Novelty songs are different from most popular songs in that they usually have an invisible expiration date with the exception of Christmas Songs and to a lessor extent, Halloween Songs. Pac-Man Fever really mattered in the early 1980s, but it has long since lost it's purpose. Sometimes you can't tell the difference between a novelty song and an odd pop song written on purpose. Songs like 1999 by Prince, Angie Baby by Helen Reddy, 1985 by Bowling For Soup and Who Let The Dogs Out by the Baha Men come to mind.

    Songs like Lindbergh (The Eagle of the U.S.A.) and Lucky Lindy (both 1927) celebrated Charles Lindbergh's historic non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The Streak had it's day in 1974, but by April of that year, the shortcomings of this fad, running naked through public events, were evident, as noted by film star David Niven.

    In Der Fuerhrer's Face and (There'll Be A) Hot Time in the Town of Berlin (When the Yanks Go Marching In) meant a lot to freedom loving American people in the 1940s. Even Lorne Green (TV's Bonanza's Ben Cartwright) tried to financially horn in on the Beatles' coming, with his tribute to Ringo, in 1964. And practically everybody bought a C.B. radio when they heard Convoy in 1976. Of course, some Novely tunes are timeless like Junk Food Junkie by Larry Groce and Take This Job and Shove It by Johnny Paycheck.

    Ross Bagdasarian, better known as David Seville, used the process of speeding up his voice to create the Halloween hit, Witch Doctor. He further refined the technique to create Alvin, Simon and Theodore, the Chipmonks. With them he created another holiday classic The Chipmonk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late). Mad with power, he built this one-trick novelty bit into a mini empire with a prime time animated TV show.

    The earliest novely song we could find was recorded in the days before CD, Cassette Tapes, even vinyl records. The Laughing Song , followed up with The Whistling Coon ware recorded by ex-slave George Washington Johnson in 1891 on a cylinder. His Laughing Song was probably the highest selling recording of the 19th century. Trying to be as delicate as I can in this PC era is that The Laughing Song apparently recorded his infectious laugh and The Whistling Coon highlighted this happy Black Man's upbeat whistling ability. The first ever actually recorded song that we have proof of was Thomas Edison singing Mary Had A Little Lamb.

    Noone in the world of novelty has had the enormous success of Weird Al Yankovic. He has mocked many of the stars of the 1980s through today, inlcluding Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Eminem, Limp Biskit, Chamillionaire and others. His first breakout near-hit was Another One Rides the Bus, recorded in a bathroom for "just the right echo effect".
-Music Guy