I typically wax nostalgic in this weekly feature, spinning misty yarns about first encounters with certain songs or especially meaningful moments when a college radio favorite spoke to me most deeply. But I recognize that we’re living in an iTunes age, so when I wanted to find a song suitable for posting in conjunction with my trip to New Orleans, I went ahead and typed in the name of the city to the little search window shaped like a Mike and Ike in the upper right hand corner. It brought up several songs, many of which were fairly predictable. Even the relative obscurities were surprisingly still in print. But there, up at the top, was a highly unlikely candidate.

For those who don’t know, the Banana Splits were just plain bonkers. A quartet created for The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, it was a band of rock star animals who hung out together, kind of like The Monkees reconceived as theme park mascots.

When the show was on the air in the late nineteen-sixties, spin-off albums were released under the band’s name. Since they couldn’t fill two sides of vinyl with nothing but variations on the insanely catchy theme song, studio stalwarts were recruited to come up with a whole batch of songs, presumably without all that much oversight from the show’s producers. Otherwise, how does a song like “In New Orleans” wins up on something that’s ostensibly a kid’s record? The opening lines are “If you can’t find it in New Orleans/Well then it ain’t nowhere to be found” and then the song goes on to insist “Long-legged ladies/Yeah, we got ’em.” It hardly seems like the sort of song to comfortable precede a felty, bespectacled lion throwing to Hillbilly Bears cartoon.

I’ll give this to the Splits, though. If something can’t be found in New Orleans, it’s entirely accurate that it therefore ain’t nowhere to be found. I know everyone was just getting all whooped up about Bob Dylan’s seventieth birthday the otherday, but maybe it’s time we all give Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snork their due as truth-telling musical bards of their generation.

The Banana Splits, “In New Orleans”

(Disclaimer: I own no official Banana Splits recordings, so I’m not entirely sure how this landed in my iTunes library. I downloaded it somewhere in the Wild West of the Interweb to be sure, but where and when is a mystery to me. I’d like to credit the person who first uploaded it, but hopefully my continuation of spreading the good words about unlikely Banana Splits songs will be thanks enough. Also, I’m uncertain as to whether there’s even a clear picture as to who holds the rights to songs like this. Reading through articles on the music of the “band” is like trying to parse The Silmarillion after it’s been translated into Shyriiwook. It looks like some of the quasi-legitimate releases of the material have been unauthorized bootlegs, in part due to uncertainty over who can authorize them. Still, if anyone claiming due authority to request removal of this song contacts me with such a request, I’ll gladly and quickly comply. If an angry elephant with polka dot ears and white glasses shows up on my doorstep, that’s when I’ll know that I’m really in trouble. Or in some sort of chemical withdrawal.)