\n<\/p>\n
When Melanie\u2019s \u201cBrand New Key\u201d<\/a> debuted in 1971, some people were confused. What did the singer, who died on Tuesday at 76<\/a>, mean when she sang about having a brand-new pair of roller skates and someone else having a brand-new key?<\/p>\n Melanie told one interviewer<\/a> that she wrote the song in 15 minutes, after ending a 27-day fas<\/a>t, and that it was intended to be cute. The folk singer said that it did not have a deeper meaning, though many thought its playful lyrics about biking and roller skating were really about sex (\u201cDon\u2019t go too fast but I go pretty far\u201d). It sounded strange, like a song out of time \u2014 Melanie said she intended it to hearken to the 1930s \u2014 sung with what could now be called a warbling \u201cindie girl voice.\u201d<\/a> And it somehow hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The song has lingered in pop culture, from a lip sync battle<\/a> between Jimmy Fallon and Melissa McCarthy to a post-apocalyptic DJ playing it endlessly<\/a> on \u201cKids in the Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBrand New Key\u201d wasn\u2019t the first No. 1 song to perplex listeners, and it wouldn\u2019t be the last.<\/p>\n Here are some of the strangest, and well, actually, let\u2019s be honest, fun songs to top the U.S. Billboard chart over the years:<\/p>\n A woman afraid and nervous to leave a locker room and be seen in a brand-new tiny bikini is the subject of this song that debuted in 1960 and was in the top spot for one<\/a> week. The song might not have aged well, but it was repopularized in a Yoplait Light commercial in 2005<\/a> about a woman who, after eating the yogurt for months, was finally able to wear her own yellow polka dot bikini.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n It wouldn\u2019t be Halloween time without this song, which reached the top spot in 1962<\/a>, sounding everywhere from grocery stores to home speakers. Elvis Presley reportedly told one friend that he hated the song and thought it was the stupidest he\u2019d ever heard, Bobby Pickett said in an interview with Billboard<\/a>. In the track, Pickett sang about a monster in his lab rising and dancing the \u201cMonster Mash.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This European disco song only has six words and spent three weeks<\/a> in the top spot after it debuted in 1975. Must we say more?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n A weird year, 1975. This song about a truck debuted then and spent one week<\/a> at No. 1. It is about, well, a convoy crossing the country and became an anthem for truckers (and, later, Homer Simpson<\/a>). \u201cWe got a great big convoy,\u201d the song goes. \u201cAin\u2019t she a beautiful sight?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This song actually includes the sound of ducks quacking in the background. It was in the top spot for four weeks<\/a> in 1976 and the video features a dancing duck. \u201cI was on the dance floor acting strange,\u201d the lyrics go, \u201cflapping my arms I began to cluck, look at me, I\u2019m the disco duck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The song debuted in 1982 and spent one week<\/a> in the top spot. The cheer anthem, which was featured in the 2000 cheer movie \u201cBring it On,\u201d is repetitive. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This earworm, which debuted in December, 1991, held the top spot<\/a> for three weeks. The brothers who made up the English pop band sang about what they were too sexy for: shirts, Milan, New York, Japan, other people\u2019s bodies, cars, their hats, the list goes on. In the music video, the shirtless brothers dance on a catwalk while women in bikinis snap photos of them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This song debuted on the chart<\/a> in 1995 and spent 14 weeks at the top spot. The dance that accompanies this song is still fun to perform at weddings and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This song by a Brooklyn-based electronic producer topped the chart in 2013 the same year Billboard added<\/a> YouTube streaming data to its methodology. But two of the artists featured on the song \u2014 Hector Delgado, a reggaet\u00f3n artist, and Jayson Musson, a rapper from Philadelphia \u2014 didn\u2019t give Baauer permission<\/a> to use their voices and snippets of their music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The unusual collaboration between the rapper Lil Nas X and country music star Billy Ray Cyrus debuted in 2019 and spent 19 weeks<\/a> in the No. 1 spot. In July of that year, it became the longest-running No. 1 single<\/a> in the 61-year history of Billboard\u2019s Hot 100 chart. The song sparked intense debate over what could be considered country music<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cItsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini\u201d by Bryan Hyland<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cMonster Mash\u201d by Bobby \u201cBoris\u201d Pickett<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cFly Robin Fly\u201d by Silver Connection<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cConvoy\u201d by C.W. McCall<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cDisco Duck\u201d by Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cMickey\u201d by Toni Basil<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cI\u2019m Too Sexy\u201d by Right Said Fred<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cMacarena (Bayside Boys Mix)\u201d by Los del Rio<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cHarlem Shake\u201d by Baauer<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u201cOld Town Road\u201d by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus<\/span><\/h3>\n