Tom: Cher Lloyd has basically got a novelty song to number one. Well, I’ll tell you this, Tim: novelty songs used to be a lot better than her.
Tim: Certainly did. Top 10, that was, and I listened to that album in its entirety last weekend when I went to see Mummy and Daddy, along with The Smurfs Go Pop! Again and The Smurfs Hits 97. (Drew the line at their Christmas album, though.) Why? Well, why not. Annoyed the hell out of my parents, it really did.
Tom: Oh, bloody hell. I’d forgotten about that. Mind you, the original wasn’t much better.
Tim: Sorry, got a bit distracted there. What are we listening to?
Tim: Ooh, I’m properly smurfing that smurf.
Tom: February 1972, number 13 in the charts. It’s pre-Agadoo, pre-all those other summer hits; it’s a glam-rock band having a bit of fun with steel drums and limbo.
Tim: Yep, and there was me thinking we hadn’t had any key changes here for a while.
Tom: Four key changes. Four! If you’re not grinning at the last one, there’s something wrong with you.
Tim: The cynical part of me would say that that’s because they had absolutely no idea what else they could do with the song after ninety seconds; the other, and much larger, part of me will just enjoy them.