I’ve got the biggest balls of them all!
Step right up! Does another Monday have you feeling like a lion tamer without a chair? Well, The Nest is ready to send in the clowns to cheer you up with another acrobatic earworm! This is the day we unearth another lost earworm from some mysterious Pacific isle that got sat on by an elephant from that three ring circus full of musical fun we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy doesn’t need a safety net to perform her daredevil act of spinning another record, while the Sponkies are enjoying the overpriced peanuts and popcorn. This song’s guaranteed to be a bigger hit than the bearded lady…
In February 1984, MTV executive Robert Pittman was so impressed with a music video he saw by one Tracey Ullman, that he invited her on the channel to guest VJ for a week. While Ullman was already well known in the UK as a singer and comedienne, it was the first time most people in the US had ever heard of her. And she was such an instant success on this side of The Pond, that her label rush-released the song, whose video MTV’s American audience quickly fell in love with, as a single in the US, where it became a #8 hit…
“They Don’t Know” was unlike anything that was airing on MTV at the time, and Ullman’s quirky persona and early 60’s girl group style (Remember the Two Decade Rule!) appealed to a new audience. The video is good cheesy fun, and even contains a cameo by the one and only Paul McCartney near the end, which of course was a sign to us Americans who had never heard of her before that she didn’t just come out of nowhere…
Will somebody please get this strange lady away from me!
Ullman’s singing career eventually stalled out (leaving her a one hit wonder in the US), and she was eventually convinced by her hubby to leave Britain behind and move to Los Angeles, where she soon got her own sketch comedy series called The Tracey Ullman Show, which was one of the fledgling Fox Network’s very first original programs in 1987. That show is probably best remembered today for being the program that spawned some cartoon family known as The Simpsons, who spun off into their own series in 1989 and…… are somehow….. still on the air today.
Aw, they looked so cute in the 80’s… what’s Bart now, 42?
BAAAAAAY-A_BEEEEE, I’ll have another lost earworm for you next Monday…
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
Cute song and video! I do remember some of her skits, and they were really funny. 🙂
While I knew the show existed (my Dad always watched America’s Most Wanted and Cops back in the early days of Fox), I don’t think I ever saw it. This video was all I really knew her for, and it’s funny that I knew who Paul McCartney was at the time (from Say Say Say), but was unaware of The Beatles!
Ha,ha! I actually remember this video/song, way before Tracy Ullman became “someone” here in the states. I always liked that “Paul” was a good sport about being in her video.
The ending always cracks me up, her with her child and another on the way in fuzzy pink slippers making a day of it at the grocery store her husband works at, hilarious.
She shoulda ditched him at the bowling alley! At least the goose was on sale…
I loved this song, but it came at the wrong time… the people were in kajagoogoo mode and worshipped nena, so it never got the attention it deserved (like so many good songs)
Nena was really big over here too (My Dad had a crush on her, which got him many slaps from Mom). Kajagoogoo, not so much. I’d never even heard of him until they started playing 80’s videos on VH1 in the late 90’s..
oooh limahl was the target of all teenager girls… till he said that he is not interested in girls… it was like armageddon for this poor chicks ;O))))
The indomitable Miss Tracey…what a great and zany creative person she is!
Yes, and I very much appreciate zany and creative people…
No shock there! 🤣
Absolutely love this song..I can quite hear someone like Lesley Gore singing this back in the 60’s. There are a few really good cover versions of this floating around as well…
I was surprised to find out this was a cover version itself, with the original artist’s cry of “BAY-BEE!” kept in Ullman’s version.
I remember this song actually. Yeah. What I want to know is how they got a guy who looked just like the guy I was ‘with’ for the first time as an adult.
Art imitating life or life imitating art? I had no intention of marrying him, and he was already married anyway. But dang. Right down to the flares and the platform shoes, the cheesy mustache and the skinny bod…Ugh. Guess I dodged a bullet where Ms. Tracey more than she expected….something that was poked in fun.
You’re lucky he didn’t leave you pregnant and shopping in your slippers…
Wow, I had no idea she had a singing career. The guy in the video has that 70’s porn star look to a T. Anyway…that was cute and a nice way to start off the week. Thanks!
He may have had the porn star look, but I’ll bet he still had to stuff a shuttlecock down there before his date…
It is surprising that Paul could drive the car, the sterring wheel was on the “wrong” side for him.
The steering wheel was on the correct side for the UK. What was wrong with the car was it was a motorized tricycle…
Dearie me, you’ve accidentally chosen a song I really love! Has that even happened before? Not since Alyans. I was actually listening to her album the other day.
It came as a surprise to us when she suddenly released a song, as she was known over here for the comedy sketch show “Three of a Kind”.
I think you like a lot of the songs in my last countdown… maybe I need to do another one. Celebrities taking up singing careers seemed to be a thing all over the world in the 80’s…
Tracey singing? I didn’t know about THAT but I do know about her way with comedy and she definitely has that. I recall hearing that song though so I suppose I just never heard who the singer was – cute video – which is “VERY Tracey”.
Pam
Even the creepy guy was cute! I think he needs to get a surprise goose from behind by Big Scrat…
I love this song! And not just because of the Sir Paul cameo. Tracy Ullman is a legend! I loved her show back in the day. I also used to adore The Simpsons…
Great lost 80’s tune! Now I need to go blot my lipstick on a napkin…
Wouldn’t want Paul to get lipstick on his collar…
I love this song and never knew it was Tracy Ullman! Oh, this takes me back! Mona