It’s time for the next countdown song…. Ohhh Yeah!!!
What can possibly cooler than the first Monday of Fall? How about the next exciting entry in The Nest’s tribute to the weird and wacky muzak that makes our lives so much more interesting. It’s time to start the second half of out Top 30 Novelty Songs of All Time countdown! DJ Scratchy is going to be pumping up more than just the volume this week, and wants to see you strutting your stuff to the ultimate egomaniac song… while the Sponkies get a crash course in why nobody ever talks about the 70’s anymore…
#15. “Macho Man” – The Village People
There are novelty acts, and then there is the disco institution known as The Village People. Six men representing six different careers and walks of life (Unless someone ever wanted to grow up to be an Indian Native American)… singing completely mindless songs to a fucking awesome disco beat.
Hopefully nobody sinks this battleship.
The Village People are really only remembered for three songs… any of which would have easily qualified under my definition of a novelty song. One of those hits has even emerged as a super-iconic guilty pleasure from the most despised genre in rock and roll history. While “YMCA” is a classic, and “In the Navy” is criminally underrated by people who have zero taste… I went with the sextet’s most bombastic chart entry when choosing which dance floor boogie the men with many different hats would have represent them in my countdown.
I was first introduced to this ode to the shallow douchebag about 15 years after it came out in high school P.E. dance class…. the absolute last class a hopelessly introverted and isolated teenager ever wants to find themselves in. We even had a kid in the class who liked to show off his talent with a solo dance routine that always stole the show (and more importantly… killed class time that didn’t involve forced socialization).
Fabio is a macho man… and I was not.
One of the non-stereotypical trademarks of The Village People was the synchronized hand gestures their choreographer had the five non-important members perform behind the back of the lead singer. Everyone knows the routine for “YMCA”… and if you wanted to see what kind of physical inanity “Macho Man” inspired, here is a video of the band dancing away to a horrible overdub of the song.
The leather man may want to work on his muscles in case he ever walks into a real biker bar.
I’ll be back next Monday to show off another oiled up novelty classic that’d more style than substance…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
the village people rock… sort of ;O)) and the construction worker has the 6-iest backside ever ;O)))
I guess that’s a good thing since in his job, he’ll probably be showing off the middle part of his backside a lot….
They certainly had the disco beat going for them but I remember laughing my way through every one of The Village People’s songs. I just cracked up with the costumes and dancing…….but the beat goes on doesn’t it.
Pam
They are like the gods of music that has no purpose but to be fun and danceable. (Is that a word? Does it matter?)
Hey – you’re asking the person who has Teaser Tuesday if using REAL words matters????? LOL
One of those catchy tunes (and groups come to think of it) that made you want to get up at a wedding reception and sashay quickly over to the dance floor and act like a fool…err…a happy participant celebrating a couple of other fools…err I mean, the bride and groom. 😈
LOL! No more macho man for that groom, who will now be wearing aprons and holding purses…
I like all of these songs, and they were in one of our favorite movies, ‘Periscope Down’ singing ‘In the Navy’ 🙂
I saw that movie once a long time ago, but didn’t remember the Village People. I may not have even known who they were then…
Yeek. I actually remember that song! How can that BE?
There is no escaping the Village People. Even half a world away….
The US Navy decided to use In the Navy for, I think, a recruiting song. Then they found out the group was made up of gay men and what the song was really talking about and dropped the song like a hot potato. It was a huge embarrassment for the Navy and hilarious to everyone else.
I do not like disco music as a rule. However, the VP didn’t put all that sparkly kind of garbage in their songs. Their songs were more like early disco before the cursed Saturday Night Fever. They were FUN. I don’t know which I like best.
Ha, funny to see Randy “Macho Man” Savage! Wrestling was hilarious back then. Great memory to hook him with the song right into the post!
Love this novelty countdown. Great pick!
The Navy briefly using it as a recruitment song was brought up on Pop Up Video once. Given the reputation sailors already had among other branches of the military, I’ll bet that didn’t help things!
Wrestling never was and never will be as cool as it was during the 80’s. I thought of The Macho Man right away when I was pondering what photo to lead off the post with…
This has to be the worst song in the history of songs…and as for PE dance class, I feel ya. I fucking hated The Electric Slide, although swinging my partners out of the window was kind of fun…
Along with learning that nobody wanted to dance with me (And the feeling was mutual)… other things I learned in that class other than the existence of this song was that “Witchy Woman” is a waltz and “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” is a jitterbug song! That’s even what they’re saying at the beginning of the song, and I never realized it before then…
I was paired with this little bitch named Michelle who was so tiny I could have kicked her ass if I wasn’t such a wuss…but I did perfect my evil eye…
We weren’t paired up… it was a free for all before the music started. I usually just watched… but the few times the teacher forced everyone into pairs, I always got one of the mean girls who would touch me the same way you might remove dog shit from your shoe. It was kinda sad then, but I look back on it and laugh my ass off…
If I could go back in time…holy shit, I would lacerate all of those fuckers with my sharp tongue. I might not be violet, but I can, like, be a total bitch.
EVERYBODY get up and DANCE. This made me smile. The Village People are just one BIG SMILE band. Macho Man. HA HA HA HA. It still makes me laugh. You MUST do YMCA. I remember teaching a bunch of teeny tiny children to the arm movements for the first time. Oh my goodness. And even ancient elders know it. Good stuff. The Village People were so goofy and original.
I have to agree with Merbear74 about The Electric Slide. You know it is time to leave the party when that comes on. And it is always the same women who want to drag everyone at the office party out on the floor…bitches. What the fuck is wrong with them?
Of all the stupid things I hated about the early 80’s, I gotta agree the Electric Slide is way up there on the most annoying. I’ll listen to the Macarena on repeat for an hour before having to put up with that garbage even once…
I meant early 90’s, of course. I’d edit my comment, since I can, but comment editing is one of those things WordPress monkeyed with and it takes forever to fix a damned typo anymore!
Earworm! Earworm! Ahhhhhhhhh! Now I have that song stuck in my head! You really are evil… LOL!
I know their “big two” songs of course, and I sort of maybe recognised this one when it reached the chorus. I got to hear the live version, as that’s what Alexa picked when I asked her to play it. Being the Village People, though, it’s not the same without the video…