The FT Top 100 Songs of All Time #3: Shaggy – Boombastic
katstevens • FT • top 100 songs of all time • 1 comment • 1,502 views
Its usage in the pinnacle of BBC light entertainment aside – what a record this is! The drum intro is played on the side of a rusty water tank. The noisy brass squawks like Pingu angrily trying to shoo geese off his lawn. The piano is straight out of a Chas'n'Dave pub knees-up, and the end of each chorus line is punctuated by Cher Lloyd's grandma (subs check this) going 'Ugh!' All Shaggy himself needs to do is drawl along for the ride: sleazy, cheesy – easy peasy!
Damsel-rescue FAIL
The Levi's advert that propelled this to #1 has stuck in the memory for many: our hero takes on Pingu's claymation form, effortlessly pulling motorbike stunts to save the damsel in distress from a burning building. The animated city itself has a similar feel to the spoof-robot-noir of Dick Spanner, as does our greaser's chiseled chin.
She say I'm Mr Rrrrro…
Even the visual jokes are there: the roast pigeons coming back to roost on the telegraph line are exactly as subtle than the giant illuminated "SAVE ELECTRICITY" sign in Spanner's metropolis. The advert is only a minute long, but still manages to cram in a number of other gags that would have been edited out of Police Squad for being too obvious – a firehose full of holes, a firefighter toasting a sausage on the flames, an oblivious nose-picking kid as one of the bystanders (which incldes someone wearing a Santa outfit for some reason?) and of course, finishing on a toilet joke.
The official video unfortunately contains none of these elements. Hence this can only be the third best song of all time! I wonder what could be at top spot?
This article is part of the series Freaky Triggers Top 100 Songs of All Time
Tommy Mack † on 11 Jul 2014 #
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I like trashy telly. So far I have written four songs for my Hollyoaks musical, despite having gone off Hollyoaks.
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