Miserable Melodies

[stiofan]

Well, I haven't seen this on our illustrious forum before, so thought I'd share this o-so-unique musikal collection with y'all. Some of my favorites:

Rocketman - William Shatner
Proud Mary - Leonard Nimoy
Winter Wonderland - San Francisco 49ers
Odd Couple - You're So Vain
Portsmouth Sinfonia
Temple City Kazoo Orchestra - Whole Lotta Love

if you haven't heard this before...yer in fer a treat...of sorts

http://www.miserablemelodies.com/
http://www.miserablemelodies.com/cgi-bi ... arg=Artist

[Daryl]

I can't get any of them to play. Rats!!!

[Nanohedron]

Thank you. I think.

Yes, Temple City Kazoo Orchestra/"Whole Lotta Love" is killer! Two others that get my vote:

American Standard Co./"My Bathroom is My Special Place"...bizarre. Especially bizarre that the lady didn't crack up singing it.

Enrique Iglesias/"Rhythm Divine"...truly awful. He had to be very drunk at the time. That, or he really lip-synchs his usual performances.

I couldn't bring myself to listen to Fabio.

[missy]

while I can agree with most of them (I refuse to even PLAY any of the Yoko ones!!), I cannot agree with two - John Prine (Flag Decal) and Loren Green (Ringo). I mean, common!!! Those are CLASSIC!!!

Missy

[Darwin]

I dunno...maybe it's all wonderful, and it's just the listeners who are untalented.

I happen to be a John Prine fan, and I'm sure I've read people here talking about how they were influenced by the Irish Rovers doing The Unicorn (though, personally, I'd rather listen to Tammy Faye Baker).

Maybe there are those who feel the same way about Burt Ward and Phyllis Diller--maybe our reaction is just due to unfamiliarity with the genre?

Hey, it could be...

[Rando7]

Anybody who played in the school band needs to check out Portsmouth Sinfonia Also Sprach Zarathustra

[JillyKB]

K, only one I actually listened to is that kazoo one. Oh my gosh! Actually I heard the Leonard Nemoy "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins" on another site... it's really good, especially if you can find the video to it/

[vadorman]

This is a great site

http://www.bobrivers.com/show/vault/alpha.asp?Var=I

[IvanP]

In select areas of the country, there's NPR's "Annoying Music Show", based in Chicago. The host occasionally pops in at Weekend Edition Saturday and has a shrine to annoying music in his basement.
Lots of content here overlaps...

[chas]

In the mid-1970's, the "beautiful music" stations were becoming all the rage, especially with my parents. You know, the ones with no-name studio orchestras doing things like "Blowin' in the wind," "Both sides now," etc. Well, my brother swore up and down that he'd heard "Purple haze," the Hendrix song on one of these. My parents listened to one of these stations (WKSS, "Kiss," somewhere in CT), and sure enough, I heard an orchestra with a chorus of wimpy men singing "Purple haze, or is it my brain, . . ." I just about had milk coming out of my nose at the supper table.

That was really right up there with William Shatner's rendition of "Lucy in the skies."

[Nanohedron]

You haven't lived until you've heard factory Muzak playing Prince's "I Would Die for You". It really doesn't work. Trust me.

[OutOfBreath]

Too bad they're all in Real Audio. I refuse to have their advertiser, er, I mean, player, on my machine

I never have understood why people use the RA format - it's not as good as either VBR MP3 or WMA and, for anyone to listen to your files, they have to install one of the most invasive pieces of system-tray trash around.

I can understand not using WMA if you hate Microsuck, but MP3 is a completely open format with about a million encoders and players on all platforms.

[brewerpaul]

there are a couple of recordings of horrible songs called "Golden Throats" and man are some of them BAD!
A couple of Shatner and Nimoy ones, Mae West shrieking out "Twist and Shout", the guy from Dragnet intoning "Try a Little Tenderness"... it's all too painful...

[GaryKelly]

I never have understood why people use the RA format - it's not as good as either VBR MP3 or WMA and... snip...

It's because .ra is a streaming format, like .asf. This means that the file stays on the server and is squirted to your player (and discarded). In the early days of low-speed (9.6 to 14.4k modems) it made sense: It would take days to download a large audio file, but streaming meant you could listen to music "on the fly" or "live".

It was also a primitive copy-protection system, since you couldn't simply download a .ra or .asf file and then pass 'em around to your mates like you can with MP3s. M$oft are of course refining that very idea with their digital rights management systems even as we speak.

Why am I writing all this cobblers? Because I've just listened to the Portsmouth Sinfonia's "Air on a G-string" and typing is staving off my inexplicable urge for self-immolation!

[Martin Milner]

Anyone familiar with Rolf Harris' version of Stairway to Heaven?

It originally started as a joke, but became a massive hit.