Episode
The White and Nerdy Edition Part 2
- Published
- Aug 29, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 2580
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/hit-parade-music-history-and-music-trivia-59900/episodes/the-white-and-nerdy-edition-part-2/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/hit-parade-music-history-and-music-trivia-59900/the-white-and-nerdy-edition-part-2.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Sped-up voices. Wacky instruments. Songs about cavemen, bathtubs, bikinis, and mothers-in-law. From the dawn of rock ‘n’ roll through the 1970s—the age of streaking, CB radios, disco and King Tut—novelty songs could be chart-topping hits. But by the corporate ’80s, it was harder for goofballs to score hits on regimented radio playlists. Until one perm-headed, mustachioed, accordion-playing parodist who called himself “Weird” rebooted novelty hits for the new millennium. In the second part of this encore episode of Hit Parade, Chris Molanphy explores the history of novelty hits on the charts. Podcast production by Justin D. Wright and Kevin Bendis. Need to set up your Slate Plus feed? If you subscribed through Slate.com, check out our FAQ at slate.com/podcastfaqs for easy instructions. Members subscribed via Apple Podcasts get automatic access—no setup required. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.