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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The Gus Knorr Show – 11/29/12

    Hey everyone! Since Thanksgiving Break is now over, my last few weeks as an undergraduate student at Marquette University are underway, and that includes my last few weeks hosting The Gus Knorr Show. Fortunately, one of those very episodes will air tonight! With so many problems going on in both the world and America today, there are not many things that unite many people, though one exception is food. That’s right, tonight’s theme is all about food, where I’ll play songs that have a type of food in its title, or sing about food. (There won’t be any songs about buildings, however.) That and more will all be tonight on The Gus Knorr Show, Thursday night at 8:00 PM, only on Marquette Radio!

    • The first song tonight is an instrumental from the early 1960s by Booker T. and the M.G.s, the only such instrumental that will be played on The Gus Knorr Show tonight; it’s “Green Onions.”
    • Next is a Japanese-language song that was a number one single in America in 1963, called “Sukiyaki,” by Kyu Sakamoto. Despite the title, which refers to a Japanese type of soup, the lyrics actually talk about a man looking up and whistling.
    • The next few songs will all have one (or multiple) types of fruit in the titles, the first of which is the 1967 Pink Floyd single “Apples and Oranges.”
    • Next up is a song by an artist who I played on last week’s episode of The Gus Knorr Show, Harry Nilsson, from his awesomely-named 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson; it’s “Coconut.”
    • The next two songs on The Gus Knorr Show are ones with a place that contains the name of a particular fruit, the first of which is the Fats Domino hit, “Blueberry Hill.”
    • The second fruit/place name song after “Blueberry Hill” is “Strawberry Fields Forever” by The Beatles, referring to Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army home near Liverpool. It also has another food, (which, contrary to popular belief, does not refer to Mr. McCartney’s interment,) mentioned as its last words by John Lennon.
    • The next few songs all have the word “sugar” in the title, though not necessarily always referring to the food. The first of these is “Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones, which was once partially sung by an anthropomorphic mosquito in this Pepsi commercial from the ’90s.
    • The next song, even though it was sung by a fictional band consisting of characters from an animated TV show, was the number one year end single of 1969 in America; it’s The Archies, with “Sugar, Sugar.”
    • Next up is another hit single from around the same time, though by a real band from Canada, The Guess Who, with “No Sugar Tonight,” performed as a medley with “New Mother Nature.”
    • The next song is one of the best known songs by The Grateful Dead, which was later released as a single from a live recording at a concert in Europe in 1972, “Sugar Magnolia.”
    • One food which contains sugar as a key ingredient is candy, and one of the best known songs about candy is “The Candy Man,” known for its cover by Sammy Davis Jr., which also happens to be the next song on The Gus Knorr Show!
    • The next song is also about candy, and is one of several of tonight’s songs that I have played earlier this semester on The Gus Knorr Show. Still, it’s one of my favorite garage rock songs from the 1960s, “I Want Candy,” by The Strangeloves.
    • The Wesley Willis Song of the Week is next, and this week, it’s one of his best known songs, about a fast food restaurant in Chicago, and its overall lack of nutritious food items, “Rock N Roll McDonald’s.”
    • Do you need to go to sleep right now, but aren’t tired? Then dance around to the next song for five minutes, Louis Jordan’s “Saturday Night Fish Fry,” possibly his most upbeat jump blues song ever.
    • The next song is another oldie but a goodie, by country music legend Hank Williams, singing about many Cajun foods and culture, “Jambalaya (On the Bayou.)”
    • The final few songs on The Gus Knorr Show will all be novelty songs singing about food, the first one being the legendary song “On Top of Spaghetti,” by Tom Glazer and the Do-Re-Mi Children’s Chorus, which I remember singing at many Scout camps throughout my childhood.
    • The next song is another novelty song, though by the pioneering British skiffle musician Lonnie Donegan, performing one of his best known songs, “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor (On the Bedpost Overnight?)”
    • A show about food songs would not be complete without at least one song by “Weird Al” Yankovic, so here’s his first released single, originally recorded in a bathroom at his college, “My Bologna.”
    • The final song on The Gus Knorr Show will be another food song by Weird Al, which was his highest charting single for over twenty years; it’s “Eat It.”

    That’s it for The Gus Knorr Show tonight, but stay tuned next week Thursday for the 4th Annual Christmas Episode of The Gus Knorr Show, in which I play some of my favorite Christmas and holiday-related songs. It may also be the final episode of The Gus Knorr Show ever, so you won’t want to miss it! Hope you’re not too hungry, and thanks for listening!

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