The Atrocious Music Collection: #37 in a series
Artist: Tony Burello (with Tom Murray)
Song Title: The Sound of Worms
Category: Novelty SongsYear: 1953
Cover art style: Wormy
Audio: The Sound of Worms
Acquisition: uncertain.
Front Cover: 
Back Cover: 
The Atrocious Music Collection has been primary located in three places, based on medium, as LPs, CDs, and cassettees generally don't work in the same kind of shelving. The Curator has one 45 record in the collection, but the Curator almost forgot about it, and for good reason. All of the Curator's 45s have been stored for decades in a very special 1970s-era receptacle designed for this purpose, a receptacle that looks like... well, it looks exactly like this:
It is amazing to think this thing has continued to move with the Curator over the years, but then again, what's one to do with a small collection of 45s, especially when one already has a place to put them, no matter how unsightly it might be. The 45s are not often given a chance to come out of this house they live in for good reason. 45s require extra steps to play, even if you do have a working turntable, and then extra attention as they end rather quickly compared to other mediums.
Inside this faux-denim treasure chest are bascially two kinds of 45s. First are the "normal' records. I am the proud owner of a few vintage singles with pictures on the covers - The Beatles Yellow Submarine/Eleanor Rigby from 1966, and Elvis' Return to Sender/Where Do You Come From from 1962 (released in association with the movie Girls, Girls, Girls - wonder what that movie's about?). The records themselves are in rough shape, alas, but the covers have done ok. There are also a number of other pop singles in the more ordinary sleeves - more Beatles, Smoke on the Water, Shake, Rattle and Roll, Jefferson Starship's Jane, etc.
Then there are a number of novelty records which somehow ended up here. They include Dickie Goodman's Mr. Jaws (mentioned elsewhere in connection with Run, Joey Run), Bobby Boris Picket's Monster Mash, The Royal Guadsmen's Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron, and both Star Wars singles from right after the original movie was released: the orchestral version of the theme (with the Cantina Band music on the B-side) and the groovy disco version of the main titles.
In the with novelty records are two special discs. One I'll just quickly mention as it is not really Atrocious: the See the pictures/Hear the record/Read the book disc for the Walt Disney Producitions' "The Story of Tron." If you are interested in this, you can find it easily, including on Amazon. It is rather awful, in that way that things corporations design for children can be, but that's just normal awfulness in my opinion.
The other disc is this one. Side B is the novelty number Walking on the Moon by Lucia Pamela - a number that was discussed in the Incredibly Strange Music II chapter as it shows up there.
That leaves The Sound of Worms, originally released in the 1950s as There's a New Sound. If you've not already listened to the song, I will warn you that the earworm (ha!) quotient is extremely high both because of the tune and because of the repetitions of said tune. The Sound of Worms is just a 24 second verse repeated five times with no changes except the pitch goes up a half-step each time. That alone would likely qualify this as Atriocious, but when we add in the odd novelty/nonsense lyrics about a new sound made by worms, and the attempt to depict that sound using what I assume was early studio tape techniques, it just ends up pinning the "Atriocious Meter" all the way to the right.
Wikipedia tells the tale that this song (and the original B-side Fish) was put out as a protest over a disc jockey calling another creation of Tony Burello and Tom Murray "one of the most horrible records he had ever heard." So, sort of a "hold my beer" kind of thing. Apparently demand for Worms/Fish took off, however, so I'd like to imagine the jokesters laughed all the way the bank.