Bad 1970s Disco Song Has Even Worse Dancing, But It's Hilarious

The three members of the Silver Convention struggling to get through
their dance moves in their song, "Fly, Robin Fly" back in
the 1970s. I'd have my back to the audience too because I dance
as badly as they do. But they had spunk! 

There was a disco song in 1975 called "Fly, Robin, Fly," which was about as lightweight and inconsequential as you can get.

The song was stupid, and had nothing to it, but it was rather catchy regardless, so it was a hit.  (It doesn't take much, sometimes).

This song was done in the days before so-called official videos, but people did make music videos anyway.

"Fly, Robin, Fly" was performed by three hapless women called Silver Convention. As you can see in the video below their dance skills were, um.....let's just say they could have used a little more practice.

Especially since the dance moves weren't exactly of the calibre you might find on "So You Think You Can Dance."

I especially like the woman on the left, who seems to keep glancing over at her cohorts to confirm whether she was making the right moves, or whether she was out of step. She needn't have. They were all way off. And they often looked confused, which adds to the fun. They certainly would have been buzzed off of "American's Got Talent" if it existed in those days.

But they probably wouldn't have been kicked off "The Gong Show," which DID exist in that era, so there's that

And the attempt at flinging around their hair was cool, too.  Here's the video, just for laughs:

Sonny And Cher Weirdness To Distract You From All The Bad Stuff

Sonny and Cher, in interesting outfits, perform
the strange ditty "Little Man" 

Some of the weirder moments of Sonny and Cher's heyday are making the rounds now, so I figure I'd distract you with a couple of those stunning performances.

Amazon Prime is currently running a television ad campaign that features a donkey, a doggy door (or donkey door) and Sonny and Cher's song "Little Man."

An original video for Little Man is really something to behold. You  have to love the prison uniform type uniform or something Sonny is wearing.

I also totally love the videographer's fixation with Cher's (unremarkable) shoes.

Kudos also to the lost looking young man in the tie and striped shirt in the audience who looks totally lost.

I guess the appeal to me is that I love 1970s kitsch and weirdness. If this post isn't enough to prove it, check out the one I did on the the classic 1972 hit "How Do You Do" by Mouth & MacNeil.


Once you're done watching "Little Man", (You'll probably have to click on the underlined "Watch on YouTube" to see it)  scroll down for another Sonny and Cher classic "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done" because the song is even better!

HONK-A! HONK- A HONK-A!!!!!



Next, we have "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done," which is certainly um, different.

Love the facial expressions on Sonny's face during this.

I gotta hand it to Sonny and Cher. Back in their day, they weren't afraid to add a goofy sense of odd humor to their repertoire, so good on them!

Here's "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done" in all its 1972 glory!

When Videos For Gloriously Over The Top Songs Are Even More So, I Rejoice

Big hairy Mouth, left, appears to attack a woman
on MacNeal's lap as the two perform their 1972 hit
"How Do You Do" 

Right before Christmas, while struggling to not listen to the same stupid three holiday carols for the 1,567.293,234th time, I switched over to the 1970s station on Sirius radio.

I was delighted to hear something I hadn't heard in ages. "How Do You Do" by Mouth and MacNeil.

Most of you don't remember that one hit wonder, I bet.

But I do.

I'm a connoisseur of bad pop songs and this one has it all.  It features a loud guy (Mouth) demanding, HOW DO YOU DO?! UH-HUH!  I THOUGH WHY NOT NA-NA-NA-NA !!!!!!" and MacNeal (the sweet, quieter woman) singing the same thing. Sweetly.

The music of this 1972 hit stomps along like a toddler on the verge of a tantrum pretending to be in a marching band

All the while Mouth and MacNeal gleefully keep singing "Na Na Nah Na Na Na Nah!" like first grade mean girls ganging up on the shy kid with glasses.

It's all wonderful fun.  And scarily happy sounding.

When I looked the song up on line, I was even more thrilled. The video is even more bizarre than the song. What luck!

Mouth, the loud guy, is a big hairy dude dressed fetchingly in kelly green fur.  MacNeal is in spring green feathers and a pink shirt. They're in a bar surrounded by teens and 20 somethings, many of whom appear coked out.

During the performance, Mouth and MacNeal have a fight over pretzels.

Mouth produces a red haired puppet on a platter, turns it upright and feeds it a drink. Which probably isn't a good idea, since the puppet already looks really hammered.

I'm also not sure about the lost looking woman in the big striped hat and red shirt looking bewildered on the floor at about 1:04 into the video.

As the song stomps along, the people in the well lit bar keeping clapping and bouncing, probably disrupting fault lines and causing a nasty earthquake in the remote mountains of China.

I sound awfully like I'm picking nastily on this whole thing, but I find everything about "How Do You Do" absolutely delightful. It's perfect kitsch, and I truly love it.

Here's the video to give you today's bizarre earworm. You won't regret watching it.

Pinnacle Video Of Bad Taste Is Your Sunday Laugh Of The Day

Hat tip to the blog Nothing To Do With Abroath for finding this gem:

A scene from the most, um, incredible
Beatles medley video ever made!  

It's a 1978 video of Italian singer and dancer Raffaella Carra doing a Beatles medley. That doesn't sound to exciting on the face of it, but you have GOT to watch the video, below.

I'm a connoisseur of camp and extremely bad taste and this video is an absolute masterpiece.

The set designs are enough to induce epileptic fits in everybody who sees it. I showed the video to my  husband, Jeff, a highly regarded theater set designer.

He seemed stunned into silence at the spectacle, but said it's like somebody did a parody of the late 1970s. "It's so right, it's wrong," Jeff said.

Actually, the dancers in the "Hey Jude" segment near the beginning of the video look like they're all having epileptic fits, but it does appear they are enjoying the experience, so that's good.

I don't know much about Rafaella Carra, other than she is very popular in Italy and in Latin America. She's probably really talented, but since good taste was in short supply in the late 1970s, I think she suffered from that shortage here.

This video, however, would be a great remake for a drag queen. I think it would work wonderful in that context.

The "Obla De Obla Da" segment is also a highlight, with elements of Charo and Abba thrown in, and a giant open mouth face in the background about to happily eat our Rafaella as a nice midday snack.

Raffaella Carra stuns, I think, in her
1978 Beatles medley video.  

The walrus faces and tusks that decorated the groin and hip areas of the male dancers is a nice touch.

Even more dramatic is the next segment. The song "A Hard Days Night" is performed by  naked male dancers covering their privates with bowler hats. Get it? A Hard Days Night? Ha!!

Toward the end, we go back to "Hey Jude" and the Abba influence comes back. The dancers really out-Abba Abba.

You have to see this for yourself. It's a work of art. Watch:

When Popular Musicians Go Off The Rails, It's Time To Boogie

Every once in awhile, a musician, band or recording artist wants to get away from their comfort zone and try something different.

Karen Carpenter gets lost in space in 1977
as she gets totally weird in "Calling Occupants..."  

Often, it works. Sometimes, though, it turns into hilarity that's either genius or sick or both. Usually both.  Which I love.

I'll offer three examples from the 1970s and 1980s. that will make you cringe, laugh, and maybe hate me for getting these tunes into your head.

But I'm only doing this because I'm in a weird mood. Won't you join me?

Before we go on, please feel free to nominate any weird songs by somewhat normal artists that you want to add to this list.

The first piece of insanity I'll offier is the late, great  Karen Carpenter. She was a staple of early 1970s soft rock and love ballads. That's not a diss against her. She was awesome at it, she and brother Richard put out wonderful records and her voice was stunning.

Then stunningly, the Carpenters came out with this gem: Here's "Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft," from 1977  Just see if you can get through the whole video without laughing or cringing yourself to death.

Richard Carpenter begins the segment as the World's Most Obnoxious Radio DJ, Karen Carpenter spends the video looking like a Scientology guru strung out on acid, and the space aliens who make guest appearances look like they want to flee this song, or bomb earth into dust to rid the universe of this laff riot:






The next example is a song I actually like: It's "Lawyers In Love" by Jackson Browne. He's the renowned king  of thoughtful takes on love and hate affairs, liberal political statements and a couple fun songs.

Part of the charm of "Lawyers In Love" is I don't really get it. I don't know if anybody gets it. Including Jackson Browne. But that's OK.

In this video, Jackson Browne sings the song in a bare apartment, watching seemingly in a trance as space aliens in the form of children land. (Why do all these weird songs involve space alients and people who appear to be on sedatives?)

Then we have him rowing a car across a harbor and lawyers gleefully marching on Moscow.  I still don't get it. But amaze yourself at this weirdness from Jackson Browne:





Finally, let's go to that 1970s and 1980s cultural scold Don Henley, who has a bad day as a teacher in "Johnny Can't Read."

I love the crude computers all the kids in the class have, and the fact that Johnny can't read seems to be the least of Johnny's problems. How much caffeine, coke and Valium did he take anyway?  And judging from the video, it looks like Henley could use some of the same substances.