Novelty songs have been around since the 1890s, but advances in recording technology made the genre come alive in the postwar years. Truth be told, their status as outsider music extends to Billboard, and while the very nature of the novelty song makes it a vehicle for a one-hit wonder, a few artists, like Allan Sherman, Stan Freberg, Ray Stevens, Jim Stafford, and “Weird” Al Yankovic, have managed to make long careers out of their musical comedy.
Now, one of the voices on FM country radio station KHLS Thunder Country 96.3, Jeff Widdicombe (On air from Monday through Friday 6pm to 12 midnight), has released “Your Burger King”.
In an age of sexy divas and autotuned dudes, it is good to know that someone in show business still thinks on their own and is not afraid to be himself. Although I was not familiar with Jeff Widdicombe or his music previously, I found “Your Burger King” to be a worthy novelty song indeed.
This new single sees Jeff dishing out a great country-based composition, a wonderfully rich vocal range with catchy hooks and melody. The song production is immaculate, while being mellow but very rhythmic too. He blends his voice with the grooviest, cleanest instrumentation ever. Notice how clear the vocals and instruments are. It’s nothing like the noisy, over-tracked modern country sound we’re normally used to.
Added to that, Jeff Widdicombe obviously throws in some sweet and sharp lyrics, with the usual play on words that fully merits the ‘novelty’ genre, and it comes through loud and clear! Jeff is an artist in the sense that he takes what we take for granted and makes something ironically poetic from it.
Let’s face it; there can be only three reasons why you wouldn’t love this guy, you have no sense of humor, you don’t like the sound of bluesy-country at all…or you’re just plain dead!
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