TWEET - Today's Wondrous Embedded Earworm Tune 🐥

OMC - How Bizarre

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

A little birdie told me that I will build a bigger, more dedicated readership if I keep to a set group of post formats. If it’s clear which type of post is coming by the title. Perhaps use acronyms.

I tried to do that with the semi-weekly COW (Community of Wormheads) newsletters a few months ago. But then I co-opted that acronym (cow-opted perhaps) for the monthly ReCOWmendations.

So I decided to return to the shorter length earworm format, where I mention a song that has roosted in my head that week but without some lengthy personal essay attached.

Thus: TWEET! Today’s Wondrous Embedded Earworm Tune!

My hope is that you, dear reader, will be inspired to share a song or two that has been stuck in your brain recently in the comments. But before I get to the song, a poll.

Considering Adding Chat

I’m wanting to know if any of you would participate in a discussion on music separate from the Earworm posts? Substack offers “Chat” which used to be only accessible through the Substack app (which I do recommend using for reading Substack posts on a mobile device), but now can also be accessed on a web browser too.

My guess is that it’s easier to just click the “comment” button for most of you and reply that way. But the bonus of “chat” is that it’s not post-dependent. And any of you can start a thread as well.

Here’s a link that explains more: https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/8479685616532-How-can-I-participate-in-a-Chat-

HOWARD’S BAZAAR

This 1996 one-hit wonder from New Zealand band OMC is undeniably catchy and summery. Just the song to give me hope that this extended winter might one day come to an end. Thanks to SiriusXM channel “The Spectrum” for this earworm.

I don’t think I’d heard it since it was a regular radio staple 27 years ago, yet all the lyrics came flowing out as if I’d been singing it every day. That’s how these types of songs are, I suppose.

How bizarre, indeed.

Here’s some Wiki info about OMC and “How Bizarre” for your edification:

OMC, or Otara Millionaires Club, were a New Zealand music group, then duo, with vocalist Pauly Fuemana later becoming the sole member.^[1] OMC was best known for the 1995 hit "How Bizarre", named one of the greatest New Zealander songs of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association. The full name of the band is a tongue-in-cheek reference to Otara's status as one of the poorest suburbs of Auckland.

How Bizarre (1995–1997)

Signed to Simon Grigg's Huh! label, OMC released the single "How Bizarre" in New Zealand in late 1995. It was an immediate smash hit even without a video, reaching number one in early 1996 and staying there for three weeks. It sold over 35,000 copies.

The same year, "How Bizarre" went to number one in Australia for five weeks, sold over 150,000 singles, and was certified as a platinum single. Later in the year the single went to number 5 in the UK Singles Chart^[6] and number one in countries across Europe and much of the rest of the world.

In the United States, "How Bizarre" spent 32 weeks on Billboard's Mainstream Top 40 chart, peaking at number one in August 1997 due to the large amount of radio play it received. This made OMC the first New Zealand artist to reach the number one spot on a Billboard chart.^[7] The song never charted on the regular Billboard Hot 100 as it was not released as a commercially available single in the US, which was a chart-eligibility requirement at the time. It also became a BMI-certified "million airplay" song two years in a row.

In 1996, OMC's debut album, also entitled How Bizarre, was released.^[6] The album sold in the United States in excess of a million copies, and charted in many other countries. Between 1995 and 2000, world-wide OMC sales are estimated at between three and four million records.

Death of Pauly and Phil

Phil died in 2005 of a heart attack.^[9]

On 31 January 2010, Pauly Fuemana died at North Shore Hospital in Auckland after suffering for several years from a chronic degenerative disease, progressive demyelinating polyneuropathy, an auto-immune disorder similar to the nerve disease multiple sclerosis. He was 40 years old, and was survived by his wife and six children. In February 2010, "How Bizarre" briefly reentered the charts in New Zealand following news of Pauly Fuemana's death.^[10][11][12]

What song or songs have been gnawing at your brain this week? The more “bizarre” the better, but mundane is just as good!

Do you remember this song? What associations of it do you have?

And what do you think about this new TWEET format for E&SL posts?

Until we meet again,

Steve