Take me home, oh mudduh fadduh

When a novelty song rises to the top of the music charts -- and it does happen -- it's time to worry. Worry about the sudden headaches, concern about the long-term effect on our brains, apprehension about the future of the human race.

Because these songs are usually flat-out crazy. And deejays play them ceaselessly. At least they did back in the golden age of commercial radio, which only seems like a long, long time ago.

I hate to even bring up "Disco Duck'' by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots. That parody of the dance craze made it to No. 1 in October 1976 thanks to endless play on every radio station in America -- except Memphis. This was the deal: Dees worked at a station there and was forbidden to play the song, and competing stations refused to play it.

Oh, to live in Memphis in 1976 instead of duck-loving Ocala, Fla. But I guess we made it, so no harm, no fowl.

We covered this subject in a previous post, but I thought I'd risk going back there to review one less abusive example of the genre. In fact, I'm here today to defend a very nutty song from the summer of 1963.

This song blew like a gale past Peter, Paul & Mary's "Blowin' in the Wind'' and was sweeter than the Four Season's "Candy Girl'', surging to No. 2 on the Billboard chart. (But hey, lah lah, it couldn't overtake "My Boyfriend's Back.'')

Maybe it's because I was a pre-teen at the time, or maybe it's just that the singer was really more of a talking comedian. I never found Allan Sherman's "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh'' to be the least bit offensive, even though KDWB in the Twin Cities seemed to play it every hour of every day.

Hello Muddah
Hello Fadduh
Here I am at
Camp Granada
Camp is very
entertaining
And they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining.

What else can I say? I remember sitting on the old screened porch at Whitehall Country Club, which was located next to the community swimming pool. They had a concession window there, so that's where kids went to grab a treat during a swim break. And that's where I remember "Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh'' blaring from the lifeguard's radio while I swigged a bottle of Pepsi and gnawed on a frozen Snickers bar.

Just a kid wrapped up in a stupid summer song. Good times.