17 April 2005Mah-na mah-naOr, as it reads on the label of the 45 (Ariel 500): MÁH-NÁ-MAH-NÁ. Questionable accents aigu aside, Donna is tickled to note that this tune, popularized by various Muppets, originated as part of the soundtrack to a "Swedish porno." Well, it's kind of soft-core, or so I'm told, but there's still some amusement value in the repurposing, as it were, of the material; it's not quite like, say, Disney coming up with a cartoon version of Lady Chatterley's Lover (imagine, if you will, Donald Duck sputtering about John Thomas), but it's still giggle-worthy. For a recording that made only #55 in Billboard, this is one wildly-popular tune, and I went through the charts looking for other songs peaking at #55 that might have had similar, or any, impact. To my surprise, I found quite a few worth mentioning: "Goldfinger," Billy Strange and His Orchestra (GNP Crescendo 334, 1965) Surely there's a lesson to be learned from this. * Reissued and slightly reedited in 1970, charted at #21. ** B-side of "Ruby Tuesday," which made #1. *** The Columbia version was a remake, done for the film Bonnie and Clyde; the Mercury release was a reissue of the 1949 original. Posted at 9:31 AM to Tongue and Groove |