Popcorn
Alright, so there’s a lot of pressure on me to decide how to start this blog. I mean there are so many tacky things out there. I thrive on bad music, bad movies, bad television, bad music videos, bad decor…I could go on and on!
Some of my future entries will be glaringly obvious, some will be delightfully obscure. Oh the fun we’re going to have exploring my favourite topic in the whole wide world!
So let’s start with the granddaddy of all cheesy songs: “Popcorn” by Hot Butter. Allow me the youtube link for those youngsters who don’t know what I am talking about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y_VHOCp7Lw
Ahhhh, that brings me back to my old dance lessons in the 70s. This song used to delight me…and then I turned five! We’d get down onto the floor and pretend that we were popcorn kernels. By the time the song was over, we’d jump into the air shouting “POP!” Mmm hmm. Bo-ring! I’m sure everyone else out there has a very similar story to this one. Teachers and dance instructors alike probably were able to purchase this song with some sort of teacher’s discount.
I then completely abandoned my love for this song until my teens (aka my “hipster years”). Thankfully my parents were voracious collectors of K-Tel and Ronco records (more on them later!), so I was able to easily access this song and put it on a cassette to play in my car.
OK, now for the fun facts:
1. Who on earth is/was Hot Butter?
According to Wikipedia, they were a Denmark-based instrumental cover band. How sad it makes me to realize that there aren’t too many instrumental bands out there anymore! I could talk for hours about this. Apparently the “band” consisted of an American keyboard player named Stan Free and various studio musicians.
2. What on earth is producing those sounds?
Those wonderful sounds are produced by a Moog synthesizer. This sort of synth was created in the 50s and made popular in the late 60s by Walter/Wendy Carlos, who did a pretty cool sounding album called “Switched on Bach.”
However, one listen to Moog music and it’s obvious that the sounds that are produced are pretty dated. It seemed to be at its most popular during the 70s, when all good taste was abandoned (hence, it is my favourite decade in history!) The Moog has returned to popularity in a sort of retro way. Check out the Moog Cookbook’s version of Weezer’s “Buddy Holly.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPkgIPDfcE
The original version of “Popcorn” was composed by Gershon Kingsley, who was inspired by the sounds made by a popcorn maker. Check out this trippy song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYTu__hhMws
The Hot Butter version, which is best known, made it to the Top 10 of a number of countries, many going all the way to number one! Hooray! Popcorn was remade by various artists, including the Chemical Brothers and Kraftwerk.
Where are they now? Stan Free sadly passed away in 1995. Gershon Kingsley has released albums of Moog music as recently as 2006. His best known album is entitled “Music to Moog By” from 1969 and contains the above version of “Popcorn,” as well as gems like “Paperback Writer” by the Beatles and “Scarborough Fair” by Simon and Garfunkel. A true gem of an album! And a true gem of an instrument!
And so there you have it, my first of hopefully many entries! I will not be posting anything else for at least a week, as I will be out of town. I am going to the Jersey Shore, so if I make it to a boardwalk or two, I will return home dripping in tacky inspiration! See you then!
Disclaimer: My husband asked me why I am including this song in an encyclopedia of “bad” things. I often use the word “bad” and “cheesy” interchangeably. I am not designing this blog to be mean-spirited or critical of one’s skills, but rather to bask in the cheesiness of all things tacky!
Jolie's House of Bad 