Not everyone can carry the weight of the world ...
Hedwig & the Angry Inch, "Wicked Little Town"
da, "If You Want To"
Elvis Costello, "Everyday I Write the Book"
Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, "Balloon Man"
Aimee Mann, "Wise Up"
Marvin Gaye, "What's Going On"
Violent Femmes, "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?"
Sam Phillips, "How To Dream"
Ani DiFranco, "Little Plastic Castles"
REM, "Talk About the Passion"
Scooter Libby indicted, all I want now for Fitzmas is some new LB. :-)
Posted by: Scott | Oct 28, 2005 at 01:27 PM
A few years ago, I awoke to realize a terrifying fact:
You can sing the lyrics of "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me" by Culture Club to the tune of "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath, and vice versa.
Posted by: Strange Forces | Oct 28, 2005 at 01:35 PM
"Wise up" was central to one of the finest secens in any movie I have ever seen. That song and that scene pretty much turned me into an Aimee Mann fan.
Posted by: kevin | Oct 28, 2005 at 01:42 PM
You can also interchange "Amazing Grace" and the theme to "Gilligan's Island".
Posted by: Scott | Oct 28, 2005 at 01:42 PM
Seasonally appropriate: "Shake it Up" and "The Monster Mash" by the Cars and Bobby "Boris" Pickett are interchangeable.
Additionally, "Johnny, Are You Queer?" by Josie Cotton pinched the melody from "Telstar". Also the harp glissandos.
Posted by: Tim Lehnerer | Oct 28, 2005 at 01:48 PM
And every year I sing Poe's "The Raven" to the tune of "Deck the Halls".
Posted by: pansauce | Oct 28, 2005 at 02:01 PM
Scott, there's a school of thought that says you can sing "Amazing Grace" to any tune. I have a cd by a group called The Corsairs in which they do something like twenty different tunes for the same song. ("The Addams Family Theme" is my favorite.)
Posted by: Merlin Missy | Oct 28, 2005 at 02:35 PM
pansauce: "And every year I sing Poe's "The Raven" to the tune of "Deck the Halls"."
I've tried this, and even pulled up "The Raven" to make sure I wasn't getting the words wrong, but I don't see how this works. At least not like the way you can sing Emily Dickinson poems to "The Yellow Rose of Texas" (which still draws a chuckle from me when I sing, "Because I could not stop for Death, Death kindly stopped...for MEEE!!" but I'm easily amused).
Posted by: Edward Liu | Oct 28, 2005 at 03:28 PM
(waiting for someone to comment about Pink Floyd)
Posted by: cjmr's husband | Oct 28, 2005 at 03:31 PM
Ed, I think you're forgetting the Falala's.
"ONCE upon a midnight dreary!
Falalalalalalalala
WHILE I pondered, weak and weary,
Falala etc."
And the "Yellow Rose of Texas" thing is going to stick with me a long time ...
Posted by: Merlin Missy | Oct 28, 2005 at 05:43 PM
The 'Amazing Grace' thing -- we used to do this in synagogue with a prayer called 'Adon Olam' -- it's in perfect 4/4, so you can sing it to any of the above-mentioned tunes. Amazing Grace feels odd -- Judaising a Christian hymn? - but Yellow Rose is lots of fun. My personal favourite, though, has to be Yankee Doodle. It's the only time I've ever seen a rabbi fall off the pulpit because he was laughing so hard. Try it!
Posted by: Roger | Oct 29, 2005 at 08:03 AM
"Wicked Little Town" is a beautiful, beautiful song.
Posted by: Darren | Oct 29, 2005 at 10:15 AM
Anyone else wondering WHICH Wicked Little Town, Hedwig or Tommy's?
Wow, am I a dork.
Posted by: --susan | Oct 30, 2005 at 09:30 PM
Great peice you wrote hear. Took me a minute to digest it all but laughed and almost cried when I understood it.
Posted by: Jessica | Nov 03, 2005 at 09:32 AM