Song:Fish Heads
Album:Dr. Demento's 20th Anniversary Collection: The Greatest Novelty Records Of All Time
This goofy novelty song came along at the right time to become a sensation on the then fledgling MTV. They called themselves Art Et Atrie Barnes from Lumania. But they were actually childhood pals Bill Mumy (born Feb. 1, 1954 in San Gabriel, CA) and Robert Haimer (born Mar. 2, 1954 in Los Angeles). Mumy has been an actor since as a child he starred in the very popular TV series Lost In Space. He has acted in plenty of other things, has done a lot of voiceover work and is an accomplished musician. Mumy and Haimer would mess around with music and produce Super 8 short films. They started calling each other Art as a gag and Barnes came from a Bill Cosby comedy routine. They first surfaced as Barnes & Barnes in 1978 with a song called A Day In The Life Of Green Acres. What if the Green Acres theme was performed by The Beatles. Then they released Fish Heads independently. But when Dr. Demento started playing it on his radio show, Rhino Records picked it up for release. It never charted but the video was very popular on MTV. Actor Bill Paxton appeared in the video and directed it. They released other albums but nothing has had the lasting effect of Fish Heads. I'm not going to try to explain it but you can get it and plenty of other novelty songs on this Dr. Demento comp. Bill Mumy has continued to work as an actor including a regular role in the TV series Babylon 5. He also records contemporary blues CDs. Haimer hasn't been as successful but is still around milking the success of Fish Heads. Here's the video for Fish Heads by Barnes & Barnes.
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