"Fish Heads" is a novelty song by comedy rock duo Barnes & Barnes, featured on their 1980 album Voobaha. It has often been played on the Dr. Demento show, and is the most honored song in Demento show history.
The song is about fish heads and all the things they can (or, more often, cannot) do, such as playing baseball, wearing sweaters, dancing, playing drums, or being seen "drinking cappuccinos in Italian restaurants with Oriental women." It is accompanied by a high-pitched chorus, achieved by speeding up the tape, which repeats the original's chorus: "Fish heads! Fish heads! Roly poly fish heads! Fish heads! Fish heads! Eat them up! Yum!".
Actor Bill Paxton, a filmmaker at the time, directed and appeared in the music video for the song, along with cinematographer Rocky Schenck and Robert Haimer's girlfriend at the time, Joan Farber, who designed the costume look. The video aired on NBC television on Saturday Night Live, on December 6, 1980 and the following week. Dr. Demento had a cameo as the bum.
The song is featured in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror VII." Alan Arkin sings the song in the movie Indian Summer, which also starred Bill Paxton.
Covers
- Wild Man Fischer released a cover of "Fish Heads" on his album Pronounced Normal.
- Eagle-Eye Cherry released a cover of "Fish Heads" as a Desireless B-side.
- Buck 65 recorded a cover of "Fish Heads" set to the music of Wire's "Three Girl Rhumba". The cover appears on a 2007, tour-only CD-R titled, Heck.
References
