singer, letting his piano do most of the music; and 3) Liberace was almost certainly gay, even though he never admitted as much and, being relatively conservative in values, was certainly not proud of it. (Liberace would be diagnosed with HIV in the late 1980s, eventually leading to his death.)

The song itself was written by ASCAP heads Alan and Marilyn Bergman as the potential theme song for Norman Lear's sitcom All That Glitters; it was never used, because Lear had revamped the concept and it no longer fit. It was later popularized in a duet by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond, which hit number 1. If you want an idea of how this song turns out, think of a gay man sniping to his male lover about how he doesn't feel appreciated. Awkward.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is Liberace with his version of "You Don't Bring Me Flowers."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJUZag13xdE

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #171 on:** March 20, 2013, 07:20:20 pm »

Today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell features, for what I believe is the first time, a television theme song. (EDIT: As originally seen on TV, this is true, although I played a variant of a TV theme a few months back.)

The 1970s produced a number of iconic theme songs to TV shows. The themes to Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Soul Train and The Young and the Restless all became top-40 hits, as did (improbably) David Naughton's theme to the flop Makin' It. Catchy, inspirational and ubiquitous; these songs were pop gold.

Not this one. Now, to be clear here, in no way am I critiquing the actual show itself. From what little I remember of the show, it was great. But the theme song, a series of off-key "la's" apparently done in character, can pretty easily get on one's nerves if, say, you play it enough to qualify as heavy rotation on a radio station. For that reason, a couple seasons later, an all-instrumental arrangement replaced this version.

Here's Valerie Harper (I think) with the theme from Rhoda.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=eZgKXt7si4g

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #172 on:** March 23, 2013, 10:21:08 am »

Last night I happened to stumble on VH1's airing of the 100 Best Songs of the 2000s. The decade, to be quite frank, was terrible for music.

Case in point: today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell. This is Ashlee Simpson. She's an actress. She's better known as the younger sister of singer Jessica Simpson, and unfortunately, Jessica got the singing voice (even if, in my opinion, she doesn't use it consistently enough) and Ashlee didn't. That, of course, didn't stop her. She released a couple of songs in fall 2004, which were relatively successful, and the record company decided to promote them on Saturday Night Live. Unfortunately, she developed what she called "acid reflux" the week of the show and couldn't sing... but instead of canceling, she decided to fake it: lip sync to a pre-recorded studio backing track. It worked fine for song one, but then on live TV, instead of playing song two, the backing track repeated... exposing the fraud.

Her reputation severely damaged, Simpson nonetheless decided she would go forward with a performance at the 2005 Orange Bowl a few months later. In order to restore her reputation, she decided to pick one of the hardest driving songs in her repertoire and overcompensate. The resulting off-key, off-beat screaming-- well, let's just say the subsequent boos were legendary.

Simpson's career never recovered. She eventually married Pete Wentz, frontman for another 2000s drop-in-the-bucket band, Fall Out Boy (and coincidentally, the host of the special I was watching yesterday). Amazingly, Simpson still has a recording contract and was last heard working on her fourth album.

Here's Ashlee Simpson with her live performance at the 2005 Orange Bowl, "La La."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amrbR68A260

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #173 on:** April 03, 2013, 09:12:01 pm »

To this day, I still believe country music has a bad reputation because of this song, an icon of the new style of country music that exploded in popularity in the early 1990s. The lyrics are ridiculously cheesy, and the artist has a style that can be best described as a cheap Elvis impersonation. This was his only top 40 pop hit, although he had some (slightly better) songs that charted on the country charts. Oh, and he also has a daughter who became a pop star.

Among its, er, accolades: #2 in a poll from Blender Magazine, #2 in a poll from VH1, #6 in Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs, and the subject of a less than flattering parody from Weird Al Yankovic.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Briefing Room, here's Billy Ray Cyrus with "Achy Breaky Heart."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=byQIPdHMpjc

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #174 on:** April 05, 2013, 06:47:59 pm »

Nineteen years ago today, the music industry lost one of its most infamous malcontents. Kurt Cobain, who as frontman for Nirvana probably contributed far more to the death of rock music in this country than most will give him credit for doing, committed suicide and joined the "27 club" of musicians who died at that age.

Here's Nirvana with "Breed."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tGc8jL4dzao

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #175 on:** April 07, 2013, 04:27:07 pm »

I don't know anyone in their right mind who thought writing this song was a good idea. The song was originally recorded (as a single, anyway; the original songwriter released it on his one and only album the year before) by America, whose version was a flop but nonetheless caught the attention of the Captain and Tennille, who thought that it was the most ridiculous song they had ever heard... so they decided to record it, complete with synthesizer sound effects meant to simulate the two muskrats doin' the nasty.

Somehow, it became a hit for them, one of their biggest. They even played it at the national bicentennial in 1976, with the queen of England and a not-too-pleased Henry Kissinger among the audience (Toni Tennille explains the story in the video).

Here are the Captain and Tennille with "Muskrat Love."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBYV_7a0FQs

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #176 on:** April 10, 2013, 12:45:00 pm »

Note to self: when attempting to write music for a foreign language market, please make sure you have a grasp of the language first. Otherwise you end up with today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell.

Here's the Italian eurodisco group Eiffel 65 with one of the most infamous hits of the lat e 1990s, "Blue (Da Ba Dee)."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68ugkg9RePc

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #177 on:** April 11, 2013, 07:59:00 am »

One of the reviews for the previous entry here described Eiffel 65's "Blue" as a never-ending ringtone. That brings me to my next entry in the Jukebox from Hell.

This one actually WAS a ringtone at first. The recording that inspired it was recorded back in the 1990s; that was an onomatopoeic impersonation of a race car, which was one of the early "viral" media bits on the World Wide Web. In 2004, some producer decided to remix the recording and set it to the late 1980s synth-pop instrumental, "Axel F." The result was something that even the producers thought was "the most annoying thing in the world," and they designed a frog character to match.

Here's Crazy Frog with "Axel F."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=k85mRPqvMbE

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #178 on:** April 12, 2013, 06:29:36 pm »

Today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell comes from the man who is perhaps one of the most despised artists in the genre of smooth jazz.

Here's Kenny G with what arguably is his signature tune, "Songbird."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=QN2RnjFHmNY

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #179 on:** April 14, 2013, 09:09:00 pm »

Today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell was originally popularized after it was used in commercials advertising Michael J. Fox's last episode of the sitcom Spin City (Fox left that show due to worsening Parkinson's disease). The song was primarily chosen for its lyrical content, and probably not for the vocal talents of the lead singer. Now, pardon me if this seems insensitive, but this woman doesn't simply have a bad voice... she has NO voice. What little she does have sounds like it's withered away after several decades of chain-smoking Newports. This was pretty much her only hit.

A little side note: not only am I featuring this in the Jukebox from Hell, but this past December, the singer performed it herself on KDOC First Night 2013, a New Year special widely considered to be a New Year's Eve special from Hell. Her performance and bizarre antics made many suspect that she was drunk, an allegation host Jamie Kennedy denied.

Here's Macy Gray with "I Try."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Hq6RGIIdTQE

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #180 on:** April 17, 2013, 06:38:59 pm »

WARNING: Profane language alert.

Most of us have had bad days at work. However, if you feel the need to go on an obscene rant, you might want to wait until you are out of the studio, lest you experience what happened to top-40 countdown host Casey Kasem. On at least two occasions, Kasem (thinking he was not recording at the time), after making bloopers that he eventually cut from his show, American Top 40, went ballistic on his producers and lambasted his material. One of them became infamously known as the Dead Dog tape, for his ranting on going out of an upbeat song and following it up with a melancholy Long Distance Dedication to, of course, a dead dog named Snuggles. The other concerned the band U2, with whom Kasem wasn't all that impressed.

Both tapes ended up in the hands of Negativland, an experimental band that could have only come out of San Francisco. They edited the tapes and set them to a kazoo cover of U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," calling the finished sound collage "U2." U2's record label (without U2's consent, mind you) sued Negativland for violating intellectual property rights; the suit was later dropped.

Here's Negativland (featuring Casey Kasem) with "U2."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z6gPSSYxex0

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #181 on:** April 18, 2013, 06:07:58 pm »

Ah, shock rock. I could fill this thread from the genre alone.

Today's entry is known for short as AxCx, which is short for an extremely obscene phrase. Obscenity was this band's specialty, and they usually named their songs with sentences that (much like the Westboro Baptist Church) were designed to be as ridiculously provocative as possible. As far as musical talent... well... it's here, isn't it? The band admitted sending its music to critics specifically to get bad reviews.

The lead singer died in 2011. In keeping with the band's ethos, I will assume there was much rejoicing.

Here's one of their tamer songs... "Beat Les."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g2qmdXDG9wc

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #182 on:** April 19, 2013, 01:24:50 pm »

A few days ago, I featured a song that combined admirable songwriting with extremely poor execution (Macy Gray's "I Try"). Today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell is the exact opposite-- great production on a lousy song.

The Turtles were one of the big American bands of the mid-to-late 1960s, buoyed in part by the huge success of their sunshine pop single, "Happy Together." The record company, for the next several years, pressured the band to follow up that hit with another, similar tune. The Turtles, however, were somewhat irked, and wanted to be more experimental. They decided to record a concept album, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands, in which the band would pose as many different acts performing a wide variety of genera, ranging from hard rock to psychedelic to surfer music. One of the acts was Howie, Mark, Johnny, Jim and Al (the names of the band members), which served the record company with their reply: a follow-up sunshine pop tune with the hammiest, cheesiest lyrics they could come up with. They had a blast recording it (as this clip shows) and produced it so slickly that it eventually became a hit anyway, one of The Turtles' last.

Two of the Turtles ended up joining Frank Zappa and took on the name Flo and Eddie. They're still performing today.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Briefing Room, I present for your listening pleasure The Turtles with "Elenore" (sic).

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8O4TqdhtDJQ

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #183 on:** May 01, 2013, 08:00:16 pm »

For hundreds of years, classical music composers strove to make music that you wanted to listen to. Whether it was the interweaving fugues of Baroque music, the simple compositions of the Classic, the dramatic and powerful tunes of the Romantic, or even the delightfully complex Impressionist era, there were certain expectations to be made when you composed music.

For some odd reason, in the 20th century, all of that went out the window. All of a sudden, the rage among highbrow music composers was to be as experimental and as bizarre as humanly possible. It didn't need to even sound right-- in fact, the more of an affront it was to the senses, the better. Deconstruction became the norm: anything that could be changed from perceived norms, from instrumentation, to tuning, to timing, became fair game. The result was a lot of crap.

Today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell is perhaps one of the most notorious pieces to come out of contemporary classical music. It was composed by the late John Cage. In a move sure to have made Jerry Seinfeld proud many years later, this composition is composed entirely of... nothing. Well, not precisely nothing, but as little sound as humanly possible. You see, Cage composed it solely to prove a point: we are surrounded by sound, and the piece is designed to bring attention to that background noise.

It's also quite possibly the laziest composition imaginable, which is why I feature it here. In yet another one of those bizarre Christmas number-one campaigns, this piece finished at #21 on the UK Singles Chart back in 2011, a position much lower than originally anticipated. So, ladies and gentlemen, here is John Cage with 4'33".

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gN2zcLBr_VM

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #184 on:** May 01, 2013, 09:33:18 pm »

Because I missed a few days (I was looking for a song called "Do It Like a Dog" by Dean Milan that has apparently been completely scrubbed off the World Wide Web, believe it or not) and I'm not sure I will remember this one tomorrow, I'm going to double up tonight.

The artist in tomorrow's entry began her career as a member of the folk group The New Christy Minstrels. She also had an extensive career as a songwriter and, although her Wikipedia bio doesn't seem to mention it, I believe she also did some novelty songs. However, this song (which she didn't even write; it was originally done by Jackie DeShannon) is the one that has made her the most famous. Like the aforementioned Macy Gray, she doesn't have much of a voice, and she's even worse at staying on pitch than Gray is. Her arrangement of this song is strange to put it mildly (she and the producers didn't even understand some of the words), and the result of this giant train wreck still managed to top the charts in several countries. At least Bette Davis, the indirect subject of the song, was flattered by the piece.

Ladies and gentlemen of the Briefing Room, here is tomorrow's entry in the Jukebox from Hell... Kim Carnes with "Bette Davis Eyes."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=EPOIS5taqA8

69FenderStrat · « **Reply #185 on:** May 02, 2013, 07:42:59 pm »

worst cover ever! *the final count down*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjeMDvCdrtc&feature=youtu.be

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #186 on:** May 06, 2013, 06:30:31 pm »

It's my intention this week to do another theme week. This one is Television Musicals week. Over the past five decades, many have tried, usually unsuccessfully, to combine theatrical musicals with the medium of television. It turns out that television audiences have never really cared for people breaking out into song in the middle of a dialogue.

The first entry in TV Musicals Week comes from a very short-lived musical series known as Viva Laughlin. It lasted all of two episodes. Perhaps that's because not only was it a cheesy show, but the popular music tracks the show used still had the original artists' vocal tracks intact. The end result was that the actors were singing over-top of the original singers as if they were singing along with their car stereo.

Anyway, here is one of the songs from Viva Laughlin... Lloyd Owen singing and dancing along, an octave low, to Elton John's "I'm Still Standing." (The clip is from The Soup, hence the interruptions and snarky comments.)

http://youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwrel&v=eNmgOIjZJXQ

240B · « **Reply #187 on:** May 06, 2013, 07:33:58 pm »

Three entries in this category from the hit series Scrubs. Scrubs frequently included and wove music, both from the staff and as a background, into the plot of an episode as an indispensable part of the show. No discussion of modern musicals in terms of television episodes would be complete without a mention of this ground breaking show.

I enjoyed the series very much until the writers strike cause it to take a 90 degree turn into mediocrity. The series had just about run out of steam by then anyway.

The first entry outlines the overt and intentionally ambiguous relationship between J.D. and Turk. The second is an homage to musical artcraft. While it is technically well done, in my humble opinion, I didn't quite care for it so much. It lacked the scathing, sort of, deeply personal comedy which really marked the series and which I had become accustomed. The third demostrates a background singer enhancing the mood of the episode.

Anyway, if you enjoy musicals, you will more than likely like these two tidbits. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxbROMQTjKg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1cWzosA218

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHTJMBbxGTU

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #188 on:** May 07, 2013, 10:16:28 pm »

You would think a man with a pedigree like Steven Bochco would know better than to produce a show like the one I am going to feature in Day 2 of TV Musicals Week. After all, he is the man responsible for the hits Hill Street Blues and later NYPD Blue. Alas, that does not seem to be the case. This 1990 stinker was called Cop Rock. It lasted 11 episodes, and its main characteristic was that its cast of characters had a notorious habit of breaking out into, often inappropriate, song and dance in the middle of dialogue. For instance, a courtroom scene would have a jury foreman transforming the jury into a gospel choir in a rendition of a song called "He's Guilty," or a police lineup would bust out into a hip-hop piece crying racist.

Here's a piece of music from the series that fairly accurately portrays how absurd the series was. From the series Cop Rock, here's "Baby Merchant."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bk5MM9BjYuw

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #189 on:** May 08, 2013, 06:50:44 pm »

Day 3 of Television Musicals Week brings us to perhaps one of the most bizarre combinations of genera imaginable.

In this clip, from late 1977, you have Donny Osmond as Luke Skywalker... Marie Osmond as Princess Leia... Kris Kristofferson as Han Solo... and a group of Song-and-Dance Storm Troupe-rs singing Motown. It is apparently an adaptation of the film Star Wars. Donny and Marie were, at the time, hosts of a variety show on ABC. Although it was a major hit, it was also produced by Sid and Marty Krofft, two of the most infamous producers in children's television, and the show featured much of the bizarre absurdity that the Kroffts, along with then-ABC president Fred Silverman, would try to replicate. (It was that replication that turned Silverman into a laughingstock, with flops such as The Brady Bunch Hour and Pink Lady and Jeff built heavily on the Krofft formula.)

Ladies and gentlemen, from the TV show Donny & Marie, here is a Star Wars-inspired version of the Temptations/Rare Earth hit, "Get Ready."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pLTI3lejhGg

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #190 on:** May 09, 2013, 10:44:15 pm »

There were two segues I could have chosen for Day 4 of Television Musicals Week, The Star Wars Holiday Special or The Brady Bunch Hour. I chose the latter.

Yesterday I mentioned that Fred Silverman and Sid and Marty Krofft used the template from their hit variety show Donny & Marie to produce a number of lousy imitators. The Brady Bunch Hour was perhaps one of the most infamous. Silverman had never even asked permission from the copyright owners of The Brady Bunch before putting this limited-run series of variety specials into production. (They later consented anyway.) The Brady kids had now aged seven years since the debut of the original sitcom. At least one of them, Eve Plumb (Jan), refused to participate and was recast; also added to the cast was Rip Taylor, who played a manager and (along with Ann Davis, who reprised her Alice role) served as comic relief.

Each episode ended with a huge finale. Now, the Brady Bunch had a little bit of experience in music (a couple episodes of the original sitcom have them as a band, in an attempt to capitalize on The Partridge Family's multimedia success) but were not professional musicians. They weren't at fault in tonight's entry. This medley includes people in duck suits and covers of covers of songs (at one point, they sing la-las to the aforementioned Disco Lucy, see "Disco Week" a few months back). Needless to say, it is truly bizarre television and equally bizarre music.

Here is the Brady Bunch with a disco medley.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gR9u9efiNvg

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #191 on:** May 17, 2013, 05:52:49 pm »

Day 5 of Television Musicals Week (let's just pretend I hopped in a TARDIS and skipped a week ahead) is going overseas.

This past week was the Eurovision Song Contest, a contest where all of the countries in Europe nominate a musical act (either a singer or a band), send them to one place, and have them sing in a contest for all of Europe to see on TV; then they choose a winner. Since the late 1990s, bands have been free to choose whatever language they want to sing (although they must sing; that's what differentiates a "song" from a "composition"). Most choose English. However, the often strange nature of European music combined with many performers' poor grasp of the language has proven itself a fitting target for satire.

This piece illustrates that pretty well. I have been looking for months to find a way to fit this parody into this thread, and now here is my excuse. Nul points for this entry in the Jukebox from Hell... "Supersonik Elektronik" by Zlad.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kKO9h-gG4Qg

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #192 on:** May 20, 2013, 09:02:56 pm »

Here is the Star Wars Holiday Special...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MmpJ9zQvEVA

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #193 on:** June 09, 2013, 04:40:36 pm »

Today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell is, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the only top-40 hit that country superstar Garth Brooks has ever had in his entire career.

The story behind it is that Brooks, at the time near the height of his popularity, had been cast as the lead in a movie named The Lamb, which would have chronicled a fictional pop-rock star by the name of Chris Gaines. As a tie-in to the film, Brooks recorded an album purporting to be Gaines's greatest hits. He appears on the album and in the music video in a black emo wig and Nehru jacket with strategic lighting to make Gaines look as little like Garth as possible.

The film ended up never being made, so the album ended up a concept album, with Brooks appearing in a couple TV shows "with" Gaines to promote the album.

(If you want another Garth Brooks candidate for the Jukebox from Hell, look up "That Summer," a song about an old lady, um, taking advantage, if you know what I mean, of the teenage help she takes in for the summer. The local country station plays it pretty often and it always creeped me out.)

Here is Chris Gaines with "Lost in You."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CObmRzakik8

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #194 on:** June 19, 2013, 02:49:13 pm »

There are few greater indictments of one's musical talents than the next entry in the Jukebox from Hell. In the 1996 movie Mars Attacks!, this song was used to kill off invading Martians by, quite literally, making their heads explode into blobs of green goo.

The performer of this song, Slim Whitman, died yesterday at the age of 89.

Here is the late Slim Whitman with "Indian Love Call."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD77Pd_5-vo

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #195 on:** June 21, 2013, 10:34:16 am »

I only found out about this band from their incessant efforts to spam Wikipedia.

Ladies and gentlemen, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Jukebox from Hell, I present Grand Reefer with a take on Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen's "Ding! Dong! The Witch Is Dead!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smYhMkqV3DY

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #196 on:** June 22, 2013, 10:00:58 am »

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Jukebox from Hell, a thread started by Chieftain back before he (EDIT: fixed) stormed off in a fury over posting Tweets on the threads.

The first song Chieftain featured on the Jukebox from Hell was from a guy named Klaus Nomi, a gay German countertenor with a wicked falsetto. He achieved underground fame in the New York City area in the late 1970s and early 1980s, even producing a couple of music videos, including today's entry. His performances range from Renaissance opera to totally bizarre covers of music ranging from the 1930s to 1960s and a few original compositions by his (business) partner, Kristian Hoffman. Nomi died of AIDS related illness in 1983.

If you ever want to tick off a redneck, offer to play "Simple Man." He will think it is Skynyrd... and be sorely disappointed.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=gFaZyHxQGYQ

DCPatriot · « **Reply #197 on:** June 22, 2013, 11:02:35 am »

Quote from: jmyrlefuller on June 22, 2013, 10:00:58 am

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Jukebox from Hell, a thread started by Chieftain back before she stormed off in a fury over posting Tweets on the threads.

Wasn't Chiefain a male....who liked to piss off neighbors and build sheds?

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #198 on:** June 23, 2013, 07:19:45 am »

Quote from: DCPatriot on June 22, 2013, 11:02:35 am

Wasn't Chiefain a male....who liked to piss off neighbors and build sheds?

I thought there had been some sort indication that Chieftain was a "she" (but I could be wrong)... and yes, he did like to piss off neighbors and build sheds, in fact, I believe that was the inspiration for this thread.

jmyrlefuller · « **Reply #199 on:** June 24, 2013, 02:22:16 pm »

Nothing good can come from a guy whose best-known nickname is Parrotface.

OK, that's not quite true... British comic Freddie Davies, the performer of today's entry in the Jukebox from Hell, actually recorded a couple of decent ballads, and although they were never hits in any English-speaking country, much less his own, they were fairly popular in South America. (I'll feature those in The Juke Box.) This is not one of those ballads.

Once again, I won't spoil too much about this song because an element of surprise is part of its appeal, but I present today Freddie "Parrotface" Davies with "Sentimental Songs."

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cBMTW7HS6i8