"It's Good News Week" is a song and

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

by the British band

Hedgehoppers Anonymous Hedgehoppers Anonymous were a 1960s beat group from the United Kingdom. They formed in November 1963 as The Trendsetters, and became ''The Hedgehoppers'' the following year. Jonathan King took over their record production in 1965, and added ''Ano ...

. Written and produced by

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, ...

, it was first released in 1965.

Background and chart success

The song is a

protest song A protest song is a song that is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of ''topical'' songs (or songs connected to current events). It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre. Among social mov ...

that comments on the media's obsession with bad news. It reached #5 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

and stayed on the chart for 12 weeks. The group released four other tracks before breaking up. Lack of further chart activity leaves them labelled as

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

s. It was issued in the U.S. on Parrot, reaching #48 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. This song was used as the

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances ...

for ''

Good News Week ''Good News Week'' is an Australian satirical panel game show hosted by Paul McDermott that aired from 19 April 1996 to 27 May 2000, and 11 February 2008 to 28 April 2012. The show's initial run aired on ABC until being bought by Network Ten ...

'', a satirical news-based comedy quiz show on Australian television which ran from 1996 to 2000 and was revived in 2008. It was also used in the UK comedy series ''

Dead Man Weds ''Dead Man Weds'' is a six-part comedy series shown on ITV in Britain in January and early February 2005, and repeated on ITV2. The series was written by Dave Spikey, who played the part of Jerry St Clair Jerry may refer to: Animals * Je ...

'' in 2005. Two versions of the song were recorded. The original recording had the line "lots of blood in Asia now, they butchered off the sacred cow, they've got a lot to eat." At the insistence of the record company, that line was changed to "families shake the need for gold by stimulating birth control, we're wanting less to eat." The birth control version was released in the UK. The sacred cow version was released in the USA.

References

{{authority control 1965 songs 1965 singles Songs written by Jonathan King Protest songs Decca Records singles Parrot Records singles Songs about nuclear war and weapons Song recordings produced by Jonathan King