Laugh? I nearly had a hit!!

There was a fascinating documentary on BBC 4 last night about the history of the comedy song in the charts - which prompted me to think of comedy songs I really, really liked. Proper songs with lyrics, tunes and melodies - excpet perhaps for this first one, by the men who inspired the Monty Python team...



We also have to acknowledge before going further the master of the satirical song in the fifties and sixties, Professor Tom Lehrer of Harvard fame. This is one of his later songs...



So, setting aside the Monty Python genre, what else can we look at? Well, in the seventies, there were two masters of the comedy song in the UK who regularly charted. The first were The Barron Knights, who did satiricial versions of popular songs of the time - like this one.



THE master of the comedy hit in the 70's however, came from the most unexpected of places - mister Bill Oddie, who with the Goodies has had more top twenty hits then many current bands. Here's a few of their better known numbers.













You can't go wrong with a bit of Goodie Goodie Yum Yum.

In the eighties we had Spitting Image - and while everyone loves The Chicken Song, this to me was their best adn funniest song, if a little dated these days... WARNING - This Song Was Designed To Offend Some People....



Talkign of Rowan Atkinson, the Not The Nine O'Clock New Team also had some fun comedy songs - here's a couple







Finally, let us acknowledge the master od the US parody song - Wierd Al Yankovic. For fun, let's see a couple of videos done with Lego...

Coming up to date

Let us finish off our look at the Eurovision song contest, as we go to Stockholm in 2000 and their neighbours Denmark take the contest with The Olsen Brothers singing Fly On The Wings Of Love....



Now, a feature of the Eurovision contest has always been bloc voting - The Scandanavian countries vote for each other, Greece never voted for Turkey, and so on and so on. By the 2001 contest in Copenhagen the former Soviet Bloc countries were starting to take part, but bloc votign was not the reason Estonia won in 2001 - it's actually a good song....



The following year, however, things got a bit more... interesting, as the winner was the near neighbour Latvia with this number.



Why interesting? Because this was the best song that year by a country mile or ten...



2003, and we move to Latvia. By this point there were 26 countries taking part, with the votign taking half the program, and something had to change. It did the following year, but not before Turkey won with this Shakira-like number...



Istanbul - city of mystery, city of intrigue, and definitely not Constantinople, hosts the competition in 2004 and the title goes to a rousing number from the Ukraine. Was it the best song on the night, or was it the leather outfits? You decide...



By 2005, a semi-final was in place as up to 40 countries wanted to take part, but ALL countries could vote regardless of whether or not they made the final. As a result, the phenomena of block voting (or bloc voting) came into full play, but not just yet, as Greece pulled off a surprise win. Actually, given the song, not that surprising...



From then on, however, the contest started to look like a former Soviet bloc love-in. The contest in Athens in 2006 led to a win for the most unexpected country of all. To introduce this, remember that for some perverse reason Finland is the home of Death Metal, and they like a straneg type of music generally. Witness the glory of Hard Rock Hallelujah....



Yes, that won - so we go to Helsinki in 2007. Just across the Baltic Sea from Finland is, yes, you guessed it - Estonia and the other Soviet Bloc countries. Two semi-finals, and one contest later, the winner is not a former Soviet Bloc country!!

It's Serbia, only just allowed back into the contest with this song...



When in 2008 Russia wins, with what is a good entry, the bloc voting had got to the stage that Western countries were standing no chance. Only the UK, France, Spain, Germany and the host country are gauranteed entries, and many of the others were falling at the semi-final stage, with even Ireland not makign the final. Sir Terry Wogan, while commentating on the voting, essentially handed in his resignation, so disgusted was he with what was happening.

Thsi does not detract from the quality of the winner, however....



The 2009 voting system changed, with a combination of phone-in and jury votes, to try and reduce the bloc voting issue. As a result, the UK, which for the previosu few years had finished in the bottom of the table (and no points on one occassion) came fourth. The winner, however, was little Norway again with this fiddle and dance number.



A subtle return to Eurovision style of song, a catchy tune, and a deserving winner - maybe there is hope for the future of this contest after all....

The show that raided Ireland....

Yeah, I know, the contest was weeks ago, but work has go tin the way so much I never finished my look back, so today I'll look at Eurovision in the 1990's and then bring it up to date with the silliest decade of all.

So, 1990, and Yugoslavia having won the previous year host the competiton. Remember this was the year afetr the Iron Curtain and the Berlin Wall fell, so a song callign for the people of Europe to join together was an almost shoo-in to win - ask Toto Cotugno from Italy...



Such a pity that a few short years later Yugoslavia disintegrated into ethnic hatred...

So, to 1991 and Rome. For the secodn time in Eurovision history, there is a tie for the winning song - France and Sweden receivign the same number of points. Thsi time, however, rules are in place, and on countback this was the winning song.


So we go forward a year, and it's off to Malmo where a fine contest is held. In the end, however, it's a songstress from Ireland who wins called Linda Martin and a song called Why Me? Said song was written by one Johnny Logan....



And we start a tale of the dark side of Eurovision. The contest went back to Ireland, to Millstreet, with Sonia representing the UK - but the contest was won by the home entrant, Niamh Kavanagh...



So it's off to Dublin, and the show that unleashed misery on RTE, the Irish broadcasters. They decide to put two old song maestros up with a youtful reminisce of their music - Rock and Roll Kids - and wouldn't you know it it won again...



The real shock and surprise of this year, however, was the interval entertainment that took place while voting was considered. RTE had constructed a special stage in the harbour in Dublin, and asked a well known choreographer to come up with a short piece to celebrate Ireland. This was the result.



So Ireland digs deep, puts on the 1995 sontest, and hopes to the Almighty they don't win again. While it did give us the classic Eurovision episode of Father Ted, ridign to teh rescue of RTE comes one of the most beautiful winning songs of all time - Nocturne by Secret Garden from Norway.



So the Norwegians get to host the cotnest, but dammit - the Irish can;t stop winning this show!! Here's Eimear Quinn with The Voice.



So back to Ireland, and this time salvation comes from over the Irish Sea, as the UK takes a page from Switzerland's book and hire an American singer who had a massive hit ten years earlier with Walking on Sunshine. This is their last win to date - which says something...



Birmingham, 1998, and excitement is in the air. Something special is brewing - and it turns out that something special is a transsexual singer from Israel. This entry almost go tbanned by the Israeli government, and the Irish weren't too happy either as Dana International took the stage.



This was the sign that Eurovision was entering a new era, where anythign would and coudl go - but first we need to stop off in Israel for the 1999 contest, and a last gasp for the classic Eurovision style of song with Charlotte Neilsen and Take Me To Your Heaven...



Come back in a day or two for the final part - the Russians (and friends) are coming...