Good tune, shame about the lyrics

Here's an interesting thing.

Back in 1972, Italian pop singer Adriano Celentano released a catchy song with the tongue-twisting title of Prisencolinensinainciusol. What's unusual about the song is ... it's complete gibberish.

By the 1960s, Celentano was already one of the most popular musicians in Italy. All of his songs until 1972 were performed in his native tongue. But many songs were finding their way into the Italian charts that were sung in English by people like Elvis Presley and The Beatles. So Celentano devised a song that 'sounded' English even though all he does is make English-sounding noises. There are no actual words in the song at all. 

Celentano's intention with the song was not to create a humorous novelty song but to explore communication barriers. 'Ever since I started singing, I was very influenced by American music and everything Americans did,' he explained. 'So at a certain point, because I like American slang - which, for a singer, is much easier to sing than Italian - I thought that I would write a song which would only have as its theme the inability to communicate. And to do this, I had to write a song where the lyrics didn't mean anything.' 

Seeing this pop up on Youtube recently reminded me of that other great gibberish classic, Kenneth Williams' Crepe Suzeette. The difference here is that Williams uses real French phrases and cliches strung together to create a comic song that is completely nonsensical.

   

Another unusual gibberish song is Haru Mamburu by Russian band Nogu Svelo. The song was a hit in their home country in the 1990s because, just like Celentano did decades before, they used  English-sounding nonsense words.

    

Then there's Chacarron by El Chombo from 2006. It soon went viral for its hilariously garbled lyrics. Here’s a sample of the incoherent words: 

'Ihni binni dimi diniwiny anitaime / Ihni binni dimi dini uan mor taime / Or ihni binni diniwiny ani taime / O Ihni binni dini one mor taime.' 

Every so often an intelligible word is sung, like 'play' or 'flow',' but the vast majority of the song sounds like a very drunk man hilariously attempting to sing. 

The song was weirdly popular and there was even a push to get it to #1 on the UK Singles Chart (which failed - it peaked at #20). It also became a popular meme overlaid on a video of Adam West as Batman dancing.

   

And let's never forget Zabadak by Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Titch.

We should also give an honourable mention to Nirvana's Smells like Teen Spirit, Beck's Loser and The Beatles' I am the Walrus as they all contain completely opaque lyrics as, indeed, does much of Bob Dylan's output.