This may not be a great comparison because the nature of the charts has changed in the past few years; a lot of songs are downloaded rather than bought from record shops. Also I don't watch Top of The Pops as I used to, but there were lots of songs that were basically just jokes "sung" by crap groups or one-off gimmick records that sold on the basis of celebrity or I don't know what.
The Goodies "Do the Funky Gibbon"
The Wurzells "I've got a Brand New Combine Harvester"
Black Lace "Agadoo"
Rolf Harris "Two Little Boys"
Clive Dunn "Grandad"
Telly Savalas "If"
Groan groan. I used to watch the Goodies tv show and it was funny, sometimes hilarious, though I only remember one sketch that they would regularly repeat: A young boy was doing an advert or a piece to camera and fluffing it. The producer would let him get away with it a few times and then swat him round the head and shout "Get it right!". Not hugely funny in retrospect, you had to be there. I can't remember what episode this song came from (I think it came from a sketch), but there's an article here which purports to be from Bill Oddie, talking about listening at the time to Parliament (unbelieveably he means George Clinton's Parliament Funcadelic, or P-Funk and not this. I can't believe Bill Oddie was into that stuff!), Sly Stone and Miles Davis! Wha?
"I've Got a Brand New Combine Harvester" was a hit by the Worzels. It was a dreadful rewrite / ripoff of the earlier and much better "I've Got a Brand New Pair of Rollerskates" by Melanie Safka. Actually her song was called "Brand New Key", but most people remember it by the first line I think.
Aaaaarghgadoo (my spelling) was unleashed on the nation by Black Lace. It was deliberately targetted at unwitting club and party goers, wholly innocent of the group's desire to take control of them by the means of making them learn a ridiculous dance, perform it in groups on the dance floor, in the process turning their minds to mush. Here is a link (follow with care) to a demo of the dance done by a pineapple no less, on the Black Lace website. Luckily their plan for World Domination via the drunken minds of UK youth failed.
Rolf Harris' "Two Little Boys" was just mush. Just enjoy your life and don't try to find it. Take my advice.
Clive Dunn was an actor in the popular comedy series "Dad's Army". His character, Corporal Jones, was a popular part of that show and he obviously capitalised on that when he released the shocker that became number one "Grandad". This one made me feel particularly queasy because it was basically a bunch of kids singing "Grandad, Grandad, we love you". On Top of The Pops they had him in a rocking chair surrounded by adoring schoolkids. He later went on to make a children's programme also called "Grandad".
Telly Savalas was the big bald cop in the American tv series "Kojak". He was known for sucking lollipops and saying "Who loves ya baby?" a lot. I guess someone told him he had a nice voice, so he spoke the words of that "if a picture paints a thousand words" thing. It was kind of like a car crash at number one. There's a picture of one of his records (called simply "Telly") here, and several fans defend the great man!
There's a sub-genre of revolting novelty for football records. Many people have moaned about this before, so I'll just briefly mention that my Dad once bought me "Blue is the Colour" by Chelsea Football Team. I think it's healthy if you face up to the difficult issues in your life.
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