When Melanie's “Brand New Key” was released in 1971, some people were confused. What did the singer, who died Tuesday at age 76, mean when she sang about having a new pair of skates and someone else having a new key?
Melanie told an interviewer that she wrote the song in 15 minutes, after finishing a 27-day fast, and that it was intended to be cute. The folk singer said it had no deeper meaning, although many thought her funny lyrics about a key and a bicycle were actually about sex (“Don't go too fast, but I go pretty far”). It sounded strange, like a song out of time (Melanie said she intended it to evoke the 1930s) sung in what might now be called a warbling “indie girl voice.” And somehow it reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song has endured in pop culture, from a lip-sync battle between Jimmy Fallon and Melissa McCarthy to a post-apocalyptic DJ playing it incessantly on “Kids in the Hall.”
“Brand New Key” wasn't the first No. 1 song to stump listeners, and it wouldn't be the last.
Here are some of the strangest and, well, let's be honest, fun songs that topped the US Billboard chart over the years:
“Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” by Bryan Hyland
A woman scared and nervous about leaving a locker room and being seen in a tiny new bikini is the theme of this song that debuted in 1960 and was at number one for a week. The song may not have aged well, but it was re-popularized in a 2005 Yoplait Light commercial about a woman who, after eating yogurt for months, was finally able to wear her own yellow polka dot bikini.
“Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett
It wouldn't be Halloween season without this song, which hit No. 1 in 1962, playing everywhere from grocery stores to home speakers. Elvis Presley reportedly told a friend that he hated the song and thought it was the stupidest song he had ever heard, Bobby Pickett said in an interview with Billboard. In the song, Pickett sang about a monster in his laboratory who gets up and dances to “Monster Mash.”
“Fly Robin, Fly” by Silver Connection
This European disco song only has six words and spent three weeks at number one since its debut in 1975. Should we say more?
“Convoy” by CW McCall
A strange year, 1975. This song about a truck debuted then and spent a week at number 1. It's about, well, a convoy crossing the country and became an anthem for truckers (and, later, for Homer Simpson). “We have a big convoy,” the song says. “Isn't it a beautiful sight?”
“Disco Duck” by Rick Dees and his cast of idiots
This song actually includes the sound of ducks quacking in the background. It was at number one for four weeks in 1976 and the video features a dancing duck. “I was on the dance floor acting strange,” the lyrics go, “waving my arms I started clucking, look at me, I'm the disco duck.”
“Mickey” by Toni Basil
The song debuted in 1982 and spent a week at number one. The animated anthem, which appeared in the 2000 animated film “Bring it On,” is repetitive.
“I'm Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred
This worm, which debuted in December 1991, held the top spot for three weeks. The brothers who made up the English pop band sang about what they were too sexy for: T-shirts, Milan, New York, Japan, other people's bodies, cars, their hats, the list goes on. In the music video, the shirtless brothers dance on a catwalk while bikini-clad women take photos of them.
“Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)” by Los del Río
This song debuted on the chart in 1995 and spent 14 weeks at number one. The dance that accompanies this song is still fun to perform at weddings and other venues.
“Harlem Shake” by Baauer
This song from a Brooklyn-based electronic producer topped the chart in 2013, the same year Billboard added YouTube streaming data to its methodology. But two of the artists featured on the song, Héctor Delgado, a reggaeton artist, and Jayson Musson, a Philadelphia rapper, did not give Baauer permission to use their voices and snippets of his music.
“Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
The unusual collaboration between rapper Lil Nas X and country music star Billy Ray Cyrus debuted in 2019 and spent 19 weeks at number one. In July of that year, it became the longest-running number-one single in the 61-year history of Billboard's Hot 100 chart. The song sparked intense debate about what could be considered country music.
