The Not-Pop Jukebox

I've never posted anything from Flight of the Conchords. That's because they were dreadfully popular for a time, even appearing on The Simpsons. But the trick here is that they aren't a pop act, regardless of having had their own HBO series and BBC radio show.

If you've not listened to the gents from New Zealand, I urge you to do so. They're a comedy team rather than a musical act, one that happens to perform songs. Since I don't have cable and don't live in London I'd not really heard of the famous duo until I somehow ended up with Doggy Bounce, extended to almost a minute and a half. I had been considering posting that here but being so short I thought it needed another song for back-up.

I almost got kicked out of the public library when I began listening to more of the Flight of the Conchords catalog. Of all of their songs, though, the Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros gave me the loudest guffaw so I thought I'd post it here. If you've a favorite track please do share it in the comments. If you've not heard much from them, try Albi the Racist Dragon as well.

I suppose Loves Me Like a Rock would make a good Mother's Day song rather than posting it on some random day at the end of September, but I've been writing about love songs for days now and am sad that this one can't be included. It's such a bouncy, happy tune and Paul Simon has such a way with lyrics. The gospel group The Dixie Hummingbirds provided the background vocals for the Loves Me Like a Rock, if you're curious.

The song was a huge hit in 1973 but you don't really hear it anywhere these days if you don't own it. I thought someone ought to remedy that and who better than me to do so (and who the heck else would I ask)? For a gorgeous sunny day at the very beginning of fall this cheery song seemed just the thing.

Four years before Elvis whined about "crying all the time" in 1956, Big Mama Thornton recorded the original Hound Dog. The original lyrics were a mite more to the point. Rather than denying friendship, she was telling her man that he could wag his tail all he wanted but he was done poppin' in for dinner, so to speak.

To be fair, it wasn't Elvis or his handlers that changed the lyrics for the song. Between the two recordings Freddie Bell and the Bellboys came along and made the song more suitable for a male vocalist. That was the version Elvis Presley covered a year later.

But the point is that Big Mama Thornton came first and made Hound Dog a hit. And yet so few people know what I think was the best version of the song. I hope you'll give it a listen )and let me know what you think).

As I've never seen Borat, I'd completely missed out on Fanfare Ciocarlia's very loose and wonderfully wacky interpretation of Born to Be Wild. Suffice it to say that only the two times they actually lapse into the immediately-recognizable title line would give you a hint what they were playing. It's bouncy, fun, and wild, perfect for a Saturday evening. And when they come around to the Born to Be Wild line you can even sing along!

When I posted Bootie Wonderland the other day I thought I'd previously posted Freak-a-Zoid because we sing it all of the time around my house. As noted, when I went to link to the post it was nowhere to be found.

For this freaky Friday night, we need a song steeped in the best and worst of the 80s. We've got your stereotypical geek, computer graphics that owe quite a bit to Weird Science, and a lot of doing the robot. Honestly, could you ask for a more effective time machine? All you need is Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald to make it complete. C'mon and wind me up!