Liverpool pop group known for its novelty tunes

Today we’re happy to feature our 100 Greatest Novelty Songs playlist.

Just because we’re featuring it doesn’t mean we understand it.

What’s a novelty song, anyway?  And how did “novelty” become a derogatory term for a pop song?

There are two Frank Zappa songs on the list.  Zappa wrote and performed some of the most sophisticated and demanding (to play and to listen to) music of the rock era and also was one of its greatest guitarists.  Is he relegated to novelty status just because most of his lyrics consist of ham-handed, sophomoric attempts at being funny?

How about The Beatles?:  “Yellow Submarine,” “Bungalow Bill,” “Rocky Racoon”…some of the most delightful and memorable novelty songs of all time.

Isn’t the whole idea of rock and roll to be novel?  Weren’t Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly novelties?  And Hendrix, The Sex Pistols and Madonna?

Novelty is dead!  Long live novelty!