Category: folk

Parodies’ Paradise: 2012 “Let Her Go”

Passenger had international success with this… according to Billboard it was #1 in Mexico, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, USA, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Venezuela, Czech Republic, Austria, UK, Switzerland… sold over 1 million digital copies in the UK… over 4 million in the US… nominated for the Brit Award for British Single of the Year… won the British Academy’s Ivor Novello Award for Most Performed Work.

Duncan G and Brian play it smooth with “The Candles Glow.” What a pretty scene!

Parodies’ Paradise: 2012 “Hopeless Wanderer”

Mumford and Sons’ album Babel debuted at number one in the UK selling 159,000 copies… the fastest selling album of 2012… debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 600,000 copies… spent a total of 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative Albums chart… made it the fourth best-selling album in the US in 2012… the eleventh best-selling album of 2013 with 1,096,000 copies sold for the year. The original song was somewhere tucked in tight on this album.

Joel Kopischke gets bluesy about present presentation with “Hopeless Wrapper.” His humor has integrity.

Parodies’ Paradise: 2008 “It’s Business Time”

Flight of the Conchords seem to parody themselves plenty when they label themselves New Zealand’s 2nd most popular comedy folk duo. After a floundering BBC radio and an HBO comedy series, and their eponymous album with this bizzy song (released as downloadable content for the video game Rock Band), Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, and Rhys Darby went their separate ways. But Tom Wade and The Parliament had the same idea: switch out the word business (meaning SEX in the original song) with the assonant Christmas. So now it’s “Christmas Time,” ladies and not-ladies.

Parodies’ Paradise: 1988etc. “If I Had $1000000”

Never a single, never a video, this Barenaked Ladies crowd pleaser has been included in several of their albums and ALL of their live shows. So no charting, but apparently this one has become a special memory for concert-goers worldwide.

Joel Kopischke does it again with “If I Had a Secret Santa.” Noel, Joel.

Parodies’ Paradise: 1983 “Blister in the Sun”

Milwaukieans Violent Femmes’ album Violent Femmes became the band’s biggest-selling album and was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA… themselves went on to become one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the 1980s, selling over 9 million albums by 2005. The original song here is one that helped make them famous, fight, and fall apart.

Joking ’round with it, jumpin’ Joel Kopischke needs a vacation from snow with “Christmas in the Sun.” Australia p’raps?

Parodies’ Paradise: 1974 “Cat’s in the Cradle”

Storyteller Harry Chapin’s enduring hit topped the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1974… his only No. 1 hit song… nominated for the 1975 Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance… inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2011.

Saturated with symphonic folk ApologetiX nails it with “Christ in the Stable.” Appreciate me now, Dad?!

Parodies’ Paradise: 1966 “I am a Rock”

This Paul Simon song is a bugbear for vinyl collectors. Originally released in the Paul Simon Songbook only in the UK, it was later tacked onto The Leaves That are Green with Garfunkle. Station samples were pressed in red with mono on on side and stereo on the other. The single charted to #3 in the Billboard Hot 100. It was my high school girlfriend’s signature song.

The following parody is not exactly holiday themed, but it is seasonal. And Simon and Garfunkle bits are hard to come by. So there. “Polar Bear Anthem” chronicles the wacky antics of those who jump into sub-zero December waters. Thanks, Balderdash & Humbug!

Parodies’ Paradise: 1965 “California Dreamin'”

The Mamas and Papas song was not an immediate breakthrough… a radio station in Boston broke the song nationwide… peaked at number 4 in March on both the Billboard Hot 100, lasting 17 weeks, and Cashbox, lasting 20 weeks… certified as a Gold Record (single) by the RIAA… inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001… also reached number 23 on the UK charts upon its original release… is #89 in Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time… became a signpost of the California Myth and the arrival of the nascent counterculture era.

“Christmas in New England” is The ’60s Invasion’s Currier and Ives take over the river and through the mall.

 

Parodies’ Paradise: 1964 “Sounds of Silence” BLUE ALERT

Simon and Garfunkle’s quiet hit hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 (leading the duo to reunite and hastily record their second album)… a top-ten hit in multiple countries worldwide, among them Australia, Austria, West Germany, Japan and the Netherlands… added to the National Recording Registry in the Library of Congress for being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically important” in 2013.

One Hot Second battles the club crowd with the angry parody “Sounds of Christmas.” Cherish the season enough to curse.

Behold a Star: Charlie Manson

Charles Milles Maddox was a nutball criminal turned murderer by the Beatles (it happens). He didn’t invent the persona of cult leader with daddy-issued groupies, but he sure got more media for it. Blame California, everybody else does.

Dirty Sick Europeans have crafted a dreamy jello serving of psychedelia “Merry Christmas Charly Manson.” It seems to ironically dig at the curious followers as well as at his own psychopathy. No ‘Helter Skelter’ wildness, this is soothing.