1. “Barney Google,” by Billy Rose and Con Conrad. A massive hit tune in the 1920s, but the Barney Google comic strip was even bigger. Why Mr. Google (with the goo-goo-googly eyes) was pushed from the still-running strip in favor of hillbilly Snuffy Smith is beyond me. The reprints of old Barney Google strips currently appearing on the Daily Ink cartoon site show the beginning the end, with Snuffy and his son Jughaid beginning to dominate Barney’s realm.
But Snuffy Smith has never had a hit song. There was even a sequel to the Barney Google tune, “Come on Spark Plug.”
2. An 1885 poem by James Whitcomb Riley, “Little Orphant Annie,” inspired the name of the character in Harold Gray’s comic strip, which is turn led to a popular song with a foxtrot beat which used the creepy Riley poem for lyrics. The Annie strip endured until just last year, and would have died much sooner if not for the success of the Broadway musical Annie, which is of course what comes up if you Google “Little Ophan Annie song” these days.
3. “Skippy,” Percy L. Crosby’s enlightened scamp, had a song named for his in 1931, just a few years after the character debuted. Poetic and realistic and philosophical and messy-kid funny, Skippy’s is unsung today, but was one of the biggest strips of its time, and an influence on every kid-based strip which followed it.
4. “The Funnies” by Irving Berlin:
Sunday is Sunday to my family
But Sunday is not simply Sunday for me
For Sunday’s the one day when I love to see the funnies
Breakfast is nothing of which you can boast
But breakfast to me isn’t coffee and toast
It’s coffee and toast and what I love the most, the funnies
Oh, I love the funnies
I couldn’t go without the funnies
A cup o’ coffee to my lips and in between the sips
The papers with the capers that are in the comic strips
Which means I’m simply mad about
I mean I couldn’t do without the funnies
Oh, in my pajamas
I love to read the “Katzenjammers”
A little coffee in a cup and “Bringing Father Up”
I’m dippy over “Skippy” and his little yellow pup
Which means I’m simply mad about
I mean I couldn’t do without the funnies
I’m not concerned with the news of the day
The stories of who murdered who
And for the columns what they have to say
I have no need of
I don’t want to read of
The guys and all their honeys
The wealthy daughters or the sonnies
The news about the lovely trips that people take in ships
I’d rather read about the people in the comic strips
Which means I’m simply mad about
I mean I couldn’t do without the funnies
5. “I’m the Guy”: “ravings by Rube Goldberg” and “Bert Grant” (1912). The song on this list which is truest to its origins, since the panel cartoon’s creator Rube Goldberg wrote the lyrics. “I’m the Guy”’ is a framework that allows for a multitude of jokes, and works on many levels. There’s the concept of cockiness, taking credit for grand jobs one doesn’t do (“I’m the guy who put the salt in the ocean”). There’s the absurd aspect (“I’m the guy who puts the holes in doughnuts”). There’s the all-things-in their place sense of order (“I’m the guy who puts the humps on camels”). In the strip (and on the popular cigarette-pin series it spawned), these proclamations of identity are parceled out one at a time, and ascribed to many different characters. In the song, it’s a long bout of braggadocio encompassing three verses and dozens of alleged accomplishments.