Titles That Tickle

This might sound like another example of our Saluting Silly Songs feature, but it’s not. All we’re interested in today are strange song titles that tickle our fancy. If you haven’t had yours tickled lately, these might do the trick.

This post started when I was chuckling to myself about a memory of my son asking his young son, “Is You is, or is You Ain’t my Baby?” My grandson couldn’t believe it was a real song title, especially since his dad is a great kidder. I guess I had a little more credibility because he seemed to believe me when I told him it was a well-known early jazz song. He just shook his head and rolled his eyes, but the memory of that day got me to thinking.

Every genre has some crazy song titles – well, maybe not classical – but most of them seem to fall in the country music category. Some surprisingly big stars have dipped their toes in the world of crazy song titles. For example, Loretta Lynn teamed up with Conway Twitty on the classic, “You’re the Reason our Kids are Ugly”. But Loretta didn’t stop there. She also joined Ernest Tubb for “Who’s Gonna Take the Garbage Out When I’m Dead and Gone?”

Others include Gail Davies’ “You’re a Hard Dog to Keep Under the Porch”. And another canine song, this one from Charlie Walker: “I Wouldn’t Take Her to a Dogfight ‘Cause I’m Afraid She’d Win”. And finally, Mel Tillis weighs in with “How Come Your Dog Don’t Bite Nobody But Me?”

Little Jimmy Dickens had more than his share of goofy song titles, including “May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose”, and British singer Lonnie Donegan’s biggest US hit was “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose it’s Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?”

There are a lot of songs about broken hearts, topped by Lewis Grizzard’s “You Done Tore Out my Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat” and Homer & Jethro’s “She Made Toothpicks Out of the Timber of my Heart”. And finally, in a slightly more thought-provoking mode, we have J.D. Blackfoot’s “I Flushed you from the Toilets of my Heart”.

I’m including several videos of yet more choices, and I’m sure there are lots I haven’t covered. If I haven’t listed your favorite, feel free to add something in the ‘comments’ section below.