Songs Written as a Joke That Became Huge Hits

About These Songs Written as a Joke

Some of the biggest records ever made started life as songs written as a joke: a throwaway B-side, a disc jockey's send-up, notes scribbled on an airplane. Nobody involved expected much, and that was part of the charm.

This episode counts down ten of those happy accidents. The details below were checked against chart records and published accounts, and claims that could not be confirmed were left out.

The Countdown: 10 Joke Songs That Turned Into Hits

#10: Mickey — Toni Basil (1982)

"Mickey" began as "Kitty," a 1979 song by the British band Racey, written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. Toni Basil changed the name, and she added the "Oh Mickey" cheer that the original never had.

Basil had been head cheerleader at Las Vegas High School. She directed and choreographed the video herself, wearing her old uniform, with a real squad from Carson High School in California beside her.

The song first appeared on her 1981 album Word of Mouth. Its American release came in 1982, and that December it knocked Lionel Richie's "Truly" out of the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

#9: Kung Fu Fighting — Carl Douglas (1974)

Producer Biddu had hired Carl Douglas to sing a ballad called "I Want to Give You My Everything." After two hours on it, about ten minutes were left to cut a flip side.

Douglas showed Biddu several sets of lyrics, and Biddu picked one about the kung fu craze sweeping movies and television. Since it was only a B-side, Biddu later said, he went over the top with the grunts and chops.

Pye Records made the novelty the A-side. Radio ignored it for five weeks, but dance clubs did not. It reached No. 1 in Britain and on the Billboard Hot 100, and it has been credited with about eleven million sales worldwide.

#8: Disco Duck — Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots (1976)

Rick Dees was a morning disc jockey at WMPS in Memphis when he wrote this send-up of the disco boom, borrowing the idea from a 1965 dance tune called "The Duck." He said it took one day to write and three months to sell.

A small Memphis label released it before RSO Records took it national. Back home, WMPS would not let Dees play his own record, and when he mentioned it on the air anyway, management fired him, calling it a conflict of interest.

Rival station WHBQ soon hired him. On October 16, 1976, "Disco Duck" reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.

#7: Rapper's Delight — The Sugarhill Gang (1979)

Sylvia Robinson wanted to put rap on a record. Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson was working in a pizza parlor in New Jersey, and by Master Gee's account the auditions took place right outside, with Gee trying out in Robinson's car.

The long version runs nearly fifteen minutes and was cut in a single take over a live band. Chip Shearin, who says he played the bass line, was 17 and was paid $70.

It reached No. 36 on the Hot 100 and is widely called the first commercial rap hit. Credit is still debated. Many of Hank's rhymes came from a notebook lent to him by Grandmaster Caz, who was not credited as a writer.

#6: El Baile del Perrito — Wilfrido Vargas (1989)

Dominican bandleader Wilfrido Vargas released this merengue in 1989 on his album Itinerario. The song describes a happy dog wiggling its hips, and the dance that goes with it simply asks people to do the same.

It became a staple at family parties across the Spanish-speaking world, and because its words are playful rather than crude, children love it too. More than three decades later, Dominican composer and arranger Juan Valdez Ybet went to court claiming authorship of the song, proof that even a playful hit can end up in a courtroom.

#5: The Streak — Ray Stevens (1974)

Ray Stevens read a short item about streaking, the college fad of running naked through public places, in a news magazine on a plane. He jotted down notes and rushed the song out once the fad exploded.

Stevens voices both the reporter and the witness himself. The single came out in early 1974. That April, a man named Robert Opel streaked behind host David Niven at the Academy Awards, which kept the craze in the headlines.

"The Streak" spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in May 1974 and topped the British chart in June. Contrary to the video, Opel did not vanish. He later ran a San Francisco art gallery and died in 1979.

#4: Wooly Bully — Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (1965)

Domingo "Sam" Samudio, a Mexican-American singer from Dallas, built this song on a dance tune called "Hully Gully." In one interview he recalled that minutes before recording, an MGM executive said the company did not want another "Hully Gully" record, so he wrote new words on the spot.

The famous "uno, dos" count-in was not planned either. Samudio said he was just goofing around, and he wanted it removed, but the first take was released. Some stations banned the record because nobody could make out the words.

It peaked at No. 2, yet Billboard ranked it the top song of 1965, and it was the first American record to sell a million during the British Invasion.

#3: El Baile de los Pajaritos — María Jesús y su Acordeón (1981)

Americans know this tune as the Chicken Dance. Swiss accordionist Werner Thomas composed it in 1957 as "Der Ententanz," the duck dance, and played it in restaurants and hotels through the 1950s and 1960s.

A Belgian producer heard it and released it in 1970, with little success. A Dutch version by the Electronicas finally carried it around the world between 1980 and 1982.

In 1981, Spanish accordionist María Jesús Grados recorded it with Spanish lyrics as "El Baile de los Pajaritos," and that version carried the little bird flaps to Spanish-speaking parties for decades.

#2: Achy Breaky Heart — Billy Ray Cyrus (1992)

Don Von Tress, an amateur songwriter from Tennessee, wrote this in 1990 while, in his words, just fooling around on the guitar and a drum machine. The Oak Ridge Boys were expected to record it, but lead singer Duane Allen did not care for the words "achy breaky."

The Marcy Brothers released it in 1991 as "Don't Tell My Heart," and it went nowhere. A year later Billy Ray Cyrus made it his debut single, and the music video helped push line dancing into the mainstream.

It spent five weeks atop the country chart and reached No. 4 on the Hot 100. Many critics were unkind. Listeners kept dancing anyway.

#1: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da — The Beatles (1968)

Paul McCartney wrote this cheerful ska-flavored tune in early 1968 during the Beatles' stay in Rishikesh, India. The title came from a catchphrase used by Jimmy Scott, a Nigerian conga player in London.

John Lennon was not a fan. Engineer Geoff Emerick recalled him calling it more of Paul's "granny music." The July 1968 sessions grew so tense that Emerick soon quit.

The version we know took shape when Lennon left the studio, came back under the influence, and pounded out the piano intro faster and louder. He insisted that was how it should go, and it stuck. McCartney also swapped the names Desmond and Molly in the last verse, and the band kept the slip.

The video calls it a Beatles No. 1, but it was not released as a single in Britain or America in 1968. It did reach No. 1 in West Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan, and a cover by Marmalade topped the British chart in 1969.

Why Songs Written as a Joke Became Lasting Hits

Nobody polished these records for months. A B-side got ten minutes, a count-in stayed by accident, and a disc jockey wrote his hit in a day. That loose feeling is hard to fake.

Many also came with something to do: a cheer, a karate chop, a line dance, flapping arms. Songs that pull people onto the floor keep returning at weddings and family parties.

Which of these songs got you out of your chair, and do you still remember the moves?

Sources and Further Reading

• "Kung Fu Fighting" — Wikipedia
• "Disco Duck" — Wikipedia
• "Rapper's Delight" — Wikipedia
• Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs — Classic Bands
• "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" — Wikipedia