There’s an old saying that if you remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there. Well, I guess I was there, because I don’t remember it. I do remember the music, though, and it’s pretty clear that the period from 1967-1971 was one of the most fertile periods in popular music that the world has ever seen.
Right smack dab in the middle of that period, which saw bands from The Beatles to Led Zeppelin doing their best work, came Guy Marks.
Marks was one of those reliable comedians who never really broke into the A-Lister’s club, but was always a pleasure whenever he appeared. Think of Fortune Feimster today as a sort of analogue. His stock-in-trade was impressions. Rich Little was the king of those back then, but I’d argue that he was better at them than Little.
Novelty songs
Novelty songs weren’t new in the 1960s. They’d been around for a long time, as evidenced by Yes, We Have No Bananas, a bop from 1923 that I’ve featured on this blog before. The late 1960s certainly had its share, as different generations reached out for something new to listen to.
It was in 1968 that Marks created a paean to the live nightclub recordings of the 1940s called “Loving You Has Made Me Bananas.” As I’ve said before, literally everything is on YouTube so naturally this is as well.
Surprisingly, the song actually charted according to Wikipedia, not once but twice. It did well in its initial release and again as a re-release in 1978.
Marks himself continued to have a nearly-remarkable career doing live shows and even had a sitcom which didn’t last. Still, he was largely forgotten by most people. Just not by me, and there’s a reason for that.
Doctor Demento
If you’re in the mainstream you may not have ever heard of Doctor Demento. You can see a fictionalized version of him in the Roku Channel’s Weird, if you’re curious. Demento, born Barret Hansen, hosted a radio show in the 1970s and 1980s that focused on novelty songs from the past and present. It was there that I first heard “Loving You Has Made Me Bananas” we well as other novelty staples like “Yoda” and “Religion and Politics.” Demento’s music appealed to the growing nerd culture of the 1980s and launched the career of “Weird Al” Yankovic, arguably the most successful novelty singer of all time.
It’s likely that I only heard “Bananas” once or twice, probably in passing, but for some reason it lodged itself in my brain. Perhaps it was the silly lyrics or the fact that it’s actually a fairly passable tune. I hadn’t thought of it in years until yesterday, when I woke up with it playing on a loop in my head. Thanks, Guy Marks. By the way, does anyone know what “the shipfitter’s blues” are? Leave a comment below, as I’ve been trying to figure that one out for about five decades.
