I mean. That IS what Lipps Inc. stands for... the pun is only second nature. I see it as calling them by their full name rather than the shorter nickname.
New to this, are most videos from like 2013-2016 because that’s what it feels like unless Todd is just such a boomer everything he says makes him sound old lol
Back when I played Animal Crossing, I unironically named my town "Funkyton" (they only give you eight letters), made a surprisingly decent/recognisable picture of a disco ball the town flag, AND, as soon as I found out you could make the town "anthem" whatever you want, guess what? Yep. THAT SYNTH RIFF. I regret nothing. :D
This song is like the opposite of "video killed the radio star" That song was the most 80s song EVER and made in 1979, this is a quintessential disco song made in 1980.
@@derdritte7957ahhh, that explains it. the single itself was just released in 1980. strange choice given that disco died but the song is just undeniably great. rare power.
@@ktee1403 the OP is right.. the line was drawn at 1980, Ms. Summer was doing duets with Barbara Streisand FFS! By 1983 she was a born again Christian, singing songs written by Jon Anderson of Yes (State of Independence) and 'She Works Hard For The Money' was pure 80s largesse, more Flashdance then anything Disco. Back to this track.. in the era of New Wave, Two-Tone Ska and the New Romantics, it was a curtain closer with a nod to the future: the violins of Chic (even Nile Rodgers had moved on by this time!) mixed with the programmed beats similar to Arthur Baker or Italo House (although Giorgio Moroder and Cerrone were playing with this concept in the 70s) - I would say this was the last Disco hit before it went back underground and re-emerged as Dance/House in the mid-80s.
@@darganx good response! I agree. Sometimes I find it difficult to separate the artist from the genre. I always think of Donna Summer as the queen of disco, but her music did evolve in the 80s. When you listen to Bad Girls ('79) and She Works Hard ('83) you can definitely hear the change.
My parents are avid Psuedo Echo fans (even saw them in concert at the time and recently), many mornings have been spent walking out of my bedroom to hear them blasting Crazy Town or What an Adventure
15:33 Fun fact: this song would later be sampled by Polish rapper Cypis in his song "Gdzie jest biały węgorz? ("Where is the white eel?"). As you may guess, this rather depressing record is about the singer's struggles with cocaine addiction, but it would be best known internationally as the soundtrack to the Polish Cow meme.
When is Todd ever going to cover Lindanna and her hit song “I’m Lindanna and I wanna have fun”? Sure she had the typical one hit, BUT she married another one hit wonder in Max Modem. Their kids passion for music not only reunited Love Händel, but they also had their own one hit wonder story as Phineas and the Ferbtones with “Gitchee Gitchee Goo” The Flynn-Fletcher Dynasty of one hit wonders deserves an episode!
@@brendamartin8458 Phineas and Ferb got old enough already to be remembered by young millenials and zoomers, he might get an idea of what they guy said
This is definitely a good “transition” song in terms of trends, which is probably why is was able to survive the disco backlash. Obviously still a disco-style beat, but the stabbing synth melody was a sign of things to come.
@@56jklove I've always viewed Michael Jackson's Off The Wall album as the sort of last big gasp for disco while songs such as "Upside Down" by Diana Ross and "Take the Time(Do it Right)" by SOS band were essentially the last blatantly disco songs to be hits on the pop charts (Both songs were hits in the summer of 1980.)
Disco never really died. It went underground and evolved into House music. It never died in Europe and then became Italo Disco and French House. There were even US Disco bands like The Crown Heights Affair that were popular in Europe but not in America.
Plus if anything at least disco music was more interesting and colorful then Air Supply or Rupert Holmes or any of the other random yacht rock crap that replaced it in 1980/81.
This song was the death of disco, but it was something more. It passed the baton to the classic 80's sound that we know today. Right before the guitar riff in the chorus, there's a deep, base-like synthesiser. THAT sound and style was used by every major pop artist of the 80's, from the opening of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" to the opening of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". "Funkytown" was disco's dying breath that whispered to the 80's "Live long and prosper", and the 80's delivered.
Funkytown was able to hit in the 80s because of that synth. By '83 synth was king, and Funkytown managed to thread the needle between disco and synthpop.
Speaking as a Swede, it's always so weird when I hear Americans talking about 'the death of disco', because in most of Europe, disco never really went away. I was so confused the first time I heard the term 'deader than disco' because as far as I was concerned 'disco' was basically an evergreen presence in the music world.
Europeans call every kind of dance music "Disco". Many use to word "Disco" for all kinds of dance clubs and raves. Many songs that Europeans consider Disco is called Dance or Dance Music in the US. Or even Euro Dance. What Americans call Disco is heavily associated with the 70s, a certain style to dress and with funky music.
Meanwhile here in the Philippines, disco didn't die in the 80s, in fact it fucking thrived, even. Disco survived and went alongside the new wave explosion. Even today Filipino boomers dance to old disco hits like it's 40 years ago.
Denise Nova I do think we use the word in a broader sense, but I think that's more for the fact that it didn't become a dirty word here and the genre was allowed to develop, it is still the same sound.
Thats because the death of disco in America was racist, but other cultures didn't have the same issue. Shortest way to put it. Its just never acknowledged what events took place that switched it so rapidly in the span of months in this one place while everyone else continued to build on the genre.
Yes.. same in Mexico, that's why designer music did so well, I mean it was their second single after the massive funky town , obviously was going to do well, by that time , when US output started to decline italodisco from Europe started to take its place and Canadian disco too, that kind of more electronic disco started to be called "hi-nrg" but I guess only to get in line with the charts of the neighbor country, dance versions of tracks and whatnot still stated (disco version) on them, like it wasn't like "it died today" it was more of a slow phase out of the name
There was a lot of silent racism in the early music video days, and especially in the first few weeks (or probably months, I don't know, I wasn't born until 87) of MTV.
"Funkytown" was inspired by Kraftwerk. In a way, it was the bridge between the disco era of the 70's and the New Wave/synthpop era of the 80's. It firmly belongs in 1980 as part of an era of transition.
"What's more evocative to the gay experience than wanting to get the fuck out of a nowhere town and go somewhere where there's an actual scene?" Either Todd is one of us, or he has an incredible amount of insight into the queer experience for a straight person.
It’s come up a couple of times in his videos and his podcasts that he’s about as straight as it gets. He’s just a decent guy with a lot of queer friends.
@@lasarousi That’s true to an extent, but just because the experiences of gay people are comprehensible and relatable to others doesn’t mean they’re all the same. As a 22-year-old straight guy from a not particularly sheltering family, I still find myself learning new things about the experiences of gay and other LGBT+ people.
I used to work for the keyboardist from Pseudo Echo in a record store and we'd occasionally drop Funky Town over the loudspeakers for a laugh. "Fuckers still owe me money", he'd say. Good dude.
Seems like a matter of place, if it came out of Sheffield it'd be synth pop, but hailing from Philly makes it the last leg of Disco. I think in Europe Disco just became more synthetic and by the time it crossed over to the US it was synth pop, much like Rock ended up going back as Beat. i mean, you just have to look to Mark Almond and Jimmy Summervilles cover of I feel love to get a sense of the continuity. And Vince Clark is just a very Disco person, period.
Simon Gunkel really? I’m from Philly and didn’t know that. We worship Rocky and Eye Of The Tiger. If in thousands of years an advanced civilization will find the statue of Rocky and think it was a great god that was worshipped by the population and they would be right.
As he eventually gets around to saying, the line between disco and synth-heavy 1980s dance music is really blurry, and there's a lot of stuff there that would have been called disco if it had come out when disco was considered cool. They just took out most of the Giorgio Moroder strings.
You know, she sings about wanting to go to Funkytown, but I've always wondered what she was going to do once she got to Funkytown. They should make a sequel called "Welp, I Made It To Funkytown (Now I Need a Job)."
The sequel would be incredibly easy to do: "Now I've made the move to a town that's right for me / Town that keeps me movin', keeps me groovin' with some energy / Well, I talked about it...(etc.)...Well, now I'm here in - Funky Town / Now I'm here in - Funky Town", etc. Since it's now 40 years later, millions of people who don't know the original could be sucked in, thinking this was a fabulous new funky song!
Lol I was about to comment something along the lines of: what are you talking about failed follow up? Designer music is *super popular* I can't escape that song.... Are you doing a bit with a plot twist as you sometimes do because there is no way that song isn't popular I... Todd: it was huge In Mexico and Philipinnes Me a mexican: OH.....
Without knowing Designer Music's name, as a Mexican I agree. I heard the riff and immediately knew which song it was. No idea it was by the Funkytown guys. Weird world
Sadly not the first time Todd attacks a song that was literaly HUGE in Mexico. When he began is tirade against designer music i though to myself: Not again!
@@tonyhogg9839 Well, they tried to give the whitest music they could do, which is how Eddie Rabbit had a hit song. In 1982, Michael Jackson had arrived and that ended.
Another One Bites the Dust and Another Brick in the Wall were both massive hits in 1980, and those are two of the most iconic songs in the history of rock music
"Designer Music was a huge hit in Mexico", mate, its because post-disco never died in here, if you have 15 minutes to spare look for Vice's "The Last HI-NRG Ravers in Mexico" video (spoilers, its not even close to dying 7 years later, it's actually growing)
@@TheUnmitigatedDawn Eric Clapton is about the furthest thing from a one hit wonder you can get. He's had hits in every decades he's played in. Layla is just one of them.
@@TheUnmitigatedDawn yes and "Derek" is Eric Clapton and the domino's were just his backing band. It's like when Prince changed his name to that symbol, it didn't stop him from being Prince. Eric wrote the song all by himself. And have you seen an episode of One Hit Wonder? Todd covers the entire history of the band/artist, before and after and during the hit. He takes into account whether say the artist was in a band before that were massively successful, and if they were, then they don't count as a one hit wonder. Eric doesn't count; just because he decided to change his stage name for one album, that doesn't mean he was a different artist. The band were like the band members of Wings, sure they're great but Paul was the only one people knew and cared about because he wrote everything and often performed every instrument during recording. Same deal with Eric here. Derek and the Dominoes were Eric's Wings Now is love to see him do an episode on Eric Clapton or maybe just that song anyway, because it'd probably be really good and a change from his normal kinda songs he reviews. But it wouldn't count as a one hit wonder, because Clapton is one of the most successful musicians in history Also if you wanna request one you've got to do it on patreon. He already has a big list of requests people have paid for that he's getting through but maybe he'll do the episode if you pay him enough, just not as a one hit wonder. But yeah man's gotta eat, he lives in NYC, he needs those patreon supporters
@duffman18 Jim Gordon, the pianist, basically wrote the second most iconic part of the song, the piano interlude in the second part. Also Duane Allman did the awesome slide solo and Carl Radle gave us the underrated groovy bassline that went nice under the guitars. Duane also wrote the iconic main riff btw
Wait till he discovers we are currently in another disco age. It's just more underground this time because its a derivative of vaporwave. Good ole futurefunk by far my favorite new genre.
Todd talking about how a decade doesn’t actually start or end anything doesn’t feel great thinking about how abruptly 2020 burned everything to the ground.
So I'm a huge car guy and we had a similar phenomenon the decade earlier known as the "Muscle car era". From the release of the GOAT in 1964 to 1970 when laws were passed that brought everything to an end due to fuel and emissions. I was reading a book that had little blurbs regarding the cars and one of the last big mucle cars had one that went; "If you're going to show up late to a party bring one hell of a dip". Funkytown is the disco equivalent of that, a damn good 7 layer dip to a party on the wane.
NEEDbacon I thought of that one too, but didn’t it eek out right before the regulations where passed, the Superduty was well after and still pretty comparable to the late sixties muscle, I may be wrong though about the regulations and the challenger.
The thing about Funkytown is that if you've seen _that video,_ then you can't ever hear it the same. If you haven't seen it, god bless you and don't go looking for it.
@@naikigutierrez4279 Um. No. Are you in a position to receive information that might hurt you? (It’s one of the grisliest snuff videos on the internet of a guy being skinned alive by the cartel. Do not go looking for it.)
I've never watched the video (and hopefully never will), but just knowing what happens in it is enough send chills down my spine everytime I hear the song
I think the first time I heard that song was in elementary school. I forget the occasion but I think a staff member sang it. Including the line "get real high".
Funkytown is primarily New Wave aside from the Nile Rodgers-sounding guitar riff in the chorus, so yeah, it's really weird that he couldn't figure out the 80s after that.
My dad's 60th birthday was earlier this year. The theme was "bring the funk" and he went ALL OUT. Rented out a local bar for a private party, had a DJ playing exclusively funk music.... when this song came on my father jumped on stage and told everybody that they HAD to get on the dance floor. Started yelling out individual names because he didn't see them in the crowd. Everybody dances to Funkytown. That's just a rule or something.
Disco still survived in Europe well into the 80s, though it changed over time. It's mainly just in the US and the UK that it died a quick and painful death.
Europeans call a different Disco than Americans. What Europeans call Disco is called Dance or Euro Dance or Euro Pop in the US. It's very 80s and 90s. What Americans call Disco is very funky and 70s. We call it Funk.
@@denisenova7494 Right, US disco was basically producers dropping a ton of strings on what otherwise would've been perfectly good Parliament/Funkadelic records. Euro disco in the 80s was much closer to synth pop.
Genius interpretation on the instrumentals: Basically the drums in a simple, though addictive beat. Disco was not known for elaborate instrumental solos and this one does nothing to change this
I spent the whole summer of 1982 in Saltillo, Mexico, and I can attest to the fact that "Designer Music" was an absolute monster hit in Mexico. And I loved it. I also loved "Rock It". I loved both of them more than "Funkytown", which I always thought was pretty stupid.
Your effortless piano covers of the songs you talk about really adds a lot. Loads of people are critics, but I think the simple act of playing the tracks you talk about gives you a level of qualification others lack. Your editing is also great and I know the time that takes so, thanks.
An interesting train records would be Motley Crue’s self titled album after Vince Neil left. Documentaries and books love to forget this forgettable album
Phill I’ll admit it’s not a good album, but it’s not a train record. Motley Crue is still up and kicking it off of multiple songs, while other train records are known for like two songs nowadays
Okay, this may sound like bullshit, but I have a story to tell you. So, my grandfather was a teacher at a Minneapolis school, and one of his students was one Cynthia Johnson. She (at the time) was the lead vocalist of Flyte Tyme (interestingly enough, Prince, who turned Flyte Tyme into The Time, used to attend my grandmother's gym class in high school), and she had met a guy named Steven Greenberg, who offered Johnson a chance to finally break into the limelight, having already written a few songs for her (Funkytown being one of them), and she jumped at the opportunity. So she recorded the song, alongside several others, but when it was time for her to release her album, which was a year or two later, Greenberg decided to not credit her as the overall performer, only crediting her as the singer. Instead, he decided to completely make up a band called "Lipps Inc." and released the album as such, and to make matters worse, she wasn't even asked to appear in either of the existing videos. To this day, she still gets no royalty checks from it. Greenberg is the only one who does. The lesson to be learned is this: There are people out there who want to take advantage of your talent, and to avoid another situation like Cynthia's, never accept a deal that seems too good to be true.
Oh man...if that's true (and I can easily believe it, tbh) that definitely puts Greenberg in a pretty heinous light. Was he afraid her being the voice, and therefore the face, of the track would eclipse him? Really shitty of him, either way. Guess we can take some solace in his lack of continued success, then. Not that it's any consolation for Johnson.
@@vaelethun The story tracks with a lot of the shady stuff that used to go down (and I guess it still goes down) with vocalists getting screwed in contracts.
Still blows my mind that when I talk to people from out of state about the Minnesota music scene, the two names that always seem to come up are Prince.... and Lipps Inc.?? I mean, I'd like to think we're a pretty musically diverse area. The Replacements, Husker Du, Atmosphere, Lizzo, Soul Asylum, Doomtree, Low.... BOB DYLAN FOR CHRISTSAKE! But it always seems to come up.... "oh yeah, the Funky Town group"....
@Is me ? born in Detroit, moved briefly to Houston, eventually moving to Minneapolis and settling there before starting her career! She calls herself minnesotan!
Well, this is a strange time to upload....but I imagine you had to get this off your chest or else that catchy as hell synth line would've kept you up all night.
@@WhaleManMan not that i recommend you go looking for it, but it's a narco video where there's a guy with his faced flayed off, hands cut off, and they are sawing through his neck with a box cutter. and dude is alive through all of it, cause supposedly they inject him with synthetic adrenaline. towards the end, funky town comes on in the background and one of the torturers is humming the song. i mean, there's sweet child of mine playing too, but they hum funky town. 🤷♂️ pretty messed up, to say the least
@@charlessaints Very very messed up. I've seen people call it the worst gore video online and I'm inclined to agree. I think Ms. Pacman is only one arguably worse. What's even more unsettling is the origin being cartels is just speculation. Nobody really knows for sure who the poor guy is or what he did.
When I was like 13 or 14 I heard the Funky Town instrumental in a commercial and it drove me crazy for months because the internet was a lot smaller back then and you couldn't just google it as easily as you could now. I only figured it out a few months later because it was in the Shrek 2 soundtrack 😂
I was born in 1994, and I still loved this song as a kid. Having spent the last 10 or 11 years listening to mostly interchangeable pop-punk as my genre of choice, I still love this song. When I think of what could be considered as perfect songs, this is absolutely one of them. There isn't a wasted second in its entirety.
Yeah, I was gonna say that "Designer Music" did become popular in Mexico to the point that a few years ago Mexican Rock band Molotov included it in their covers record simply because it was big when they were kids.
Todd: "You look at the charts in 1980 (...) and almost none of the songs has stood the test of time." Call Me? Another Brick In The Wall? I'm Coming Out? Upside Down? Another One Bites The Dust? Crazy Little Thing Called Love? Cars? The Rose? Brass In The Pocket? Fame? All Out Of Love? Rock With You? Give Me The Night?
chances are with the way he phrased it those weren't the big hits of the year and became popular later. the charts are full of songs that just did not stick around
Adding to my last comments, I think that's why ppl are surprised that "cars"was a full 6 months before 1980 because it sounded way more 80s and yet 3040. Like what?
It doesn't help that it's on the year-end list for 1980 at #11: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1980 Also on that list with probably no business being counter as a 1980 song - Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Whoa! That's crazy. I had to search that one up. The video totally looks like an early low budget MTV video, it's crazy how ahead of its time it was. Too bad Todd has made so many videos on 80s new wave hits, it would get a bit repetitive to review that one hit wonder. Even if it's not technically an 80s hit.
Another good series might be songs that were ahead of their time or started new genres or movements whether they were well known at the time (I Feel Love, Rocket 88, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag) or not so much (Venus in Furs, Autobahn, Blitzkreig Bop)
Fantastic job with this one Todd! BTW, you mentioned how Funkytown was never on any of the “best of” lists, but it ranks #22 on my best of the 80’s playlist, and stands out like a sore thumb
I agree with the sentiment that it's catchy in the wrong ways, I could hear this song for 1 solid minute before wanting to move on, it's really memorable, but not anything I ever listen to willingly
You weren’t kidding when you said 1980 and 1981 might as well be the aborted remnants of some uncompleted decade. It always amazes me at how sudden disco collapsed.
Strawberry Shortcake did put out the “Live” album from 1981, and it was her last gasp at a disco novelty album. Kinda like the way it did after “Disco Duck” in 1976.
For the first fifteen years of my life I thought for sure that the lyrics were "taco body" instead of "talk about it". I remember being really confused but too scared to ask what a taco body was
My Uncle was best friends with Steve. Quiet and nice guy. Saw him at my Uncle's birthday for years and other functions. My uncle played bass with him ocasionaly when they were young. Spoke to Steve on the phone for some advice when I was getting into music production (I ended working in tech) Sadly lost my Uncle to cancer. Last time I saw Steve was at my Uncle's funeral.
Disco is part of a cycle that we see over and over again in Popular Music. 1. An underground scene rises to prominence, usually with a breakout hit 2. People who weren't into scene originally get into it because it's cool 3. The scene has to make accommodations for the new fans and the sound gets diluted 4. The scene collapses in on itself from all the extra weight it is expected to carry 5. The original hardcore fans try to recapture the essence of the original scene, and end up creating new genres. It's how Disco mutated into House and Techno. Jungle exploded in the 90s, simmered down in the early 2000s and split into it's many sub-genres. UK Garage split off into Grime and Dubstep, and Dubstep is currently going through the same process.
Just happened to watch your 1987 video the other day so it is almost too good of a coincidence that you uploaded this. The song was fresh on my mind with curiosity over it's story.
Testekill, Unorthodox Individual www.billboard.com/music/bag-raiders Also I just want to see someone acknowledging a Australian band that isn’t popular over seas (seriously there’s hundreds over here)
Every single musical hook in this song has become a fundamental building block of every remix or mashup or dj set that has ever come since. It`s true what Todd pointed out about each instrument only getting one bit, and each one of those riffs has become idiomatic, even (dare I say it) ICONIC.
I say disco died around '83. Its death spiral definitely started in '79-80, but it held on for a few years until '83ish. Sure, there were no more No.1's, other than "Funkytown," but there were still plenty of disco hits, like "Take Your Time (Do It Right)," which is one of my personal favourites, "Celebration," and numerous others.
I once had a friend refer to this group as “Lips Incorporated” with complete seriousness.
I mean. That IS what Lipps Inc. stands for... the pun is only second nature. I see it as calling them by their full name rather than the shorter nickname.
Could be worse, somebody could refer to E.L.O. as "elo"
I feel like he should we wrapped up in a blanket and told to sit down in a hushed soothing voice while holding him close
This is something I would’ve done... and probably did. I didn’t get the joke in the name until just recently.
That’s what Siri calls them when you ask to play this song on Spotify!
it took me over a second to realize this was new and todd hasn't actually already done funky town
I was going crazy tryna figure it out...I thought it was a re-upload
New to this, are most videos from like 2013-2016 because that’s what it feels like unless Todd is just such a boomer everything he says makes him sound old lol
So glad that I wasn't the only one who thought this. I figured that TH-cam's algorithm popped this gem up for me.
holy shit this was uploaded today lmao
i swear to god i remember him doing funky town
Back when I played Animal Crossing, I unironically named my town "Funkyton" (they only give you eight letters), made a surprisingly decent/recognisable picture of a disco ball the town flag, AND, as soon as I found out you could make the town "anthem" whatever you want, guess what? Yep. THAT SYNTH RIFF.
I regret nothing. :D
Thank you, I’ll be stealing this idea
That reminds me I just named a Minecraft world “Funkytown” LMAO
My animal crossing new leaf town is called funktown haha
God I can't wait for New Horizons... it looks as amazing as Sword/Shield was mediocre.
best animal crossing player ever?
"He went into web design, which. I mean, look at him yeah."
That one got a REAL hard laugh out of me lol
This song is like the opposite of "video killed the radio star"
That song was the most 80s song EVER and made in 1979, this is a quintessential disco song made in 1980.
They deserve each other
Both were made in 1979.
@@derdritte7957 wikipedia says march 1980
@@WereDictionary Wikipedia also says:
It was [...] released as the second single from the group's debut studio album, Mouth to Mouth (1979).
@@derdritte7957ahhh, that explains it. the single itself was just released in 1980. strange choice given that disco died but the song is just undeniably great. rare power.
Funkytown. The last hit single of the disco genre. Inspired by Kraftwerk. Incensed the career of Prince. This song is the lynchpin of music history.
Haha like how there would have been now death row records without vanilla ice
Was is the last hit single of disco? Give It Up by disco staple KC and the Sunshine Band reached the top 20 and No. 1 in the UK in 82/83.
@@santiagobauza4257 I was also gonna say Donna Summer 'She Works Hard For The Money'. Also 1983. I think that was the official last year of disco.
@@ktee1403 the OP is right.. the line was drawn at 1980, Ms. Summer was doing duets with Barbara Streisand FFS! By 1983 she was a born again Christian, singing songs written by Jon Anderson of Yes (State of Independence) and 'She Works Hard For The Money' was pure 80s largesse, more Flashdance then anything Disco.
Back to this track.. in the era of New Wave, Two-Tone Ska and the New Romantics, it was a curtain closer with a nod to the future: the violins of Chic (even Nile Rodgers had moved on by this time!) mixed with the programmed beats similar to Arthur Baker or Italo House (although Giorgio Moroder and Cerrone were playing with this concept in the 70s) - I would say this was the last Disco hit before it went back underground and re-emerged as Dance/House in the mid-80s.
@@darganx good response! I agree. Sometimes I find it difficult to separate the artist from the genre. I always think of Donna Summer as the queen of disco, but her music did evolve in the 80s. When you listen to Bad Girls ('79) and She Works Hard ('83) you can definitely hear the change.
I remember the first time I heard this song was "Shrek 2" when I was a kid.
That movie had a pretty awesome soundtrack, honestly.
same here
Eels- I Need To Sleep(awesome track!)
I don't even like Counting Crows but I still can't get "Accidentally In Love" out of my head. Plus, that movie introduced me to Bonnie Tyler.
Wayne Goodman Agee.. and Tom Waits: a little drop of poise..
The first two Shrek movies had amazing soundtracks. It's the reason the first Proclaimers song I knew wasn't I'm Gonna Be
I can’t believe it’s been nearly 10 years since Todd talked about Pseudo Echo’s cover of “Funkytown” in his Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 1987 video.
Wait, really? Man, I feel old now.
10 years and I’m still waiting for the One hit wonderland for Brandy(You’re a fine girl) by Looking Glass
Not sure how to feel as someone who loves Pseudo Echos cover xD
My parents are avid Psuedo Echo fans (even saw them in concert at the time and recently), many mornings have been spent walking out of my bedroom to hear them blasting Crazy Town or What an Adventure
@@TheUnmitigatedDawn "Bellbottom Blues"
15:33 Fun fact: this song would later be sampled by Polish rapper Cypis in his song "Gdzie jest biały węgorz? ("Where is the white eel?"). As you may guess, this rather depressing record is about the singer's struggles with cocaine addiction, but it would be best known internationally as the soundtrack to the Polish Cow meme.
I knew that sample before that meme blew up only because of this video lol.
@@AaronAnaya I immediately jolted up in my seat as soon as I heard that synth line.
when i heard that i was like "i heard that in that cow song"
i absolutely adore that song ngl
I didn’t even put two and two together that it sampled this, and I have watched this video and listened to the rap song several times.
When is Todd ever going to cover Lindanna and her hit song “I’m Lindanna and I wanna have fun”? Sure she had the typical one hit, BUT she married another one hit wonder in Max Modem. Their kids passion for music not only reunited Love Händel, but they also had their own one hit wonder story as Phineas and the Ferbtones with “Gitchee Gitchee Goo” The Flynn-Fletcher Dynasty of one hit wonders deserves an episode!
Todd 100% does not get this reference but it’s still good!
"Whoa, whoa, that's a little too Seventies for the Eighties! Just push the button and let the machine do the work!"
Thank you! YEEEES we need that episode ASAP
@@brendamartin8458 Phineas and Ferb got old enough already to be remembered by young millenials and zoomers, he might get an idea of what they guy said
And Lindanna name-checked two other one-hit wonders.
If you say "Funkytown" 3 times in front of a mirror, a pianist will play the iconic synth line right behind you.
That synth line was later used in an arcade game called “Fantasy” by SNK in 1981 in the jungle stage, and the voodoo stage.
H-he won't... leave... He just keeps playing the same riff over and over.
@@MiniMackeroni I guess you gotta make a move to a town that's right for you, now?
Now how do I make it stop?
This is definitely a good “transition” song in terms of trends, which is probably why is was able to survive the disco backlash. Obviously still a disco-style beat, but the stabbing synth melody was a sign of things to come.
Keen observation!
@TC Fenstermaker so is off the wall count as disco or post disco?
Disco type beat
yes, i never really percieved it as a disco song it sounds a lot more 80s than 70s
@@56jklove I've always viewed Michael Jackson's Off The Wall album as the sort of last big gasp for disco while songs such as "Upside Down" by Diana Ross and "Take the Time(Do it Right)" by SOS band were essentially the last blatantly disco songs to be hits on the pop charts (Both songs were hits in the summer of 1980.)
Disco never really died. It went underground and evolved into House music. It never died in Europe and then became Italo Disco and French House. There were even US Disco bands like The Crown Heights Affair that were popular in Europe but not in America.
Fair enough. Daft Punk certainly has HUGE disco roots.
Quincy Jones said in the mid eighties that eighties dance music (like Madonna) was just disco with an acceptable pink nipple
Plus if anything at least disco music was more interesting and colorful then Air Supply or Rupert Holmes or any of the other random yacht rock crap that replaced it in 1980/81.
@@RobertJRoman Speaking of...I'm wondering if Todd is going to get flagged for that blonde in the sheer top? ^_^
@@LeoMidori all house does
This song was the death of disco, but it was something more. It passed the baton to the classic 80's sound that we know today. Right before the guitar riff in the chorus, there's a deep, base-like synthesiser. THAT sound and style was used by every major pop artist of the 80's, from the opening of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" to the opening of Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean".
"Funkytown" was disco's dying breath that whispered to the 80's "Live long and prosper", and the 80's delivered.
It was also there for the death of someone else
"Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today to get through this thing called life..."
Funkytown was able to hit in the 80s because of that synth. By '83 synth was king, and Funkytown managed to thread the needle between disco and synthpop.
If Funky Town is responsible for Purple Rain, we owe so much to Steve Greenburg.
ummmmmmmmmm it is not. dont get it twisted Prince is his own genre
@@IamGaby oh of course!
Speaking as a Swede, it's always so weird when I hear Americans talking about 'the death of disco', because in most of Europe, disco never really went away. I was so confused the first time I heard the term 'deader than disco' because as far as I was concerned 'disco' was basically an evergreen presence in the music world.
Europeans call every kind of dance music "Disco". Many use to word "Disco" for all kinds of dance clubs and raves. Many songs that Europeans consider Disco is called Dance or Dance Music in the US. Or even Euro Dance. What Americans call Disco is heavily associated with the 70s, a certain style to dress and with funky music.
Meanwhile here in the Philippines, disco didn't die in the 80s, in fact it fucking thrived, even. Disco survived and went alongside the new wave explosion. Even today Filipino boomers dance to old disco hits like it's 40 years ago.
Denise Nova I do think we use the word in a broader sense, but I think that's more for the fact that it didn't become a dirty word here and the genre was allowed to develop, it is still the same sound.
Thats because the death of disco in America was racist, but other cultures didn't have the same issue. Shortest way to put it. Its just never acknowledged what events took place that switched it so rapidly in the span of months in this one place while everyone else continued to build on the genre.
Yes.. same in Mexico, that's why designer music did so well, I mean it was their second single after the massive funky town , obviously was going to do well, by that time , when US output started to decline italodisco from Europe started to take its place and Canadian disco too, that kind of more electronic disco started to be called "hi-nrg" but I guess only to get in line with the charts of the neighbor country, dance versions of tracks and whatnot still stated (disco version) on them, like it wasn't like "it died today" it was more of a slow phase out of the name
Genuinely impressive that you made it the whole way through without mentioning Shrek 2
After his time
I'm surprised the comment section isn't full of Shrek references.
I forgot they had it in Shrek 2.
Why on earth was Cynthia Johnson not in any of the original videos? She's absolutely gorgeous.
Yes, she certainly is! Strikingly beautiful.
well the 2nd video was clearly made for white folks
There was a lot of silent racism in the early music video days, and especially in the first few weeks (or probably months, I don't know, I wasn't born until 87) of MTV.
Exactly
@@burr1aj I remember CBS tried to sue MTV for discrimination when they didn't accept Billie Jean music video
"Funkytown" was inspired by Kraftwerk. In a way, it was the bridge between the disco era of the 70's and the New Wave/synthpop era of the 80's. It firmly belongs in 1980 as part of an era of transition.
I feel like an idiot for only just now becoming aware of the "Lipps Inc." & "lip sync" correlation. Thanks, Todd.
lips incorporated
Greenberg is a caricature of a socially awkward guy. XD
I love it.
And a caricature of a New York Jew lol
I love your avatar is Mighty Boosh Hitcher
@SoreThumbChronicles David Cross too.
He's funny though. The line 'Oh I got plenty...I had none' killed me.
The Prince observation rocked something fundamental in my brain.
Yeah, kinda unexpected for Flyte Time to be connected to Funkytown lol
@@rommix0 oh yeah I know the whole story. It's very interesting to see the early days of the minneapolis music scene back in the 70s and 80s.
"What's more evocative to the gay experience than wanting to get the fuck out of a nowhere town and go somewhere where there's an actual scene?"
Either Todd is one of us, or he has an incredible amount of insight into the queer experience for a straight person.
It’s come up a couple of times in his videos and his podcasts that he’s about as straight as it gets. He’s just a decent guy with a lot of queer friends.
@@thatkidwiththehoodie Todd just seems to understand what the LGBT plus community celebrates.
That's kind of human nature in show business and almost nothing to do with your groin or groin preference.
Lol I was thinking the same thing. Like, that was so spot on it hurts (especially living in Wyoming for now)
@@lasarousi That’s true to an extent, but just because the experiences of gay people are comprehensible and relatable to others doesn’t mean they’re all the same. As a 22-year-old straight guy from a not particularly sheltering family, I still find myself learning new things about the experiences of gay and other LGBT+ people.
I used to work for the keyboardist from Pseudo Echo in a record store and we'd occasionally drop Funky Town over the loudspeakers for a laugh.
"Fuckers still owe me money", he'd say. Good dude.
I did not realize that Funky Town was considered disco. I always assumed it was synth-pop like Safety Dance.
Thanks for the music documentaries, Todd.
Seems like a matter of place, if it came out of Sheffield it'd be synth pop, but hailing from Philly makes it the last leg of Disco. I think in Europe Disco just became more synthetic and by the time it crossed over to the US it was synth pop, much like Rock ended up going back as Beat. i mean, you just have to look to Mark Almond and Jimmy Summervilles cover of I feel love to get a sense of the continuity. And Vince Clark is just a very Disco person, period.
Simon Gunkel really? I’m from Philly and didn’t know that. We worship Rocky and Eye Of The Tiger. If in thousands of years an advanced civilization will find the statue of Rocky and think it was a great god that was worshipped by the population and they would be right.
As he eventually gets around to saying, the line between disco and synth-heavy 1980s dance music is really blurry, and there's a lot of stuff there that would have been called disco if it had come out when disco was considered cool. They just took out most of the Giorgio Moroder strings.
@@simongunkel7457 have you heard of post disco
You know, she sings about wanting to go to Funkytown, but I've always wondered what she was going to do once she got to Funkytown.
They should make a sequel called "Welp, I Made It To Funkytown (Now I Need a Job)."
Funkytown 2
The sequel would be incredibly easy to do: "Now I've made the move to a town that's right for me / Town that keeps me movin', keeps me groovin' with some energy / Well, I talked about it...(etc.)...Well, now I'm here in - Funky Town / Now I'm here in - Funky Town", etc. Since it's now 40 years later, millions of people who don't know the original could be sucked in, thinking this was a fabulous new funky song!
Gone Hollywood -Supertramp
@@EpicB Funky-two-n?
Lol I was about to comment something along the lines of: what are you talking about failed follow up? Designer music is *super popular* I can't escape that song.... Are you doing a bit with a plot twist as you sometimes do because there is no way that song isn't popular I...
Todd: it was huge In Mexico and Philipinnes
Me a mexican: OH.....
Screw Todd for insulting Ambrosia. They are an underrated prog rock band. Check out their eponymous debut album. It’s a prog masterpiece
Without knowing Designer Music's name, as a Mexican I agree. I heard the riff and immediately knew which song it was. No idea it was by the Funkytown guys. Weird world
I remember being introduced to Designer Music through Molotov's cover of it. Good times.
The a-ha effect here in Europe 🙋🏼
Sadly not the first time Todd attacks a song that was literaly HUGE in Mexico. When he began is tirade against designer music i though to myself: Not again!
Holy cow, that "How Long" cover is the sample used in the Dancing Polish Cow meme.
The "dancing polish cow" song is built off a sample of the How Long cover
Just realized this, my mind is blown by such a obscure connection between the two...
i was literally just thinking how their backlog seems extremely sampleable
Woah
So "Designer Music" is a Lipps, Inc. song, huh? I keep hearing this song where I live. Edit: Yes, the Philippines.
I mean, it was either the Philippines or Mexico, right?
Too many walls by Cathy Dennis - One hit wonderland
@@TheUnmitigatedDawn Kinda challenging given that "Touch Me (All Night Long)" and "Just Another Dream" were also hits.
Mexican here, yes it was a big hit here.
@@danielvarela6259 "diseño rolas"
Oh, and 1980 also had Kool and the Gang's "Celebration". And that endured.
Also Earth, Wind and Fire's Let's Groove in 1981.
I really like a lot of songs from 80 and 81, but it is true there was not much of a direction pop music was going those two years.
@@tonyhogg9839 Well, they tried to give the whitest music they could do, which is how Eddie Rabbit had a hit song.
In 1982, Michael Jackson had arrived and that ended.
Another One Bites the Dust and Another Brick in the Wall were both massive hits in 1980, and those are two of the most iconic songs in the history of rock music
I attribute that to the song becoming a bit of a Jock Jam (played at a lot of sporting events).
Me as a Mexican: Oh "Designer Music" yeah they like playing it in retro radio stations.
Yep. It was there at least once a week when I used to listen to Mix FM LOL
its insane to think that doesnt count as a hit in the us
Molotov is far from the biggest names in Mexican music, but their legacy will forever be soundtracking Latin radio stations on GTA games
@@rayelgatubelo Que mal que se fueron cuando mas los necesitamos :'(
yeah, we are sometimes a magical place where US one hit wonders become two hit wonders or even more wonders XD
It's aggressively vapid, but goes SO HARD and I unironically love it. I say with the last two records I bought having been early Whitehouse.
"Designer Music was a huge hit in Mexico", mate, its because post-disco never died in here, if you have 15 minutes to spare look for Vice's "The Last HI-NRG Ravers in Mexico" video (spoilers, its not even close to dying 7 years later, it's actually growing)
Todd: Designer Music was a hit in Philippines
Me, with Filipino ears: Ok I can see why (its probably the oversinging)
Todd in needs to do a one hit wonderland episode for Layla by Derek and the Dominos
@@TheUnmitigatedDawn Eric Clapton is about the furthest thing from a one hit wonder you can get. He's had hits in every decades he's played in. Layla is just one of them.
@duffman18
It’s a Derek and the Dominos song. Not an Eric clapton song. The whole band made it a hit.
@@TheUnmitigatedDawn yes and "Derek" is Eric Clapton and the domino's were just his backing band. It's like when Prince changed his name to that symbol, it didn't stop him from being Prince. Eric wrote the song all by himself.
And have you seen an episode of One Hit Wonder? Todd covers the entire history of the band/artist, before and after and during the hit. He takes into account whether say the artist was in a band before that were massively successful, and if they were, then they don't count as a one hit wonder.
Eric doesn't count; just because he decided to change his stage name for one album, that doesn't mean he was a different artist. The band were like the band members of Wings, sure they're great but Paul was the only one people knew and cared about because he wrote everything and often performed every instrument during recording. Same deal with Eric here. Derek and the Dominoes were Eric's Wings
Now is love to see him do an episode on Eric Clapton or maybe just that song anyway, because it'd probably be really good and a change from his normal kinda songs he reviews. But it wouldn't count as a one hit wonder, because Clapton is one of the most successful musicians in history
Also if you wanna request one you've got to do it on patreon. He already has a big list of requests people have paid for that he's getting through but maybe he'll do the episode if you pay him enough, just not as a one hit wonder. But yeah man's gotta eat, he lives in NYC, he needs those patreon supporters
@duffman18
Jim Gordon, the pianist, basically wrote the second most iconic part of the song, the piano interlude in the second part. Also Duane Allman did the awesome slide solo and Carl Radle gave us the underrated groovy bassline that went nice under the guitars. Duane also wrote the iconic main riff btw
Nobody:
Todd: *Oh boy 3AM*
Thank God I'm an unemployed drunk!
actually it’s just in time for my european morning he’s just considerate of his international viewers!!!!
The painted cow
I love that Todd’s embracing the disco decade more and more
Play That Funky Music White Boy
Wait till he discovers we are currently in another disco age. It's just more underground this time because its a derivative of vaporwave. Good ole futurefunk by far my favorite new genre.
@@zoidsfan12 | And folks re/discovering things like City Pop. Disco and Funk were able to adapt and survive pretty much everywhere BUT the USA.
Disco was/is fun. Least when you cut the cheese out (Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Ethel effing Merman lol).
@@zoidsfan12 Well, one of the biggest hits of the year so far is straight up Jamiroquai-ish post-disco. To my understanding Todd really likes it.
Todd talking about how a decade doesn’t actually start or end anything doesn’t feel great thinking about how abruptly 2020 burned everything to the ground.
I'm showing my age when I say "I know this song because of Shrek 2".
I always associate "Funkytown" with being in the trailers to Dumb and Dumber.
Basically everyone born in the last 20 or so years associate it with Shrek 2, Malcolm in the Middle, or Mexico
@@dallonpainter2674Now that last one was just uncalled for
Like what happened to the guy in that video
Same
So I'm a huge car guy and we had a similar phenomenon the decade earlier known as the "Muscle car era". From the release of the GOAT in 1964 to 1970 when laws were passed that brought everything to an end due to fuel and emissions. I was reading a book that had little blurbs regarding the cars and one of the last big mucle cars had one that went; "If you're going to show up late to a party bring one hell of a dip".
Funkytown is the disco equivalent of that, a damn good 7 layer dip to a party on the wane.
Is that about the 71 Superduty Trans Am?
@@andreasfrost-blade4689 I think it was the 1970's Dodge Challenger.
NEEDbacon I thought of that one too, but didn’t it eek out right before the regulations where passed, the Superduty was well after and still pretty comparable to the late sixties muscle, I may be wrong though about the regulations and the challenger.
Everyone in the comments: Todd, let me sleep!
Me: *laughs in European*
@@robinchesterfield42 That's the way scarier laugh😂
Me: LAUGHS IN JAPANESE
*laughs in health care*
@@billpeel4408 you make me sad, do they have health care in funky town? america is not funky:(
*laughs in Australian*
My mouth dropped when the clip of Ethel Merman singing disco started playing.
I feel like The Ethel Merman Disco Album (yes, it's called that) justifies the anti-disco backlash. Along with "Disco Duck".
The thing about Funkytown is that if you've seen _that video,_ then you can't ever hear it the same. If you haven't seen it, god bless you and don't go looking for it.
The one where they mash up Funkytown with Closer by NIN?
@@naikigutierrez4279 Um. No. Are you in a position to receive information that might hurt you? (It’s one of the grisliest snuff videos on the internet of a guy being skinned alive by the cartel. Do not go looking for it.)
@@amberdent651 I actually did locate info about the video you were referring to on another comment on this video.
god yeah, it’s hard to even watch this video
I've never watched the video (and hopefully never will), but just knowing what happens in it is enough send chills down my spine everytime I hear the song
There's absolutely no comparison between 1980 NYC and 2020 NYC. Different space-time continuums entirely.
One Hit Wonderland: What's Up by 4 Non Blondes
You know you have to do that Todd.
He probably knows he'll have to reference HEYAYAYAY at some point and wants to avoid that.
He said it was one of his least favorite songs ever. Like, maybe the worst.
I think the first time I heard that song was in elementary school. I forget the occasion but I think a staff member sang it. Including the line "get real high".
That will be the last one hit wonder he does. He hates it aloooooot.
Gonzo Lewd that song is so awful though. Why would we force him to listen to it over and over?
Feels weird that Greenberg wasn’t able to transition to a new wave sound
Funkytown is primarily New Wave aside from the Nile Rodgers-sounding guitar riff in the chorus, so yeah, it's really weird that he couldn't figure out the 80s after that.
A song with this many hooks:
"Need You Tonight" by INXS
(Also a No. 1 hit)
Layla by Derek and the Dominos is another good Ohw
Agree. The problem is INXS isn't a one hit wonder
New Sensation too
"Call Me Maybe" would be another.
inxs arent one hit wonders though
Ever thought of doing a review of A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton or Sex and Candy by Marcy Playground?
I love both of those songs.
My dad's 60th birthday was earlier this year. The theme was "bring the funk" and he went ALL OUT. Rented out a local bar for a private party, had a DJ playing exclusively funk music.... when this song came on my father jumped on stage and told everybody that they HAD to get on the dance floor. Started yelling out individual names because he didn't see them in the crowd.
Everybody dances to Funkytown. That's just a rule or something.
An introvert making a song for extroverts.
Disco still survived in Europe well into the 80s, though it changed over time. It's mainly just in the US and the UK that it died a quick and painful death.
@@Tornado1994 And it slaps
Thriller is a disco song
Europeans call a different Disco than Americans. What Europeans call Disco is called Dance or Euro Dance or Euro Pop in the US. It's very 80s and 90s. What Americans call Disco is very funky and 70s. We call it Funk.
@@denisenova7494 Right, US disco was basically producers dropping a ton of strings on what otherwise would've been perfectly good Parliament/Funkadelic records. Euro disco in the 80s was much closer to synth pop.
Genius interpretation on the instrumentals: Basically the drums in a simple, though addictive beat. Disco was not known for elaborate instrumental solos and this one does nothing to change this
“Know if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to go beat my...”
Rod in the shadows.
~_~
That BGM transition from "Tragedy" to "Babe" at 6:06 is immaculate. You're a great editor, Mr. in the Shadows.
I'm still waiting for that "Return Of The Mack" OHW. It's like Snow's story except British and WAY more illegal stuff happened.
That song still slaps
your wish has been granted
@@SRLovesPandas1 Why thank you tinkle fairy.
Funkytown is one of those songs where you know exactly two lines an the chorus and then nobody ever knows how the rest goes
Wait, it has other lyrics?
I spent the whole summer of 1982 in Saltillo, Mexico, and I can attest to the fact that "Designer Music" was an absolute monster hit in Mexico. And I loved it. I also loved "Rock It". I loved both of them more than "Funkytown", which I always thought was pretty stupid.
Your effortless piano covers of the songs you talk about really adds a lot. Loads of people are critics, but I think the simple act of playing the tracks you talk about gives you a level of qualification others lack. Your editing is also great and I know the time that takes so, thanks.
His off the cuff anti-white comments are sublime also
@@guyincognito320 I guess it does come off as a bit up his ass, in hindsight... so to speak. I'm way more cynical now.
@@NewGoldStandard I see you've sprouted quite nicely
Towelie doing funky town is still my favorite thing about South Park.
A) shouts out to acknowledging the gay/latin roots of disco
B) I'm feeling like an episode on Junior Senior's "Move Your Feet" would be fun
Damn that song is too catchy
Speaking of 00s hits, why not Jerk It Out by Caesars?
An interesting train records would be Motley Crue’s self titled album after Vince Neil left. Documentaries and books love to forget this forgettable album
I've been requesting this too. I hope it happens
I actually like that album, I feel like it's their most mature album
Phill I’ll admit it’s not a good album, but it’s not a train record. Motley Crue is still up and kicking it off of multiple songs, while other train records are known for like two songs nowadays
Off topic but
GO GREEN GO WHITE!
is that some sort of ecological-white supremacist slogan?
Wait, so this is a *different* Steven Greenberg from the one who gave us Hanson and the Baha Men?
Well now I feel stupid.
I beleive that Skee-Lo's track "I Wish" deserves a spot on this show, deeply.
I’m here two years later and I am waiting just as much
rapper's delight definitely should be there
Get ready soon.
way to go, sir
Agreed, dude.
Okay, this may sound like bullshit, but I have a story to tell you.
So, my grandfather was a teacher at a Minneapolis school, and one of his students was one Cynthia Johnson. She (at the time) was the lead vocalist of Flyte Tyme (interestingly enough, Prince, who turned Flyte Tyme into The Time, used to attend my grandmother's gym class in high school), and she had met a guy named Steven Greenberg, who offered Johnson a chance to finally break into the limelight, having already written a few songs for her (Funkytown being one of them), and she jumped at the opportunity.
So she recorded the song, alongside several others, but when it was time for her to release her album, which was a year or two later, Greenberg decided to not credit her as the overall performer, only crediting her as the singer. Instead, he decided to completely make up a band called "Lipps Inc." and released the album as such, and to make matters worse, she wasn't even asked to appear in either of the existing videos. To this day, she still gets no royalty checks from it. Greenberg is the only one who does.
The lesson to be learned is this: There are people out there who want to take advantage of your talent, and to avoid another situation like Cynthia's, never accept a deal that seems too good to be true.
Oh man...if that's true (and I can easily believe it, tbh) that definitely puts Greenberg in a pretty heinous light. Was he afraid her being the voice, and therefore the face, of the track would eclipse him? Really shitty of him, either way. Guess we can take some solace in his lack of continued success, then. Not that it's any consolation for Johnson.
@@vaelethun The story tracks with a lot of the shady stuff that used to go down (and I guess it still goes down) with vocalists getting screwed in contracts.
And now, may I present you with the Todd in the Shadows motto: "sleep is for the weak!"
Hi Todd is it possible you could Cover The verve's Bittersweet Symphony for One Hit Wonderland I think it would be a Great Episode
That, and the unfortunate lawsuit.
But The Drugs Don't Work!
He tries not to get all the big ones covered at the same time. Guarantee years for certain ones.
@@knowyourroleboulevard7119 - I wonder if he'll ever do the Macarena then.
To this day, Designer Music still plays on Afternoon & Weekend radios here in the Philippines.
It's infectious enough for us, I guess.
Anong radio station? hahaha
@@rafaelsolano494 Hindi ko alam sa ibang stations, pero sa Star FM ay pinapatugtog siya.
Malcolm’s Dad, Hal, Walter White himself, brought me this into my childhood. Thank you Best Dad
The rollers routine
One Hit Wonderland: Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast At Tiffany's".
I mean, probably not gonna happen, but still.
He already talked about that in another video.
@@samanteater Which video?
@@chimblemasterofchimney4771 top 10 songs about mediocre romance
I want to see more Todd hatred or disappointment towards that song.
Still blows my mind that when I talk to people from out of state about the Minnesota music scene, the two names that always seem to come up are Prince.... and Lipps Inc.?? I mean, I'd like to think we're a pretty musically diverse area. The Replacements, Husker Du, Atmosphere, Lizzo, Soul Asylum, Doomtree, Low.... BOB DYLAN FOR CHRISTSAKE! But it always seems to come up.... "oh yeah, the Funky Town group"....
Robert Zimmerman was from Minnesota? Always thought he was a New Yorker!
@@darganx born in Duluth, raised in Hibbing, MN! Went to NY in 1961 I believe, and never looked back. Doesn't change what shaped him!
@@ThatGuysAlright indeed not, just obviously you think of Greenwich Village with Bob..
Fuck yeah, Husker Du.
@Is me ? born in Detroit, moved briefly to Houston, eventually moving to Minneapolis and settling there before starting her career! She calls herself minnesotan!
Well, this is a strange time to upload....but I imagine you had to get this off your chest or else that catchy as hell synth line would've kept you up all night.
When you were saying which countries "Designer Music" was popular in, I genuinely expected you to say Japan.
15:33 i recognize that sample being used in that dancing Polish cow meme.
THATS what it was. Thank you
thanks to the gore scene, this song will forever mean somehting different to me
Wdym
@@WhaleManMan not that i recommend you go looking for it, but it's a narco video where there's a guy with his faced flayed off, hands cut off, and they are sawing through his neck with a box cutter. and dude is alive through all of it, cause supposedly they inject him with synthetic adrenaline.
towards the end, funky town comes on in the background and one of the torturers is humming the song.
i mean, there's sweet child of mine playing too, but they hum funky town. 🤷♂️
pretty messed up, to say the least
imagine dying gruesomely and one of the last things you hear is funkytown playing in the background
@@charlessaints Very very messed up. I've seen people call it the worst gore video online and I'm inclined to agree. I think Ms. Pacman is only one arguably worse.
What's even more unsettling is the origin being cartels is just speculation. Nobody really knows for sure who the poor guy is or what he did.
I guess I should be thankful, then, that I don't explore the dark web O_O
Insomnia pays off!!!!
Helluva time to upload Todd
When I was like 13 or 14 I heard the Funky Town instrumental in a commercial and it drove me crazy for months because the internet was a lot smaller back then and you couldn't just google it as easily as you could now. I only figured it out a few months later because it was in the Shrek 2 soundtrack 😂
A new One Hit Wonderland for my Monday? Why, thanks Todd, old bean.
I was born in 1994, and I still loved this song as a kid. Having spent the last 10 or 11 years listening to mostly interchangeable pop-punk as my genre of choice, I still love this song. When I think of what could be considered as perfect songs, this is absolutely one of them. There isn't a wasted second in its entirety.
In the college basketball video game NCAA March Madness 2006 there is a cover of funky town performed by a marching band. Best song in the game.
Yeah, I was gonna say that "Designer Music" did become popular in Mexico to the point that a few years ago Mexican Rock band Molotov included it in their covers record simply because it was big when they were kids.
Towely: "wanna get high"
(Nonsensical beeping)
"That was the tune to funkytown"
Ratel.H Badger You’re a towel.
Todd: "You look at the charts in 1980 (...) and almost none of the songs has stood the test of time."
Call Me? Another Brick In The Wall? I'm Coming Out? Upside Down? Another One Bites The Dust? Crazy Little Thing Called Love? Cars? The Rose? Brass In The Pocket? Fame? All Out Of Love? Rock With You? Give Me The Night?
right?
Paulo Neto also I love Robbie Dupree’s Steal Away
Turn it on Again?
chances are with the way he phrased it those weren't the big hits of the year and became popular later. the charts are full of songs that just did not stick around
Brick house!
Adding to my last comments, I think that's why ppl are surprised that "cars"was a full 6 months before 1980 because it sounded way more 80s and yet 3040. Like what?
It doesn't help that it's on the year-end list for 1980 at #11: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1980
Also on that list with probably no business being counter as a 1980 song - Crazy Little Thing Called Love.
Whoa! That's crazy. I had to search that one up.
The video totally looks like an early low budget MTV video, it's crazy how ahead of its time it was. Too bad Todd has made so many videos on 80s new wave hits, it would get a bit repetitive to review that one hit wonder. Even if it's not technically an 80s hit.
@@timothy4097 yeah. I'm still waiting for him to do "too shy"
Video killed the radio star actually predicted the future. It was released in 1979, before mtv. I used to think it was written about mtv.
Cars came out in 79. New wave was hitting the charts at the same time disco was, probably not as massive but it was there.
Another good series might be songs that were ahead of their time or started new genres or movements whether they were well known at the time (I Feel Love, Rocket 88, Papa's Got a Brand New Bag) or not so much (Venus in Furs, Autobahn, Blitzkreig Bop)
Fantastic job with this one Todd! BTW, you mentioned how Funkytown was never on any of the “best of” lists, but it ranks #22 on my best of the 80’s playlist, and stands out like a sore thumb
I agree with the sentiment that it's catchy in the wrong ways, I could hear this song for 1 solid minute before wanting to move on, it's really memorable, but not anything I ever listen to willingly
So you listen to the song and about a minute in, you say "Gotta move on?" :D
You weren’t kidding when you said 1980 and 1981 might as well be the aborted remnants of some uncompleted decade. It always amazes me at how sudden disco collapsed.
Thriller has disco in it so
Strawberry Shortcake did put out the “Live” album from 1981, and it was her last gasp at a disco novelty album. Kinda like the way it did after “Disco Duck” in 1976.
I've seen a particularly disturbing cartel execution video with this song as the background music
I will always associate Funkytown with a man being skinned alive..😯🎵
Link??
Thank you for mentioning that. I can't muster the strength to listen to this without going into panic mode and reimagining that video...
I've heard about that one. I don't have the guts to even get past the thumbnail though
@@beatsbycossack never watch it. It is burned into my memory. It's literally given me a fear of Mexico
For the first fifteen years of my life I thought for sure that the lyrics were "taco body" instead of "talk about it".
I remember being really confused but too scared to ask what a taco body was
My Uncle was best friends with Steve. Quiet and nice guy. Saw him at my Uncle's birthday for years and other functions. My uncle played bass with him ocasionaly when they were young. Spoke to Steve on the phone for some advice when I was getting into music production (I ended working in tech) Sadly lost my Uncle to cancer. Last time I saw Steve was at my Uncle's funeral.
I'd make the argument that "groove is in the heart" was secretly the last disco song.
I refuse to call Never Gonna Give You Up anything but a disco song until the day I die....it's literally just a disco song, but digitally updated.
@@UBvtuber I will counter that, and shatter your mind. Rick Astley is the 80s version of Elvis Presley.
@@NemFX ...I can hear it tbh, maybe he should've did that "Feels like I'm in love" song instead of Kelly Marie to really bring us full circle.
@@UBvtuber Todd? Or Rick Astley? Cause that song would be a good crooner. Probably would come out like "I can't help falling in love with you"
@@NemFX Rick Astley
Me an Australian: Clicking this out solely for a 20 second at most reference to Pseudo Echo
Edit: Nice
Todd also briefly talked about it in his worst hit songs of 1987.
Don't you mean, "Noice"?
Disco is part of a cycle that we see over and over again in Popular Music.
1. An underground scene rises to prominence, usually with a breakout hit
2. People who weren't into scene originally get into it because it's cool
3. The scene has to make accommodations for the new fans and the sound gets diluted
4. The scene collapses in on itself from all the extra weight it is expected to carry
5. The original hardcore fans try to recapture the essence of the original scene, and end up creating new genres.
It's how Disco mutated into House and Techno.
Jungle exploded in the 90s, simmered down in the early 2000s and split into it's many sub-genres.
UK Garage split off into Grime and Dubstep, and Dubstep is currently going through the same process.
And something similar also happened with grunge.
15:32 holy shit, that’s “gdzie jest biały węgorz?” AKA the funny 3D cow song. I was not expecting that
Same! Polish Cow!
Correction: disco lived in the 80s as boogie and turned into the creation of house music
Have you ever done Teenage Dirtbag in this series?
He hasn't! I'm waiting for years!
Just happened to watch your 1987 video the other day so it is almost too good of a coincidence that you uploaded this. The song was fresh on my mind with curiosity over it's story.
ONE HIT WONDERLAND: Shooting Stars by Bag Raiders
Was that a hit on the charts? I know it wasn't on the 2009 or 2010 year end lists
It didn't even do that well on the Triple J hottest 100, let alone any mainstream charts.
The meme one hit wonderland requests will flood in one day.
Testekill, Unorthodox Individual www.billboard.com/music/bag-raiders
Also I just want to see someone acknowledging a Australian band that isn’t popular over seas (seriously there’s hundreds over here)
Layla by Derek and the Dominos ohw episode better happen.
Every single musical hook in this song has become a fundamental building block of every remix or mashup or dj set that has ever come since. It`s true what Todd pointed out about each instrument only getting one bit, and each one of those riffs has become idiomatic, even (dare I say it) ICONIC.
I say disco died around '83. Its death spiral definitely started in '79-80, but it held on for a few years until '83ish. Sure, there were no more No.1's, other than "Funkytown," but there were still plenty of disco hits, like "Take Your Time (Do It Right)," which is one of my personal favourites, "Celebration," and numerous others.
Agreed on Do it Right and Celebration. Celebration actually gets more play on wedding receptions than Funkytown, which is odd.
@@eyeheartsushi2212 I’m glad to hear it. I’ll take “Celebration” over “Funkytown” any day of the week!