| "There's a New Sound" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Tony Burrello | |
| B-side | "Fish" |
| Released | 1953 |
| Genre | Novelty |
| Length | 2:30 |
| Label | Horrible |
| Songwriter(s) | Tony Burrello, Tom Murray |
| B-side | |
 Original release, Horrible, H 100 | |
"There's a New Sound" is a 1953 novelty song by Tony Burrello, written by Burrello and Tom Murray. [1]
Burrello, a songwriter and jazz pianist better known as Tony Tamburello, [2] and Murray started writing novelty songs after they were unsuccessful in having their more serious material recorded by prominent musicians. [1] They noted the success of music that was seemingly intentionally bad, after hearing a disc jockey play Harry Stewart's version of "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" sung in a faux-Japanese accent. According to Murray, the disc jockey said that the record was a hit but also "one of the most horrible records he had ever heard". [3]
Burrello and Murray responded by creating the songs "There's a New Sound", performed by Burello, and "Fish", sung by Leona Anderson, which they released as a single. "There's a New Sound" consists of a single chorus repeated five times, each time in a higher key, with calliope accompaniment. [4] The lyrics describe "the strangest sound that you have ever heard", which turns out to be "the sound that's made by worms". [1] Burrello was credited as the artist on the single, [5] which was released on Burrello and Murray's own record label, Horrible, [4] as catalog numbers H 100 (ten-inch 78 rpm format) and H 100-X45 (seven-inch 45 rpm format). [5] The single was Horrible's only release.
When Billboard magazine reviewed the single, it commented: "A weird one. 'The new sound is the sound made by worms.' Strange sound effects go with nonsense lyric. It's a studied attempt to be as screwy as possible." [5] For the flip side, "Fish", Billboard′s review was "Same comment". [5]
Burrello and Murray originally had only 500 copies of "There's a New Sound"/"Fish" issued to be sent to disc jockeys. [4] However, within two weeks, they received orders for more than 100,000 copies of the single. [4]
Soon afterward, Burrello and Murray were called upon to write a song for Brucie Weil, who was then 6 years old. [6] The song they wrote for Weil, "God Bless Us All", reached #18 on the Billboard singles chart. [7] [8] Burrello and Murray were soon called upon to write music for other artists, including a theme song for John Conte and special material for Tony Bennett. [9]
Anderson went on to exploit her newfound fame as a "horrible" musician by making appearances on The Ernie Kovacs Show and signing with Columbia Records for two more singles. [10] In 1957, for Unique Records, Anderson released a full-length album, Music to Suffer By, in the same mock-operatic style she used for "Fish." [10] [11]
"There's a New Sound" was later featured often on the Dr. Demento show [12] [13] and performed by Scooter on The Muppet Show .
