Ray Stevens and His “Streak” of Success

Boogity boogity! The tale of the bizarre college fad that went mainstream and the singer who rode it to the top of the charts.

by Rich Watson 

Ray Stevens is a country singer who has a history of novelty songs in addition to more straightforward material. He worked with and wrote for some of the top names in country music, and won Grammys. For a brief time, he even had a TV show.

During the height of his fame, he had an improbable number-one hit song about an even more improbable fad: streaking.

Tom Lehrer Set the Periodic Table of Elements to Music—and It Worked

This musical Ivy Leaguer made a song out of a scientific building block.

by Rich Watson 

Last July, Tom Lehrer died at the age of 97. For much of his life, he was a teacher, of math and musical theater, but people knew him best for his satirical music, often about current events but mainly about things one first learns in the classroom. 

Who would imagine, for example, that someone, anyone, would take the periodic table of elements and put it to the music from a world-renowned opera?

Five Members of Spike Jones’s City Slickers

This wacky bandleader had a band full of (talented) oddballs like him.

by Rich Watson 

Spike Jones (not to be confused with Spike Jonze) was a bandleader and musician from the forties and fifties whose public persona was, in a word… odd. He wore the loudest suits, performed the weirdest songs, and led a band that was different from others of the era.

To put it mildly.