YOU feel obliged to dismiss novelty songs as rubbish in case you look like a tasteless pleb, but there are some that you secretly adore, like these:
Batdance – Prince
Most music from Batman films is as dour and miserable as the Caped Crusader himself, so Prince’s 80s synth-pop inspired by the 60s TV show is a beam of fun and colour in the darkness. It’s fairly unhinged and the video features the least iconic Batman imagery ever: women dressed as Kim Basinger in 80s mini-dresses. What’s not to like?
Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) – Baz Luhrmann
Before depressed beef-and-salt muncher and pretend intellectual Jordan Peterson turned up with his 12 Rules For Life, people who thought self-help books were for hippies got all their advice from Baz Luhrmann’s song. It’s shorter and a lot more fun than Peterson’s ramblings, and isn’t in favour of misogyny or Hitler, which tends to improve a song.
Eat It – Weird Al
Now that Michael Jackson has been comprehensively cancelled you can’t be caught listening to his records, but luckily ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic has got your back. Yes, it’s silly, but the music is still great and it’s got a sense of humour, which Jacko never seemed to, despite having a chimp named Bubbles and living in a theme park.
Macho Man – The Village People
While YMCA is genuinely annoying, Macho Man is a disco classic that you pop on while cooking and dance around the kitchen to. You can’t tell anyone though. Not because they might think you’re gay, but because they might suspect that you haven’t listened to any of those Radiohead records that you made such a fuss about buying.
Saturday Night – Whigfield
When sober you dismiss his as the tackiest piece of Euro-pop imaginable, but once you’ve got a couple of drinks inside you you’re the first on the dance floor doing the incredibly easy and hypnotically repetitive dance. In fact, it’s the only dance you can do without looking like an uncoordinated dickhead, and you’re eternally grateful to Whigfield for that.
