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Unusual Answer Songs

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Ben Zonia
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Unusual Answer Songs

Post by Ben Zonia » Mon Sep 05, 2022 4:00 am

In 1963, Beach Boys father Murry Wilson goaded the group because they hadn't had a #1 hit yet, and East Coast rivals The Four Seasons had already racked up three #1s. So Mike Love wrote a "diss" song called "Surfers Rule" in which they referred to their rivals as "hodads", and mimicked the background vocals of "Walk Like A Man" at the end so that there was no doubt who they were referring to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XV6TR7YbGmM

Returning the favor later that same year, the Four Seasons recorded an answer song for the B side of "Dawn (Go Away)", the one and only Surfer/Tear Jerker song called "No Surfin' Today", in which a Surfer Girl drowns in an undertow while surfing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xRmb3wtbNA

Neither song was over the top, probably realizing that there was considerable fan overlap.


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tc
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Re: Unusual Answer Songs

Post by tc » Thu Sep 08, 2022 2:16 pm

Of course there's Skynyrd's response to Neil Young's "Southern Man" & "Southern Cross" with "Sweet Home Alabama." And I read that Carole King wrote "You've Got a Friend" in response to James Taylor's line "I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend" in "Fire and Rain."



matt1
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Re: Unusual Answer Songs

Post by matt1 » Fri Sep 09, 2022 1:04 am

Barry McGuire 1965 song "Eve Of Destruction" & then it was The Spokesmen "The Dawn Of Correction" (barely hit the Top 40 at #36 in 1966).



matt1
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Re: Unusual Answer Songs

Post by matt1 » Fri Sep 09, 2022 1:09 am

Also The Turtles also did "Eve Of Destruction" (from 1965 "It Ain't Me Babe") which hit The Billboard Hot 100 at # 100 (2 weeks) in June of 1970.



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