Show Notes
Sped-up voices. Wacky instruments. Songs about cavemen, bathtubs, bikinis, and mothers-in-law. From the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll through the 1970s—the age of streaking, CB radios, disco and King Tut—novelty songs could be chart-topping hits. But by the corporate ’80s, it was harder for goofballs to score hits on regimented radio playlists. Until one perm-headed, mustachioed, accordion-playing parodist who called himself “Weird” rebooted novelty hits for the new millennium. In this encore episode of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy explores the history of novelty hits on the charts. Podcast production by Justin D. Wright and Kevin Bendis.
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In the 1970s, Dolly Parton parlayed her Nashville success into megawatt pop-culture icon status—yet many of her familiar hits of the era barely scratched the Top 40. Parton finally crossed over at the turn of the ’80s by courting pop fans directly. Nearly five decades later, country music is ubiquitous on the pop charts, with Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” recently setting a record for most weeks at No. 1. On this installment of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy examines the chart rules that limited Parton’s pop-chart potential, the trail she blazed for Langley and other country women, and why the Nashville sound is much more than just an island in the (digital) stream.
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