Embed and breakfast man: Dance The Slurp

Mention of 7-11 makes the sharing of this mandatory, I think. A novelty single that is so shameful, there's not even a made-up band name on the label:

A day we never thought we'd see

Who would have ever expected Smokie And Roy "Chubby" Brown's terrible novelty hit to be inspiring headlines in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung half a decade later?

Folkobit: Fred Wedlock

And there you go: Fred Wedlock, singer of The Oldest Swinger In Town, has died.

Fred started singing to the customers of the pub he was born in - earning sixpence at the age of four, according to his official site. Like Jasper Carrott and Billy Connolly, he built his skills by working the circuit of folk clubs, and earned his wider fame thanks to his sharp wit.

Having had something of a portmanteau career, Wedlock tried proper jobs - teaching, most notably - and assembled a three-decade span of doing this and that. He even spent a spell as HTV's answer to David Dickinson, presenting a series of Bargain Hunters.

Fred, who was 67, had been suffering from pneumonia and died yesterday after a heart attack.

Actorobit: Ian Carmichael

Sad to hear of the death of Ian Carmichael, which is being reported by the BBC. Although best-known as an actor - he's probably the best screen Peter Wimsey - he had a small side concern going knocking out records in the mid-1960s. Most notably, he reunited with his television Butler Dennis Price to record a Jeeves And Wooster single, What Would I Do Without Jeeves for HMV in 1966.

As far as I can tell, his last released record was on Noel Edmond's Listen With Mother collection for BBC Records And Tapes. Although that was reading (The Cat Who Wanted To Sing Carols) rather than actually singing.

Croonobit: Renato Pagliari

No, no; you're thinking of Joe Dolce. Renato Pagliari was one half of Renee and Renato, who had a Christmas number one in 1982 with Save Your Love.

The most fascinating part of the story is that the writer of the song, Johnny Edward, spotted Renato on New Faces in 1975. "He'd be perfect for singing this" thought Johnny. It took seven years, then, for the partnership to come to fruition.

There was never a follow-up hit, but Renato kept singing. Lately, at his son's restaurant, which is also called Renato's.

Singerobit: Lita Roza

Lita Roza - the first Liverpudlian, and first female singer, to have a number one single - has died.

Roza's number one was a novelty single - How Much Is That Doggy In The Window? - and, like many who find fame with a novelty hit, it dogged her (no pun intended) for the rest of her days:

"I sang it once - just one take - and vowed I would never sing it again. It just wasn't my style."

Rosa was much more than that single. She won Top British Female Singer in the NME readers' polls every year between 1951 and 1955, and sang with many of the great dance bands, including Harry Roy's and Ted Heath's.

She was a GI Bride, quitting Liverpool at the end of World War Two for Miami; the marriage didn't last and it was on returning to Liverpool that she took up professional singing seriously - out of need as much as artistic desire.

Lita worked round the planet - TV work in New Zealand; Singapore to entertain the troops; South Africa supporting Matt Monro. She even briefly had her own series, Lita Roza sings, on ITV in the mid 1950s. In 1981, a comeback tour with the Ted Heath band was to continue for nineteen years. A 2002 performance for Radio Merseyside's birthday was enough, Lita decided. At the age of 78, she had no desire to continue treading the boards, and withdrew from showbiz.

Roza died on the 14th August.

Too grand for bandstand: The Wurzels walk

The Wurzels have taken the hump and pulled out of Glastonbury. They were unhappy at being shoved on the bandstand stage.

But it's not just they feel their dignity has been impugned; they're more upset they can't use their own sound engineers.

That, and that their dignity has been impugned:

"We would have loved to play but we don't feel it's right," said Tommy Banner from the band.

"Other novelty acts like Rolf Harris have been on better stages and we think we deserve it," added Pete Budd.

Although, to be fair, Rolf Harris is regularly on TV and - when he played - hadn't long since had a big hit with his cover of Stairway to Heaven whereas for all the goodwill towards the Wurzels, it is a while since they were at their peak.

Mind you, they're going to be fuming when they discover the Black Abbots are headlining the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday.

Noveltyobit: Bobby Pickett

Best known for the novelty hit The Monster Mash, Bobby 'Boris' Pickett is now making a graveyard smash of his own. He's died at the age of 69.

A childhood watching horror movies at his father's cinema led Robert Pickett to develop a passable impression of Boris Karloff. This provided a useful stand-by when Pickett entered showbusiness - it brightened nightclub performances by his band the Cordials, with Pickett slipping in a bit of Boris to enliven the spoken stretches of their covers of 50s standards.

Fellow Cordial Lenny Capizzi was Dr Frankenstein to Pickett's Monster Mash, badgering Bobby to turn the mid-set gag into a single. Bobby remembers Lenny's suggestion:

"You know, we ought to do a novelty record with that voice. Take it to Gary Paxton, who sang 'Alley Oop,' he'll produce it, and, you know, it could be a hit. You never know!"

When Bobby finally agreed, the track came swiftly - half hour to write, two hours to record - although finding a label proved more tricky. The labels which turned it down must sometimes rue their decision, as the song not only hit the charts three times (it took just eight weeks from conception to top the charts), but has sold four million copies and become what Variety describes as a "Christmas carol for Halloween". Pickett was happy enough to be associated with the song, happily turning out to perform it right up until November last year.

NASA use the Monster Mash to wake up astronauts in space on October 31st; there was a less-memorable follow up (Monster's Holiday) and a non-monster related single, Graduation Day.

Pickett died from leukemia; he is survived by his daughter.

We can't help you

We don't have any MP3s to download, much less Liam Lynch MP3s. If you're really that desperate, popEx >> PopEx has a sample of the song in Real Audio.

Or you could try listening to 6Music, they seem to be playing it every ten minutes.

By the way: the novelty wears off on the sixth hearing.