The Phenomenon of Simplicity

(Today's word will be in red, and bold.)

Sometimes the simplest things get more attention than even the most extravagant, over-the-top things.  This is true of anything, including music.  A good example is Toby Keith's "Red Solo Cup".

A cute little ditty written by Brad and Brett Warren, along with Jim and Brett Beavers, "Red Solo Cup" , was recorded by Toby as an internet video, for fun; it wasn't initially meant to be a radio single for Keith.  The video sparked so much attention that the song went on to actually become a radio, and internet phenomenon.  It didn't matter what genre of music people liked, it seemed like EVERYONE had heard "Red Solo Cup".

Even while the song was still climbing the charts, the hit TV show "Glee" honored the tune on one of their episodes.

The internet, especially YouTube, has been inundated with covers and parodies of the song almost from the time people became aware of Toby's video.  As is the norm, some are good, some not so much.

Cledus T. Judd, country's version of Weird Al Yankovic, has put together a great parody; his version is called "Double D Cups".

While searching for video to use in this post, I ran across another great parody by someone on YouTube; I don't know the person's name, however, whoever it is, I love their "Big Sonic Cup".

Then there's the video that started me writing this post in the first place.  A hip-hop version by $ick$wag that my son showed me.

It's amazing how such a small, simple song has become not only an internet phenomenon, but a genre crossing one as well.

Twisted, Tangled Tunes

The other day, during the "Celebrity Soup", on "Simon in the Morning", Scott Simon had a blurb about Weird Al Yankovic.  According to the report, Weird Al has parodied some country songs on his next CD.

The story reminded me of a song rewrite I did awhile ago.  The song is Alan Jackson's "5 O'Clock Somewhere", with Jimmy Buffett.

In my version, I had country song parody artist, Cledus T. Judd doing Alan Jackson's lines, and Weird Al doing Jimmy Buffett's.

In light of the news about Weird Al's latest CD, I've decided to post my parody of "5 O'Clock Somewhere" on this blog.

My apologies in advance for the size of the print.  I couldn't make it any larger, and still have it fit the blog.

A Twist Of Taylor

Since my last blog was a bit of a downer, I decided to lighten things up a bit with a song.

While by no means am I Weird Al Yankovic, or his country cousin, Cledus T. Judd, I have been known to parody a song once in awhile.  My latest is a twist of Taylor Swift's "Mean".

My brain meshed the song with the fact that most of the KUPL staff has been losing weight over the past few months.  What came out is the parody, "Lean". 

I've posted both the original song, and the parody here.  Please feel free to let me know what you think and share any ideas you may have.