''National Lampoon Songbook'' was an American humorous

songbook A song book is a book containing lyrics for songs. Song books may be simple composition books or spiral-bound notebooks. Music publishers also produced printed editions for group singing. Such volumes were used in the United States by piano manu ...

which was issued in 1976. Although it appears to be a book in its own right, it was a "special issue" of ''National Lampoon'' magazine and as such it was only sold on

newsstands A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency (Australian English) or newsstand (American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of local ...

. People who had a subscription to the magazine would still have to buy these special issues; they were not included in the subscription. Many of the songs in the songbook were from the musical stage show, ''

Lemmings A lemming is a small rodent, usually found in or near the Arctic in tundra biomes. Lemmings form the subfamily Arvicolinae (also known as Microtinae) together with voles and muskrats, which form part of the superfamily Muroidea, which also include ...

''. A few other songs, including the whole musical "Moby!" were from ''

The National Lampoon Radio Hour ''The National Lampoon Radio Hour'' was a comedy radio show which was created, produced and written by staff from ''National Lampoon'' magazine. The show ran weekly, for a little over a year, from November 17, 1973 to December 28, 1974. Orig ...

''. Other songs were from the album '' Goodbye Pop''. There were also some visual print pieces (illustrations and photographs) included. The first piece in the songbook is ''

Deteriorata "Deteriorata" is a comedy record released as a single in 1972. It is a parody of Les Crane's 1971 spoken word recording of "Desiderata", the early 20th-century poem by Max Ehrmann. ("Desiderata" is Latin for "desired things"; "deteriorata" is a p ...

'', which was on the album ''

Radio Dinner ''Radio Dinner'' is the debut album by the creators of the American satirical magazine '' National Lampoon''. It was released on Blue Thumb Records in 1972 after RCA Records had declined to issue the record. The humor on the album is steeped in th ...

''. The musical arrangements were by Dan Fox. The songbook was edited by Sean Kelly. The cover illustrations was a drawing showing a number of musicians on stage and a row of the audience. The drawing was a group effort by cartoonists

Randall Enos Randall Enos (born January 30, 1936) is an American illustrator and cartoonist. Enos was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Throughout his career, which began in the 1960s, Enos has worked mostly in linocuts. Enos's work has appeared in the '' ...

Gahan Wilson Gahan Allen Wilson (February 18, 1930 – November 21, 2019) was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations. Biography Wilson was born in Evanston, Illinois, and was inspired by th ...

Bobby London Robert "Bobby" London (born June 29, 1950) is an American underground comix and mainstream comics artist. His style evokes the work of early American cartoonists like George Herriman and Elzie Crisler Segar. Biography As a child, London was "pen ...

, Jeff Jones,

Shary Flenniken Shary Flenniken (born 1950) is an American editor-writer-illustrator and underground cartoonist. After joining the burgeoning underground comics movement in the early 1970s, she became a prominent contributor to '' National Lampoon'' and was one ...

and

Charles Rodrigues Charles Rodrigues (September 29, 1926 – June 14, 2004) was an American cartoonist perhaps best known as a contributor to '' National Lampoon''. Rodrigues was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts; his father came from Madeira, Portugal and his mot ...

. The songbook was designed by the design studio Pellegrini, Kaestle & Gross, Inc.

Songs

# ''

'', a parody of ''

Desiderata "Desiderata" (Latin: "things desired") is an early 1920s prose poem by the American writer Max Ehrmann. Although he copyrighted it in 1927, he distributed copies of it without a required copyright notice during 1933 and , thereby forfeiting his ...

'' # ''Lemmings Lament'', a parody of

Woodstock (song) "Woodstock" is a popular song written by Joni Mitchell. Three versions of the song were released in the same year, 1970. Mitchell's own version was first performed live in 1969 and appeared in April 1970 on her album '' Ladies of the Canyon'' an ...

# ''Pizza Man'', a parody of 1950s death songs such as ''

Leader of the Pack "Leader of the Pack" is a song written by George "Shadow" Morton, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich. It was a number one pop hit in 1964 for the American girl group the Shangri-Las. The single is one of the group's best known songs as well as a ...

'' # ''Nirvana Banana'', a parody of

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

# ''Colorado'', A Parody of

John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singe ...

# ''Positively Wall Street'', a parody of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

# ''Pull the Tregroes'', a parody of

Joan Baez Joan Chandos Baez (; born January 9, 1941) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and activist. Her contemporary folk music often includes songs of protest and social justice. Baez has performed publicly for over 60 years, releasing more ...

# ''Papa was a Running-Dog Lackey of the Bourgeoisie'', a parody of

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

music # ''Highway Toes'', a parody of

James Taylor James Vernon Taylor (born March 12, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A six-time Grammy Award winner, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, havi ...

# ''Lonely at the Bottom'', a parody of

Joe Cocker John Robert "Joe" Cocker (20 May 1944 – 22 December 2014) was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements. Most of his best known singles were recordings of son ...

and

Leon Russell Leon Russell (born Claude Russell Bridges; April 2, 1942 – November 13, 2016) was an American musician and songwriter who was involved with numerous bestselling records during his 60-year career that spanned multiple genres, including rock and ...

# ''Megadeath'', a parody of

heavy metal (music) Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock and acid rock, heavy metal bands developed ...

# ''Overdose Heaven'' # ''Well-Intentioned Blues'', a parody of

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...

# ''Closet Queen'', a parody of a

lounge singer Lounge music is a type of easy listening music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It may be meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place, usually with a tranquil theme, such as a jungle, an island paradise or outer space. The rang ...

# ''The Ballad of K. C. River Rat'', a parody of a trucker song # ''Saint Leonard's Song'', a parody of

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...

# ''Mother Goose's Wine'' # ''Riding Out on a Rail'', parody of the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...

# ''Bleeding Heart'', A parody of

Cat Stevens Yusuf Islam (born Steven Demetre Georgiou; ), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf / Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later in ...

# ''Psychology Ptoday Blues'' (Every Day I Feel Depressed),

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

style # ''Methadone Maintenance Man'', A parody of

# ''Goodbye Pop'', a parody of

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

# ''Kung Fu Christmas'', A parody of disco ballad style # ''The B Side of Love'', a parody of country music # ''I'm a Woman'', a parody of ''

I am Woman "I Am Woman" is a song written by Australian musicians Helen Reddy and Ray Burton. Performed by Reddy, the first recording of "I Am Woman" appeared on her debut album ''I Don't Know How to Love Him'', released in May 1971, and was heard during ...

'' # ''Old Maid (Southern California Brings Me Down)'', a parody of

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

# ''Art Rock Suite'', a parody of mid-70s

Art rock Art rock is a subgenre of rock music that generally reflects a challenging or avant-garde approach to rock, or which makes use of modernist, experimental, or unconventional elements. Art rock aspires to elevate rock from entertainment to an art ...

# ''Down to Jamaica'', a

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

and Bob Dylan parody # ''Moby!'', the novel ''

Moby Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod'', for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant whit ...

'' as musical theatre ::* ''All Ashore'' ::* ''Call Me Ishmael'' ::* ''Seaman's Lexicon'' ::* ''The Unhappiest Man at Sea'' ::* ''The Present'' ::* ''You're Never Too Old to Love'' ::* ''All Hands on Me'' ::* ''Moby'' ::* ''You're Never Too Old to Love'' (reprise)

References

Contents list and more info at Mark's Very Large National Lampoon Site

Amazon listing

Songbook A song book is a book containing lyrics for songs. Song books may be simple composition books or spiral-bound notebooks. Music publishers also produced printed editions for group singing. Such volumes were used in the United States by piano manu ...

1976 books Song books {{Comedy-book-stub