Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast. Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs. In this special one-off episode (whilst I get some new guests and material ready!) I'm joined by the author, podcaster and all-round bon ouef, Ben Baker, to discuss a record that he sent to me only a week ago. It's fair to say I've become a bit obsessed with it. It's late 1966 and songwriter and sometime crooner, Teddy Randazzo, has either made - or facilitated the making of - one side...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast. Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs. This episode marks one year of The Head Ballet's existence and what better way to celebrate than by exploring the band who gave the show its name and one member of that group in particular - the much loved and much missed Neil Innes. Joining Paul to talk about Neil and the Bonzos is Laura Grimshaw - producer for Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra and presenter/producer of Podcast Radio Hour....

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast. Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs. It's back to 1967 for this episode as my guest, Chris Shaw, of the amazing Beatles podcast I Am The EggPod, joins me to unravel the dark psychedelia and heart-rending tracks on Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's film tie-in single, Bedazzled and Love Me - songs that perhaps sum up as much about the performers as it does the characters in the film. If you're enjoying these shows a rating and...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast. Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs. Along for a nightmare-inducing ride into the world of Science Fiction prog epics is musician Ian Scanlon, of the band Model Village (whose new record World of Carp is available here). Ian has brought along the 1978 hit single for Jeff Wayne, featuring Justin Heyward on vocals, Forever Autumn and we talk all about the mental scars it and the album Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast. Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs. It's season two! How nice to be back. Episodes will be coming out as-and-when this time around, but thank you all for your support and encouragement with the show. To open our 2021 series, I'm joined by Catrin Lowe (Twitter) - a podcaster, playwright and pop enthusiast - to dig into the Number 25 hit for Sue Wilkinson in 1980 - You've Gotta Be A Hustler If You Wanna Get On. Watch the two...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.To round out the Christmas Novelty Offerings for this year, voice-actor, musician and impressionist Darrell Maclaine treats us to a No.2 hit from 1974 that's emerged from a burrow on Wimbledon Common and realised by producer/songwriter supremo Mike Batt - it's Wombling Merry Christmas!This will be the last episode until Season 2 comes along some time in the new year, so until then, thank...

CHRISTMAS CROSSOVER! Your usual novelty-song podcast host, Paul Abbott, joins his brother - Garry - for a crossover episode with his podcast, The Big Beatles Sort-Out. They've mashed up their podcasts to make one sparkling christmas bonus Beatles and novelty song bonanza! To kick-off, we apply Garry's personal Beatles scoring system to the only 'proper' Christmas song issued by The Beatles - 1967's Christmas Time (Is Here Again) - originally issued on the fan-club flexidisc for the year....

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Returning to the show, laden down with a bag full of Skaro™ Brand Plum Pudding, is Tim Worthington who is transporting us in his own personal TARDIS back to December of 1964 so we can get together and twist along to The Go-Go's novelty Christmas offering, I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek.Along the way we'll find out about the writer/producer Les Vandyke, the Oriole record label and...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.For this, the season one finale, actor Paul Putner has come along and brought the very first single released by Viz magazine on their Fulchester Records label - it's Bags of Fun With Buster. Paul tells us all about who Johnny Japes and his Jesticles really are and we discuss other Viz spin-offs, other puerile records and shares some insights from the creators of this magnificent 7" of...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.We just can't escape 1986! This time theatre reviewer, Shanine Salmon, has brought along a classic single from a TV soap star to kick off a discussion all about the who/how/why of those people who make the leap from the TV studio to the Recording Studio. P.S. Australians not included - they're too good at it!

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Our first ever guest, Ben Baker, is back to tell us all about this intriguing Canadian novelty charity single released by the North American Halloween Prevention Initiative, or NAHPI for short. Featuring some big music and showbiz names you might know and many you might not, there's lots to unpack about this seeming obscurity which has started to find a foothold on many halloween party...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.First up in our brace of Hallowe'en episodes is Jake Ward with Bob McFadden and Dor's 1959 song, The Mummy. Released on Brunswick in the US and on Coral in the UK, this record sees voice-actor McFadden team up with poet and songwriter Rod McKuen to produce something completely baffling, but very entertaining. No beatniks were harmed in the making of this record.

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Except they don't on this mini-episode... it's just me bringing you a mini stop-gap episode to help me get the show all lined up for next weekend when I'll be releasing two special HALLOWEEN episodes for you to enjoy. However, I thought I'd take this time to indulge a passion of mine and give you a bit of a Beatles-y episode with a look at their most high-profile novelty number, Yellow...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.In this episode Paul welcomes internet purveyor of comedy and novelty record content extraordinaire, the pseudonymously enigmatic Dame Agnes Guano! Using Charlie Drake's records SPLISH SPLASH and MR CUSTER, they discuss the very nature of comedy vs novelty and get to chatting about the types of people who didn't make records in the 50s and 60s. This is an interesting chat with a dedicated...

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Joining Paul after 4 million years of slumber is podcaster Phil Catterall who has brought along Stan Bush's 1986 The Transformers: The Movie soundtrack single The Touch and some other associated transforming robot music! We also look into a couple of 1960s tributes to our mechanical friends as well.

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Today, we're off back to 1986 and a smokey club in Romford, as Denise Courcoux joins Paul to tell us all about the Snooker Players looking to take the pop world by storm - and who better to guide their musical journey than Rockney superstars, Chas and Dave? It's Snooker Loopy! 

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.In this episode James Errington from the Centuries of Sound podcast brings along one of the most famous novelty songs of all time - Charles Penrose's The Laughing Policeman. We explore the legacy and impact of this well-known number and we travel further back in time to work out its origins than you might expect!

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs. This episode sees podcaster and musician, Garreth Hirrons, launch a full-scale investigation into not only Bart Simpson's 'follow-up' single Deep, Deep Trouble but also the world of songs released by other animated characters over the years. Did you know Hanna-Barbera had a record label? Drop us a line on our Twitter or Instagram if you've got any cartoon classic favourites.

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.It's back to the 1980s with journalist and host of the Zeitgeist Tapes Podcast, Emma Burnell. Emma has brought along Stan Ridgway's 1986 hit, Camouflage, for us to discuss. We try and figure out why such a song would have made no.4 in the UK charts and also explore the top ten for the week it did and we also look at some possible influences on the tune.

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Comedian, Writer and one half of the awesome band Eureka California, Jake Ward, tells us all about growing up with Country music and the comedy stylings of Roger Miller as epitomised in his 1966 single, You Can't Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd.

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Host of the Looks Unfamiliar podcast, Tim Worthington, stretches our show's format to near breaking point by selecting a single from the actor/singer/storyteller Bernard Cribbins which didn't technically get released - Ringing On The Engine Bell.

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Morgan Brown brings along a childhood folk favourite, Tom Paxton's The Marvelous Toy, and we delve into cover versions which leads us to Peter, Paul & Mary's I Dig Rock And Roll Music.

Welcome to the Head Ballet Podcast! In this episode, Dr Freya Jarman brings along Netta's 2018 Eurovision winning song, Toy.We discuss Eurovision history, the politics of hosting, some classic Eurovision winners and losers, cultural appropriation and more besides. If you enjoy this, please share, review & rate.

Welcome to The Head Ballet podcast! Paul Abbott invites guests to discuss their favourite novelty songs.Rob Charnock joins us to discuss the theme to Grandstand (1976) and George Harrison's Faster (1979) as well as ten other very silly records that helped to inspire this show.