How Did These Unusual Songs Hit No. 1?

When Melanie’s “Brand New Key” debuted in 1971, some folks have been confused. What did the singer, who died on Tuesday at 76, imply when she sang about having a brand-new pair of curler skates and another person having a brand-new key?

Melanie told one interviewer that she wrote the track in quarter-hour, after ending a 27-day fast, and that it was supposed to be cute. The people singer stated that it didn’t have a deeper that means, although many thought its playful lyrics about biking and curler skating have been actually about intercourse (“Don’t go too fast but I go pretty far”). It sounded unusual, like a track out of time — Melanie stated she supposed it to take heed to the Thirties — sung with what may now be known as a warbling “indie girl voice.” And it in some way hit No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100.

The track has lingered in popular culture, from a lip sync battle between Jimmy Fallon and Melissa McCarthy to a post-apocalyptic DJ playing it endlessly on “Kids in the Hall.”

“Brand New Key” wasn’t the primary No. 1 track to perplex listeners, and it wouldn’t be the final.

Listed below are a few of the strangest, and effectively, truly, let’s be sincere, enjoyable songs to high the U.S. Billboard chart through the years:

“Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” by Bryan Hyland

A lady afraid and nervous to depart a locker room and be seen in a brand-new tiny bikini is the topic of this track that debuted in 1960 and was in the top spot for one week. The track may not have aged effectively, but it surely was resurrected in a Yoplait Light commercial in 2005 a few girl who, after consuming the yogurt for months, was lastly in a position to put on her personal yellow polka dot bikini.

“Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett

It wouldn’t be Halloween time with out this track, which reached the top spot in 1962, sounding in every single place from grocery shops to residence audio system. Elvis Presley reportedly instructed one pal that he hated the track and thought it was the stupidest he’d ever heard, Bobby Pickett said in an interview with Billboard. Within the monitor, Pickett sang a few monster in his lab rising and dancing the “Monster Mash.”

“Fly Robin Fly” by Silver Connection

This European disco track solely has six phrases and spent three weeks within the high spot after it debuted in 1975. Should we are saying extra?

“Convoy” by C.W. McCall

A bizarre yr, 1975. This track a few truck debuted then and spent one week at No. 1. It’s about, effectively, a convoy crossing the nation and have become an anthem for truckers (and, later, Homer Simpson). “We got a great big convoy,” the track goes. “Ain’t she a beautiful sight?”

“Disco Duck” by Rick Dees and His Forged of Idiots

This track truly consists of the sound of geese quacking within the background. It was within the top spot for four weeks in 1976 and the video incorporates a dancing duck. “I was on the dance floor acting strange,” the lyrics go, “flapping my arms I began to cluck, look at me, I’m the disco duck.”

“Mickey” by Toni Basil

The track debuted in 1982 and spent one week within the high spot. The cheer anthem, which was featured within the 2000 film “Bring it On,” is repetitive.

“I’m Too Sexy” by Proper Stated Fred

This earworm, which debuted in December 1991, held the top spot for 3 weeks. The brothers who made up the English pop band sang about what they have been too horny for: shirts, Milan, New York, Japan, different folks’s our bodies, automobiles, their hats, the checklist goes on. Within the music video, the shirtless brothers dance on a catwalk whereas girls in bikinis snap pictures of them.

“Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)” by Los del Rio

This track debuted on the chart in 1995 and spent 14 weeks on the high spot. The dance that accompanies this track continues to be enjoyable to carry out at weddings and elsewhere.

“Harlem Shake” by Baauer

This track by a Brooklyn-based digital producer topped the chart in 2013, the same year Billboard added YouTube streaming knowledge to its methodology. However two of the artists featured on the track — Hector Delgado, a reggaetón artist, and Jayson Musson, a rapper from Philadelphia — didn’t give Baauer permission to make use of their voices and snippets of their music.

“Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X that includes Billy Ray Cyrus

The bizarre collaboration between the rapper Lil Nas X and nation music star Billy Ray Cyrus debuted in 2019 and spent 19 weeks within the No. 1 spot. In July of that yr, it turned the longest-running No. 1 single within the 61-year historical past of Billboard’s Scorching 100 chart. The track sparked intense debate over what could be considered country music.