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Subject: help..remember this song..interviewing King Kong..

Written By: Lynette on 10/21/2001 at 2:30 p.m.

Hello,
It is driving me crazy, I think it was 1978, the song is similar to Ray Stevens sound....the song is an interview, and the answers are bits of other songs, Kung Fu Fighting, rubberband man, writing something nasty on the wall, are the ones I can recall. Some reason King Kong and the empire state building pop into my mind. I have asked everyone and they look at me like I am insane, and if I cant get this I really will be crazy...LOL
Thank you for any help, even guess are more than I have now!!


Subject: "Kong" - DICKIE GOODMAN

Written By: 80smusicfreak on 10/21/2001 at 4:10 p.m.

: Hello,
: It is driving me crazy, I think it was 1978,
: the song is similar to Ray Stevens
: sound....the song is an interview, and the
: answers are bits of other songs, Kung Fu
: Fighting, rubberband man, writing something
: nasty on the wall, are the ones I can
: recall. Some reason King Kong and the empire
: state building pop into my mind. I have
: asked everyone and they look at me like I am
: insane, and if I cant get this I really will
: be crazy...LOL
: Thank you for any help, even guess are more
: than I have now!!

No, you're not insane - in fact, your memory serves you fairly well. The type of song you are describing (mostly dialogue interspersed w/ snippets of many different hit singles) is known in the music biz as a "break-in record". (Although primarily a novelty artist himself, Ray Stevens never recorded any break-in records, to the best of my knowledge.) They were most popular back in the late '50s and '60s, and quite a few artists had minor to moderate hits w/ them at that time. They were the first songs to use sampling, long before the birth of rap music. But by the '70s, their novelty had begun to wear off, but the originator and "king" of break-in records, Dickie Goodman, managed to survive...

Anyway, your "mystery song" is one of Dickie Goodman's classics, "Kong", which was a moderate hit here in the U.S. in the Winter of '77. Like most of Goodman's work, it was just a one-off single (i.e., there was no corresponding album). And unfortunately, the vinyl 45 is of course long out-of-print here in the U.S...

Goodman passed away in 1989 (committed suicide), but luckily his son, Jon, is keeping his father's music legacy alive. In 1997, Jon Goodman assembled a collection of all his father's hits (and more), and released them on CD for the first time ever. The CD is credited to Dickie Goodman & Friends, and is titled "Greatest Fables". And yes, it includes "Kong". I have the CD myself. (See link to this CD below on "amazon.com".) In 1999, Goodman's son released a second CD of his father's hits, "Greatest Fables, Vol. 2"...

Ironically, the end of "Kong" describes King Kong climbing the towers of the recently-destroyed World Trade Center in New York City (not the Empire State Building, as you indicated). The song does indeed include a sample of "The Rubberband Man" by the Spinners, but not Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting". Incidentally, "Kong" would prove to be Goodman's last charting hit. You probably remember him best for his big hit from the Fall of '75, "Mr. Jaws" (inspired by the movie "Jaws"), which you'll also get if you buy the first "Greatest Fables" CD...