These unhinged ’70s novelty songs somehow became chart-topping hits. How many do you remember?
Novelty songs ruled the Billboard Charts in the 1970s. These songs are the oddballs of the music world: they have silly lyrics, strange sound effects, or offbeat characters that make you laugh, cringe, or sing along for no good reason. Some novelty songs poke fun at pop culture, others tell outlandish stories, and a few are just plain bizarre. But a good one is an irresistible earworm that you just can’t get out of your head.
Novelty songs are often tied to current fads, and maybe that’s why they were so big in the 1970s, when we seemed to have a new fad every week. One minute, we were obsessed with CB radios and quoting lines from the song “Convoy” as if it were gospel. The next minute, everyone was streaking, and, of course, we needed a song about that.
So let’s look at 15 of the most hilarious, yet iconic, novelty songs from the 1970s! Which ones do you remember? Did we leave out your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
- 1. “Desiderata,” Les Crane, 1971
- 2. “My Ding-a-Ling,” Chuck Berry, 1972
- 3. “Ben,” Michael Jackson, 1972
- 4. “Dead Skunk,” Loudon Wainwright III, 1973
- 5. “Sister Mary Elephant, Cheech and Chong, 1973
- 6. “Super Fly Meets Shaft,” John & Ernest, 1973
- 7. “Spiders and Snakes,” Jim Stafford, 1974
- 8. “The Streak,” Ray Stevens, 1974
- 9. “Convoy,” C. W. McCall, 1975
- 10. “Mr. Jaws,” Dickie Goodman, 1975
- 11. “Shaving Cream,” Benny Bell, 1975
- 12. “A Fifth of Beethoven,” Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band, 1976
- 13. “Disco Duck,” Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots, 1976
- 14. “King Tut,” Steve Martin and The Toot Uncommons, 1978
- 15. “I Need Your Help Barry Manilow,” Ray Stevens, 1979
1. “Desiderata,” Les Crane, 1971
The late 1960s and early 1970s were the heyday of spoken word songs, and “Desiderata” was one of the biggest spoken word hits. Purported to be “ancient wisdom,” the song was actually a recording of a poem written in 1927 by Indiana lawyer Max Ehrmann. Les Crane set the poem to music and released it as a single in 1971.
The song reminded us that:
And my personal favorite lyric:
Inspiring!
Every deep thinker of the 1970s had a poster with the lyrics to this song hanging in their bedroom. My older sister had one, and it’s probably safe to say everyone’s older sister had a poster of the lyrics in her bedroom.
Fun Fact: Les Crane was more than just a velvet-voiced narrator. He was also a talk show host in the ’60s who gave The Rolling Stones their very first American TV appearance.
2. “My Ding-a-Ling,” Chuck Berry, 1972
“My Ding-a-Ling” titillated and scandalized my middle school class. Initially recorded by Dave Bartholomew in 1952, but it was Chuck Berry’s version that went to the top of the chart.
A classic double entendre song, Berry’s version of “My Ding-a-Ling” was recorded live during the Lancaster Arts Festival. Berry’s enthusiasm for the song and the audience’s obvious amusement at the pun turned his version into a hit record and became Berry’s only Number One song on the Billboard Hot 100. (And, honestly, that’s appalling. I guess Marty McFly was right about Johnny B. Goode.)
Many radio stations refused to play the song, and I can attest from personal experience that many adults were horrified when they heard their kids happily singing along with it. My memory of the song is that it was a massive deal for a short time and then disappeared altogether. That appears to be correct. After reaching Number One on October 21, 1972, My Ding-a-Ling was no longer in the Top Ten by mid-November.
RIP, Chuck Berry’s Ding-a-Ling.
Fun Fact: Berry included an earlier version of the song under the title “My Tambourine” in 1968, but a tambourine doesn’t offer the same naughty pleasure as the original title, and it didn’t chart.
3. “Ben,” Michael Jackson, 1972
The week before Chuck Berry’s “My Ding-a-Ling” hit Number One, the top song in the nation was a love song from a boy to his rat.
“Ben,” sung by Michael Jackson, was written for the 1972 film “Ben.” “Ben” was a sequel to the horror movie “Willard,” an inspiring tale of a man who uses his horde of rats to exact revenge on his enemies.
The sequel follows a similar plot, with Jackson singing the song over the credits (featuring its not-all-creepy lyrics, “Ben, the two of us need look no more, We both found what we were looking for”).
“Ben” became Michael Jackson’s first number-one hit as a solo artist. And if you can forget it’s a heartfelt ballad dedicated to a rat, the song is a tender, emotional song that provides Jackson with a stunning showcase of his young voice.
Fun Fact: Michael Jackson actually had a pet rat at the time.
4. “Dead Skunk,” Loudon Wainwright III, 1973
You either love this song or you hate it. I loved this song back in the day, although I was also confused by it. Is the skunk a metaphor? A symbol of society’s decay?
Apparently no. The song is about a dead skunk that’s been hit by a car, and it smells pretty bad. Loudon Wainwright III said he was inspired to write the song after hitting a skunk with his car, and the smell lingered for weeks.
This song was Loudon Wainwright III’s only charting hit, but he has had a long and extensive career as a singer and an actor.
Fun Fact: Wainwright wrote the song in less than 15 minutes.
5. “Sister Mary Elephant, Cheech and Chong, 1973
This skit from Cheech and Chong’s album, Big Bambu, was released as a single in 1973. So it’s not a song, exactly. But it does have a chorus of “Class? Class!? SHUT UP! Thank you” and every kid in my school knew all the words, so I think it fits here.
This is one of the most iconic Cheech and Chong songs, and it’s also one of their funniest. It’s both irreverent and hilarious, which is probably why the song is one of the few comedy skits without music to crack the Top 40.
Fun Fact: The character of Sister Mary Elephant made a return appearance in Cheech & Chong’s later sketch “Sergeant Stadanko,” where she introduces a narcotics officer to the same unruly class.
6. “Super Fly Meets Shaft,” John & Ernest, 1973
“Super Fly Meets Shaft” is a classic example of a “break-in” record, a popular song format in the 1970s that featured a fictional narrative, interspersed with snippets from contemporary hit songs. The format was popularized by producer Dickie Goodman, who co-wrote and produced this song. “Super Fly Meets Shaft” is one of the few songs Goodman produced without Goodman as the narrator.
The song imagines a meeting between two iconic characters from the blaxploitation film genre: Super Fly and Shaft. Their conversation is humorously narrated through samples from popular R&B and soul tracks of the early ’70s, including Curtis Mayfield’s “Superfly,” Isaac Hayes’ “Theme from Shaft,” and Billy Paul’s “Me and Mrs. Jones.”
It’s remarkable to think about now, but break-in songs were everywhere during the 1970s. And people thought they were absolutely hysterical. They were also extremely cheap to make. Goodman’s clips were always short enough to qualify as “fair use,” so he didn’t have to pay royalties, and he either used himself or unknown artists on his records.
By mixing popular characters with hit songs, “Super Fly Meets Shaft” was an early forerunner of mashup culture and a (very) distant cousin to the sampling techniques later embraced by hip-hop artists.
Fun Fact: “Super Fly Meets Shaft” was released on Rainy Wednesday Records, a label founded by Dickie Goodman in 1973. The label’s name was inspired by the day Goodman met his co-founder, a rainy Wednesday in New York.
7. “Spiders and Snakes,” Jim Stafford, 1974
This song was one of the many hits from Jim Stafford’s eponymous debut album. It tells the story of an awkward schoolboy trying to get the attention of a much more self-assured schoolgirl by presenting her with a frog. She sets him straight with “that ain’t what it takes to love me.”
Stafford was the king of novelty hits from 1974-1975, even hosting his own summer replacement variety show in 1975. His fame died down in subsequent years, but he still maintained a loyal fan base and owned a popular Branson showcase until 2020.
Fun Fact: “Spiders & Snakes” was co-written by David Bellamy, who would later gain fame as one-half of The Bellamy Brothers.
8. “The Streak,” Ray Stevens, 1974
Boogity, Boogity. Who can forget the ’70s craze of streaking aka the act of running naked through a public place? It became popular in the 1970s as a form of protest or expression. Naturally, we needed a song about the fad, and veteran songwriter Ray Stevens was happy to oblige.
The song was pretty simple. Each verse featured a reporter describing a commotion caused by a naked runner. He turns to a man on the street for his opinion, and it’s the same guy every time, telling what he saw and how he tried to warn his wife, Ethel, not to look, but it was too late. In the final verse, Ethel runs alongside the streaker, to the horror of our man on the street.
The Streak was shockingly popular, spending three weeks at Number One on the Billboard Charts and selling over 5 million records worldwide.
Fun Fact: “The Streak” was released just days before a real-life streaking incident at the 46th Academy Awards, where photographer Robert Opel dashed across the stage behind host David Niven. This unexpected event garnered significant media attention and inadvertently boosted the song’s popularity.
9. “Convoy,” C. W. McCall, 1975
Like “The Streak,” Convoy was inspired by a ’70s fad. This time, it was the 1970s craze for Citizen’s Band Radios, which could perhaps be considered one of the earliest forms of social media. The fad began with long-haul truckers using their radios to share traffic updates, speed traps, and fuel info—but it didn’t take long before everyone joined in, adopting colorful “handles” and using code like “10-4 good buddy.”
“Convoy” immortalized the fad with a grandiose song about a dramatic showdown between a group of truckers and the police. A long line of trucks (a “convoy”) is headed down the highway with “the hammer down” (at top speed). However, they’re being pursued by an ever-increasing array of “bears” (state troopers) determined to stop them. The trucks use their CBs (and all the current CB lingo) to outwit the police and continue on their way.
Convoy was a huge hit, spending six weeks at Number One on the Billboard Country Charts and one week at Number One on the Pop Charts. It even spawned a 1978 movie of the same name starring Kris Kristofferson and Ali McGraw.
Fun Fact: “The Streak” was released just days before a real-life streaking incident at the 46th Academy Awards, where photographer Robert Opel dashed across the stage behind host David Niven. This unexpected event garnered significant media attention and inadvertently boosted the song’s popularity.
10. “Mr. Jaws,” Dickie Goodman, 1975
The movie “Jaws” sold out theaters for weeks in the summer of 1975, so Dickie Goodman sprung into action.
Unlike “Super Fly Meets Shaft,” “Mr. Jaws” follows the traditional Dickie Goodman format. A reporter (voiced by Goodman) is on the street asking questions, and the responses are all snippets of current hits. Goodman “interviews” a giant shark who swam to shore, along with the movie’s other characters, Sheriff Brody, Captain Quint, and Matt Hooper, the oceanographer.
The song reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1975, demonstrating the immense popularity of “Jaws.” We were still excited to hear a song about a summer movie well into fall.
Fun Fact: Goodman’s final record in this format to chart was Kong, which spoofed the 1978 remake of King Kong. It only reached #48 on the Billboard Hot 100.
11. “Shaving Cream,” Benny Bell, 1975
1975 was a weird time in music, you guys. We just loved songs that sounded a little dirty. How else can you explain the popularity of a song with lyrics like this:
Our baby fell out of the window
You’d think that her head would be split
But good luck was with her that morning
She fell in a barrel of shh-
But don’t be fooled! He’s not going to say what you think he’s going to say. Instead, we’ll go straight to the chorus, which is:
-aving cream
Be nice and clean
Shave every day and you’ll always look keen
“Shaving Cream” was initially recorded in 1964 and re-released in 1975 after The Dr. Demento Show,which specialized in offbeat and comedic tracks, began playing it. It peaked at #30 on the Billboard Hot 100, but it was number one in the hearts of my middle school class. We loudly sang it on the playground daily while our teachers covered their ears and shook their heads. What rebels we were!
Fun Fact: The version that hit the charts in 1975 wasn’t even sung by Benny Bell. The hit version was actually sung by Phil Winston, who used the stage name Paul Wynn. Benny Bell had written and recorded the song decades earlier, but when it was re-released in 1975, the label used Winston’s version and credited it to Benny Bell!
12. “A Fifth of Beethoven,” Walter Murphy and the Big Apple Band, 1976
The song “A Fifth of Beethoven” answers a question nobody was asking: “Hey, what if Beethoven liked disco?” Possibly the only novelty song to not have any words, “A Fifth of Beethoven” smashed centuries together, bringing the high drama of Beethoven into the sweaty, polyester-filled heart of the disco era.
The song was absurdly catchy; even people who hated disco found themselves tapping their feet when they heard it. Walter Murphy, only 23 and a musical prodigy, played almost every instrument on this song, although he later compiled a band for live performances.
Fun Fact: Murphy originally wanted to release the song under his own name, but the record label thought it would have a better shot as a band. So they slapped on the name Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band, unaware that another disco group was using the name The Big Apple Band. That group? They’d soon change their name to Chic.
13. “Disco Duck,” Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots, 1976
Guess what song knocked A Fifth of Beethoven off its #1 slot in October 1976? That’s right, it was “Disco Duck”, truly one of the worst songs of the 1970s.
It’s still a mystery to me how this song became a hit. I’ve never known anyone who claimed to like it, and my friends and I would immediately switched the car radio to a different radio station every time we heard it played. And yet, it was played a lot. A lot.
However, there must have been at least a few people who loved this song about a man who attends a party and becomes overwhelmed with the urge to dance like a duck to the disco music playing, inventing a new dance craze in the process. Oddly enough, I don’t recall a specific Disco Duck dance, and the videos I’ve seen simply show people flapping their arms and waddling around like ducks.
The song was written and performed by Rick Dees, a Memphis DJ who went on to have a long career in radio. He’s currently the host of the Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 Countdown, which is syndicated on hundreds of radio stations across America.
Fun Fact: “Disco Duck” got Rick Dees fired. While working as a DJ in Memphis, Dees wasn’t allowed to play the song on-air. Then he made the mistake of mentioning it. That was enough to get him canned. He jumped to a rival station where he played “Disco Duck” nonstop.
14. “King Tut,” Steve Martin and The Toot Uncommons, 1978
Before we had Van Gogh’s Immersive Experience, we had the King Tut exhibit which traveled around the country from 1976-1979. This was (and I’m not kidding) a significant story at the time.
Of course, this big event had to be commemorated in song, and who better for the job than Steve Martin, who was at the peak of his stardom as a comic.
Martin premiered the song on Saturday Night Live in April 1978, in one of the biggest productions ever put on by the show at that point. If you saw it live, I’m sure you remember how we all sat open-mouthed in amazement when we weren’t laughing hysterically.
After the show aired, the song was all anyone could talk about for weeks. The single only reached #17 on the Billboard Hot 100, but that doesn’t reflect how every teenager in America went around saying, “He gave his life… for tourism” every chance they could.
One more thing about King Tut. It’s a really good song! I still keep it on regular rotation. If you love the song as I do, then you’ll be happy to know that Steve Martin released a bluegrass version of this song on his album, Rare Bird Alert, with the Stone Canyon Rangers. You’re welcome.
Fun Fact: Steve Martin’s backing band “The Toot Uncommons” was really members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Martin used to open for the band in his early days as a comedian.
15. “I Need Your Help Barry Manilow,” Ray Stevens, 1979
Novelty songs were falling out of favor by 1979. Disco was on the decline, new wave was bubbling up, and songs were getting a little more stylish, a little less silly. One of the last true novelty tracks to chart was “I Need Your Help Barry Manilow” by Ray Stevens, the same guy who gave us the runaway hit “The Streak” just a few years earlier. But times had changed. While “The Streak” topped the charts in 1974, “I Need Your Help Barry Manilow” only made it to #49.
The song is a loving send-up of Barry Manilow’s famously overwrought, emotionally saturated ballads. Stevens leans into the drama with lyrics about cold toast and lukewarm coffee, all delivered with heartfelt intensity and soaring orchestration. It’s theatrical, ridiculous, and just the right amount of self-aware, but it was clear that goofy charm didn’t stick the way it once had.
Fun Fact: The song appeared as a new track on Stevens’ Greatest Hits album, titled The Feeling’s Not Right Again,” a parody of Manilow’s hit album, Tryin’ to Get the Feeling. The album’s cover art also mimics the cover art of Manilow’s album.
