Five classic songs that began life as a joke
When you try to take yourself too seriously as a singer-songwriter, it doesn’t always yield the best results. It can easily come off as too pretentious or contrived, and there must be nothing worse when you think you’re bearing your soul, but other people just turn it into a joke. Even though this is hardly a call to arms for all rock stars to suddenly turn into comedians, there is admittedly a lot to be learned from simply seeing the brighter side of life.
While no one known for an enigmatic rock and roll persona would want to pivot into Monty Python, often the examples of the most prolific stars across music history are the ones who could take things with a dose of good humour. It was well known that David Bowie was always game for a laugh, while the likes of Liam Gallagher and Ozzy Osbourne obviously get an inkling of the comedy kick they evoke with their larger-than-life personae.
When it comes to the studio, however, it’s frequently a much more tense affair. After all, the sheer reason an artist is there is to deliver some form of product, with or without the pressure of a label, and it’s hard not to sound manufactured when they feel as though they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. But as is mostly sod’s law, the most precious gems tend to form when you’re least thinking about it, and that’s the reason that there’s a litany of classic songs that really began life as a joke.
Whether it was just messing around with a zany lyric, trying a new technique off the cuff without much care, or inadvertently embedding a hilarious anecdote into song, the number of joke tunes that actually transpired to be staples of any particular artist’s canon is endless. It might be every comedian’s worst nightmare when the rock stars steal their thunder, but nevertheless, these light-hearted tracks have made hits for the ages, whether they like it or not.
Five hit tunes made as a joke:
‘Michelle’ – The Beatles
John Lennon and Paul McCartney may have been regarded as lyrical geniuses, but the opening line of “Michelle, ma belle/ These are words that go together well” is hardly their most profound effort. Yet the irony is that ‘Michelle’, taken from Rubber Soul in 1965, went on to become one of The Beatles’ most enduring romantic anthems, even though it was born out of parody.
They do say Paris is the city of love, and the French language just inherently sounds sexy, but when you break down exactly what McCartney sings in the tune, it’s essentially double Dutch. He confirmed this himself in a 1977 interview when he admitted ‘Michelle’ “was like a joke French tune for when you go to a party or something. That’s all it was. And then after a while you say, ‘Well, that’s quite a good tune. Let’s put some real words to it’.” Très bien!
‘Heart of Glass’ – Blondie
It seems hard to conceive that the song that has become one of Blondie’s most surefire legacies actually started out as a laughing stock among the band, but this was, believe it or not, the method through which ‘Heart of Glass’ made its way into the world. A blasting break-up anthem, reclaiming one’s sense of independence? Nah. They were just mucking around.
“When we did ‘Heart of Glass’, it wasn’t cool in our social set to play disco,” Debbie Harry later explained. But turning up the noses of the toffs at CBGB was exactly the band’s aim, clarified by Chris Stern, who added: “We did it because we wanted to be uncool.” However, when the song and the album it hailed from, Parallel Lines, all of a sudden became an era-defining success, no one was laughing any more – and instead embracing the disco-new wave fusion the 1980s had to offer.
‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ – Guns N’ Roses
It’s not uncommon for artists to grow to resent their biggest hit, but admittedly rarer is hating it from the get-go, and still releasing it anyway. However, that was precisely the case with Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 monster hit ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’, which much to the band’s disgust, became their most seismic tune by departing their typical sound.
Fawning love songs were never much the cup of tea for Axl Rose and Co, but it was only when Slash started messing around on the guitar one day that the iconic tune accidentally came to life – but to his horror. “I hated it for years,” Slash once revealed. “But it would cause such a reaction, so I’ve finally gotten to appreciate it.” You can dare to say money may be a factor in the guitarist’s placation, but either way, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ was always destined for the big leagues when its first notes inexplicably played.
‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ – Björk
Even those not so familiar with Björk by name will be acquainted with ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’, the 1995 cover that sent the Icelandic experimental icon blazing into the mainstream with an unstoppable force. By the singer’s usual eclectic standards, this is even a stretch, combining old-style crooning with a dose of irreverent Europop. To all intents and purposes, it should never have worked, but for her sins, it still sticks with Bjork to this day.
Describing her big chart hit as “a joke”, Bjork later explained how the song was never intended in her style. “I almost regret doing it because I wanted to put so much importance on making new music,” she said. “So many people are doing old music, and you’ve even got new bands doing old music. If I put something out in this world, it would be the courage to go ahead and invent things, so it’s ironic ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’ became my biggest song.”
‘Highway to Hell’ – AC/DC
Of course, there are joke songs in the sense of tunes that came about accidentally, but there’s also another branch of tracks that deliberately take fire at things or people the artist finds funny, of which AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ is the perfect example. It may seem like you’re playing with fire when you take to having a go at someone, but in Angus Young’s case, everything – even religion – was fair game.
Taking aim at the seemingly alien American fundamentalist culture of fending off satanic ritual, Young once explained the inspiration behind the name of the band’s iconic song. “That was a result of being asked what we’d call one of our tours, and I replied, ‘A highway to hell!’ It was a joke again! When we arrived in America, I didn’t know what a fundamentalist was,” he added, “And I didn’t really care. All that satanic stuff is more groups pretending because it goes with their image.”
As such, with ‘Highway to Hell’ ripping apart any faithful pretences, there was only ever one spiritual direction that AC/DC were ever headed.
