Snapshots Spillover: More Sitcom Songs

As promised, here are a few more songs that share their names with sitcoms. Let's start with that extra clue I gave you all on Saturday morning...

Cliff Richard & The Shadows - The Young Ones

...which naturally leads us to this...

Beyond that? How about these?

The Rah Band - Porridge

Pet Shop Boys - Absolutely Fabulous

Splodgenessabounds - Two Pints Of Lager & A Packet Of Crisps

Martyn Joseph - Please Sir

The Mekons - Rosanne

Lucky Jim - The Honeymooners

You may have some other suggestions. If so, please share them with the group.

But to close, a different Harry from the one we started with...

Saturday Snapshots #12 - The Answers

And we're back in the room...


10. Two things Otis claimed to have in Tramp go paseo.

 (It's OK, by the way, that's his wife.)

In Tramp, Otis tells Carla Thomas...

I got six Cadillacs, five Lincolns, four Fords
Six Mercuries, three T-Birds, Mustangs, ooh, I'm a lover

One type of Cadillac is the Cadillac Deville. Carla goes on to tell him...

You can't buy me all those minks and sables and all that stuff I want

To which Otis replies...

I can buy you minks, rats, frogs, squirrels, rabbits, anything you want, woman

Gram got Mink Deville, but thought maybe the Cadillac doubled up as a reference to Cadillac Walk.

Alyson and C got out their Spanish dictionaries to reveal that a 'paseo' is a stroll.

Mink DeVille - Spanish Stroll

9. Scottish comics get me really angry.

The Dandy is a famous Scottish comic. These guys were a not-that-famous Britpop band from Leeds.

George puzzled that one out, with a couple of hints.

The Dandys - You Make Me Want To Scream

8. Silly & lazy, yet insists on being a traditional bride.

Silly Billy apparently took his stage name from the fact his teachers called him idle.

Alyson rocked out to this one.

Listen to that intro! Then enjoy the outrageous 80s excess of the video...

Billy Idol - White Wedding

7. Like The Man says, the right Geordie goes a little French.

Van 'The Man' Morrison sang 'Jackie Wilson Said... it was Reet Petite'. (Dexys, of course, sang about Jockey Wilson.)

Reet is Geordie for right.

Petit is French for small.

Lynchie nabbed this one.

Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite

6. Big O song of the Spanish king. I was always an Atari man myself.

Roy Orbison sang about Lana.

Del Rey means 'of the king' in Spanish.

Lana Del Rey - Video Games

Chris had a few goes at this, but George snatched the victory.

5. Not Morrissey's world; not Mr. Ed or Shergar either.

Morrissey sang America Is Not The World.

Mr. Ed & Shergar were both horses... with names.

America - A Horse With No Name

Another one for Lynchie - fighting it out with George for top spot this week.

4. Add 997 to the above, supporting camping without golf in the Reformation.

In the previous picture, there were three swordsmen. 3 + 997 = 1000.

A tentpole supports you when you're camping - take away a golf tee and you're left with Tenpole.

The Reformation happened in Tudor times.

Tenpole Tudor - Swords of a Thousand Men

Another big win for George. Charity Chic wants Ed TPT's trousers.

(Another top video too, if you've got the time.)

3. A sweet Beatles girl and a jerky fellow get disconnected.

The Beatles sang about "sweet Loretta Martin" (George's missus). A jerk is an American twit.

Lynchie got the artists, Charity Chic got the song.

Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty - As Soon As I Hang Up The Phone

(IF YOU'VE NEVER HEARD THIS BEFORE, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO IT BEFORE YOU DIE OR YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN WASTED.)

2. Night sky obscured by Carly's coffee, "Yay!" say the upper class twits.

Carly Simon had clouds in her coffee.

Rah = yay. Apparently, Rah is also a derogatory term for the upper classes. Why anyone would want to be derogatory about the upper classes is beyond me.

The Rah Band - Clouds Across The Moon

Lynchie has no shame. (It's the only song of theirs that I know too... but I love it unashamedly.)

Another video that screams for your attention.

1. Delta, famous for 15 minute soup and a Queen simile.

Delta = D.

Andy Warhol did pictures of Campbell's soup and told us we'd all be famous for fifteen minutes.

Queen sang Bohemian Rhapsody

Similes, as I keep telling my students, mostly involve like or as.

Somehow, I've never seen the video this before. Can't understand why they never showed it on Top of the Pops. (Clue: it's NSFW.)

Another George victory.



Can't wait for next week's. #9 already has me chuckling...

My Top Ten Operator Songs

Many, many years ago, when they had such things, my mum used to be a switchboard operator. The stories she could tell about the things she heard! Do we even still have operators? I can't imagine too many people dedicating a song to a pre-recorded "virtual switchboard". Press one for "the romance is dead".

Special mention to Operator Please, the band who recorded the amazing Just A Song About Ping Pong and The Operator by The Coral, which is actually about getting kidnapped and operated on by a bunch of psycho surgeons. Or something.


10. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Operator

As if calling her boyfriend to apologise for all the bad things she's done wasn't enough of a chore... poor Gladys has to go through the operator too!

9. Pete Shelley - Telephone Operator

Ever fallen in love with a video you shouldn't have?

Wikipedia informs me that if you play the arcade game Dance Dance Revolution, you get to dance to this song... in an arcade. Glad I don't believe anything I read on wikipedia.

8. Talking Heads - Dream Operator

Probably has nothing to do with making a telephone call... though you can never be sure with David Byrne. Still: quite lovely.

7. Nick Lowe - Switchboard Susan

How many telephone puns / innuendos can one songwriter squeeze into one song?

When I'm near you girl, I get an extension
And I don't mean Alexander Graham Bell's invention

6. Jim Croce - Operator (That's Not The Way It Feels)

Or, if Jim's moustache is too much for you, can I recommend the rather fine Jesse Malin cover version?

5. Chuck Berry - Memphis, Tennessee

I make no apologies for the fact that this was already featured in my Top Ten Memphis Songs. It's a stone cold classic.

4.  The Rah Band - Clouds Across The Moon

In space, the intergalactic operator can't hear you scream.

If the future really looks like the Rah Band imagined it would in this video, I'll want my money back.

Never mind. I'll try again... next year... next year... next year...

3. The White Stripes - Hello, Operator

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if Jack White's phone still had an operator. He probably refuses to use any of them new-fangled ones.

2. Dr. Hook - Sylvia's Mother

Dennis keeps trying to get through to Sylvia. Her mother just wants him to leave her alone. The operator keeps demanding "forty cents more" to continue the conversation "for the next three minutes".

1. Tom Waits - Martha

I almost gave this one to Dr. Hook, which would have been suitably anti-cool of me. But then I remembered
this...

Operator, number please
It´s been so many years
And she´ll remember my old voice
While I fight the tears
Hello, hello there, is this Martha ?
This is old Tom Frost
And I am calling long distance
Don´t worry ´bout the cost...

Tom Waits sounds like a weary old man on this recording. The scary / crazy thing is, he was 24 years old when it was released...



Those are the songs that get me calling the operator - but which one would be your hold music of choice?