Alienating the Audience Again

I'm making pot roast. It's good weather for it.

It's also a good day for some novelty 45s

I like novelty 45s

The Mummy (1959)

Ok, there's a lot to unpack here.

This single has a lot of threads and various things going for it.

First off it was penned by poet, composer, singer with a voice reminiscent of a cut rate Kermit the Frog impersonator and all around sensitive guy Rod McKuen.
(He's a bit of a running gag among several of my oldest friends.) He made a name and bank on writing the English lyrics to the miserable tearjerking dreck "Seasons in the Sun" originally by Frenchman Jacques Brel. Even worse it somehow became a big one hit wonder for Terry Jacks in 1974. AM radio was fucking awful back then.

However back in the late 50s before his dreadful sappy poetry caught the hippie peace and love zeitgeist he tried to carve a place with novelty songs. For this one he teamed up with voice actor extraordinaire Bob McFadden as "Bob McFadden & Dor" (It's Rod backwards. How clever.) Rod lends his comedic touch as foil and commentator throughout.

The A side is "The Mummy" which is rife with contemporary references including another novelty hit "Kookie Lend Me Your Comb". What really makes this special though is that our heroes the Fall found this obscure novelty number worthy of being covered as "I'm a Mummy"
That's all the recommendation I might otherwise need.

But wait there's more!

The flip side is also a wonderful bit of wonderful bits, "The Beat Generation".
(At some point I have to relocate and digitize the wonder that is Rod's spoken word "Hippie" record "Rod McKuen Takes a San Francisco Hippie Trip" which is actually a repackaging of his square's eye view of beatniks. Fucking hilarious.)

But the real gold is that how familiar the song might sound to a certain 1977 NYC punk classic "Blank Generation" by Richard Hell & the Voidoids... hmmm..

Shake, Rattle and Roll (1959)

Hoping to capitalize on the something that the previous record did or didn't generate , their shenanigans continued with a follow up version of the classic rhythm and blues number "Shake Rattle and Roll" in the voice of the Mummy.
Flip is a song called "Bingo" as penned by Rod.

Perfect fodder for annoying those you love.



As an added bonus I'll give you a Rod McKuen original novelty single.

Oliver Twist (1962)

Here in 1962 our boy Rod is trying his best to cash in on the Twist Fad with a double dose of Twist novelty numbers.
Enjoy?