A la peanut butter sammiches!!!
It just wouldn’t be the merry, merry month of May without a little music for you to tiptoe through the tulips to… so The Nest is here with another Monday ear-jamming edition of the Dusty Vinyl Archive! Speaking of tulips, DJ Scratchy is taking her finger out of the dyke and pressing play on a three week tribute to lost classics from a country you probably would have never guessed even made an impression on the history of rock and roll music… The Netherlands! The Sponkies have got the windmills turning, so it’s time to open up Feel Good, Inc. for business!
To the best of my knowledge, only six songs from Dutch acts have ever cracked the Top 40 pop chart in the United States. Three of those most Americans of age are familiar with… the only #1 song to come straight outta Holland, “Venus” by Bananarama Shocking Blue… and the pair of hits Golden Earring put on the US charts, “Radar Love” and “Twilight Zone.”
You will come to know, when the bullet hits the bone.
The other three songs to leave their mark on American soil by artists that hailed from The Netherlands were all are the products of somewhat obscure one hit wonders from three different decades… and as you may have guessed, they will be the next three songs featured on the DVA. For our first tribute to the low country, we’ll focus on…. well, Focus. Their lone charting song on this side of the Atlantic made it up to #9 in 1973 and is needless to say one of the more unique rock recordings you will ever bang your head to…
No, there was nothing wrong with the video and your ears were not playing tricks on you… the instrumental “Hocus Pocus” features all kinds of odd goings-on in between the “verses,” the most prominent of them being yodeling. As great as this track is just for its rock sounds, it would likely have been completely forgotten about if it weren’t for the fact that it was the only song to successfully incorporate yodeling into contemporary music.
Give that lead singer a cough drop!
Of course, another cool thing about the song is just saying the name of it along with the band. “Hocus Pocus” by Focus! Yeah, I’m sure even with the language barrier that bit of attention grabbing when coming up with a title for their instrumental was intentional since I don’t think the song has anything to do with either magic or mannequins…
Yeah, me and my sisters were the only 80’s kids in the world who ever watched “Today’s Special,” so absolutely nobody got that reference…
Be sure to come back next week for another lost classic that will have you dancing in your wooden shoes…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
Holy squirrels. There IS yodeling. My ears did a double take. What a find!
Who says you can’t rock out in the Alps? This is right up there with Weird Al making accordion music fun!
oh my… was that the ancestor of what does the fox say? I never heard that, interesting… but I rather stick with Golden Earring :o)
Ylvis could never rock out like that, even if he got a skunk and possum to go with his fox. Golden Earring’s pretty darn good too…
Now the yodeling makes sense. I always thought they were just smoking too much wacky weed. Great post. Now I’ve got Golden Earring ear worms…but that isn’t always a bad thing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t smoking something when they came up with this. I wonder if Cafepress would sell earworm earrings?
Yodeling and rock music! Humans are amazing! 😀
Throw in some guitars and even snoring might be a hit!
DIdn’t I give you interesting trivia about this once? Or maybe it was just that they were Dutch. Or maybe it was about Popcorn by Hot Butter….
You mentioned when I used the video for Hot Butter the day after I’d done my cover song post on Venus that you though Hot Butter was Dutch (And I actually kinda thought that as well), but your research showed they were American (As was Frijid Pink). Of course, there’s always the chance I wasn’t paying attention to something you said…
It was a Krox LS game that introduced me to the 6 Dutch songs that were US hits and it’s one of my favorite bits of music trivia (Short of the Chuck Negron accident) probably because I like all 6 songs and because half of them are way off the beaten path…
If this sticks in my head the way the last two DVA songs have, it’s going to be a really strange week! After the video finished playing I thought, “that was so weird!” Then I played it again. 🙂
It’s truly an interesting curiosity from rock history, and apparently one you cant listen to just once. I’ve played it a few times as well since last night!
When I was much much younger, I tried to yodel. I tried repeatedly, with a lot of people young and old urging me to SHUT UP FOR GOD’S SAKE YOU’RE KILLING US.
I did not master it, sad to say, but now I feel so inspired, I might just try again. Except I think Garry might off me this time.
He may get the dogs to help him since they will be sure you’ve gone crazy! But hey, give it a go! You only live once!
ody & biskit ~~~~~~~~~~~ ♫♪♫♫♪♫
aaaaahhhhhhhhh; aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh;
aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh;
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
N we haz hurd de food servizz gurl play thiz on her eye fone!!! 🙂 ♥♥♥
YAY! Sounds like you all have great taste in classic rock!
Yodel-ay-heeeee-hoooooooooo! Couldn’t believe there was actually yodeling in that song yet indeed there was and it may explain why this group just never hacked it in the States – we simply do NOT appreciate yodeling here do we? What a shame………..
Pam
Nope, we would rather listen to Miley Cyrus endlessly wail or those alternative rock groups whose lead singers all sound like Cookie Monster. We have such great taste here!
Somewhat weird as it is, it actually works! He managed to get about three octaves higher than my voice will reach.
Glasses shatter in my kitchen every time I play it, but it’s just so darn good. I’ll get plastic cups next time…
Shaking head. I think I’ve heard of everything now. Rock – no. Metal – no. Rap – no. Let’s throw some yodeling in. Hell yeah – perfect. Snorts with piggy laughter. XOXO – Bacon
Kanye’s done some strange things lately… I’ll bet he’d try yodeling in a song. And it would definitely suck!
Snorts – you betcha on that! XOXO – Bacon
Play this to your stoned friends and they won’t come out of the cupboard for a week.
I’ll bet it was quite a trip to listen to back in the day when everyone listened to music while they were stoned…
I loved the Twilight Zone, not so much the music. I love ❤ Radar Love, though! The good old black and white photos are always a hoot to see. Imagine going back to that way of life, horrors! Oh oh, I am starting to sound like the Batman and Robin show. ha ha ha!
I like the song, It’s Magic, and your nod to the Muppets! 🙂