Celebrity Jukebox #79: Mary Tyler Moore

My knowledge of Mary Tyler Moore is somewhat second-hand as I was just too young to have watched her groundbreaking sitcoms, though I do remember watching spin-offs such as Rhoda and Lou Grant with my mum. Mary's reputation as a feminist icon appears well-deserved though: as one of the most successful female stars in American TV, the joint head of the production company that gave us everything from Newhart to Hill Street Blues, a prominent campaigner for social rights... and the woman who put Dick Van Dyke in his place long before Julie Andrews.... MTM is clearly a legend.

Her jukebox legacy is pretty legendary too, starting with Prince...

Skip the Remy and let me have some Mary Tyler Moore of that new power soul

Comin' from the Midwest passin' every test with a fuzz tone remote control

Prince - Mr. Happy 

Then the artist formerly known as Tin Tin...

Like Mary Tyler-Moore

She stares across the yawning tide

Out of love and terrified

Stephen Duffy - Sunday Supplement

This blog's only claim to fame is that, many years ago, the lead singer of Bowling For Soup once left a comment here. This is BFS's version of the Mary Tyler Moore theme tune... which REM have also played live, but I can't find their version anywhere on the interweb.

Bowling For Soup - The Mary Tyler Moore Theme

Next, we find Ian Hunter hoopling his across the channel...

Well I'm an All American Alien Boy

Look out Mary Tyler Moore

Ian Hunter - All American Alien Boy

The Hold Steady are firm favourites here at Top Ten Towers, and they've got a new album out this week. Here's one from their 2005 classic Separation Sunday...

I was half dead then I got born again

I got lost in all the lights but it was okay in the end

And when we hit the Twin Cities, I didn't know that much about it

I knew Mary Tyler Moore and I knew Profane Existence

The Hold Steady - Stevie Nix

In a similar sonic vein, here's a lost classic from an album I was very much into back in 1999, Ed Hamell's song about a sleazy Private Eye...

So I ditch these guys quick, I take a cab to the address

And the housemaid gives up the photos with very little stress

But as I round the corner something dawns on me

I recognize from these photos, this old actor from TV

And he's having sex with children, now this would close the door

On future shots on Bay Watch and Mary fuckin' Tyler Moore

So I visit this old actor, firmly explain my situation

And he gives me 90 G's to show his appreciation

Hamell On Trial - Choochtown

OK, how about a couple of songs that mention MTM in their title? Starting with a 90s Christian alt-rock band from Texas...

Lloyd - Mary Tyler Moore

Then some 80s Aussie indie from Whangarei...

Able Tasmans - Mary Tyler Moore

And now, from the "Never Heard Of 'Em But Still Not Bad" file, here's a San Francisco band "that plays original indie rock music with hints of progressive"...

I've got a face for radio 

And a voice that's meant only 

To sing drunken karaoke 

Singing ooh-ee-oo 

I look just like Buddy Holly 

And you're Mary Tyler Moore 

Everywhere Now - Sounds

Hey! Wait a second. I recognise that lyric! And that's not the only place I've found it referenced...

Need a tall girl, '70s Jane Fonda

Or Mary Tyler Moore, Iran, no war

I look just like Buddy Holly, no I don't, "Oh, Boy!"

Smörgåsbord - The Damn Loudness 

Yes, I guess the true proof of a legendary hit single comes when other bands start referencing your song in their own tunes. There was only ever going to be one winner today... but the question is, did Mary ever meet Buddy in real life?

And the answer is... no, though she was apparently a fan. MTM began appearing in The Dick Van Dyke Show shortly after Buddy's death in 1961, and when she got her own show, Sonny Curtis from the Crickets was given the job of writing and performing the theme tune we discussed earlier.

So that answers that. The only question remaining... What's with these homies, dissing my girl?