Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of ...

When most people think of novelty songs, they think of funny tunes with light lyrics. Classics like “The Purple People Eater,” “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” “The Streak,” and pretty much ...

This week, we take a look at some oddball songs and viral musical sensations. What makes a hit song memorable is often how it evokes big emotions. On much rarer occasions, a tune gets released to the ...

Randy Newman became a one-hit wonder with his 1977 track "Short People", something he would later call a "bad break." ...

Novelty songs have become just that: a novelty. Back in the ’50s and ’60s, music was full of weird tunes from one-off artists who occasionally found their way on the charts, such as Boris Pickett’s ...

Is there a music genre less respected than novelty music? Well, disco, but we weep not for the dead. The novelty song, which for our purposes here is defined as "a comical or nonsensical song," is ...

In the ’80s and ’90s, nothing was a bigger cultural tastemaker than MTV. Long before it became the home to endless reality shows, it played nothing but music videos 24 hours a day. If you wanted to ...

1. Rodney Dangerfield, "Rappin' Rodney" Maybe there's a good reason Rodney Dangerfield never got any respect: He's a horrible rapper. In fact, it's a stretch to even classify the self-deprecating ...