Friday, November 27, 2009

EWWWW: REAL LIFE IMITATES CREEPY 1965 COMEDY RECORD

From the Edinburgh (Scotland) Evening News:

Man dug up wife's corpse and slept beside it for five years 'for hugs'

Published Date:
26 November 2009

A Vietnamese man dug up his wife's corpse and slept beside it for five years because he wanted to hug her in bed, an online newspaper says.

The 55-year-old man from a small town in the central province of Quang Nam opened up his wife's grave in 2004, moulded clay around the remains to give the figure of a woman, put clothes on her and then placed her in his bed, Vietnamnet.vn said.

The man, Le Van, told the website that after his wife died in 2003 he slept on top of her grave, but about 20 months later he worried about rain, wind and cold, so he decided to dig a tunnel into the grave "to sleep with her".

His children found out, though, and prevented him from going to the grave. So one night in November 2004 he dug up his wife's remains and took them home, Vietnamnet reported.

The website carried a photo of Van with the figure of his wife, which is still in his home.

The father of seven said neighbours did not dare visit the house for several years.

"I'm a person that does things differently. I'm not like normal people," he was quoted as saying.

"Not like normal people?" No (ahem) kidding, Sherlock.

Just as weird as this story is (if it's true - for all I know, this is a joke on everyone who can't read Vietnamese), it's even weirder to those of us who have heard what has been called one of the worst songs (albeit a novelty song) ever recorded: "I Want My Baby Back" by Jimmy Cross, released in 1965. It was a parody of the mini-trend of pop songs in the era about young romances that came to sudden and violent ends ("Teen Angel" by Mark Dinning, "Last Kiss" by Wayne Cochran, and "Leader of The Pack" by The Shangri-Las, among others).







A bit of additional trivia about "I Want My Baby Back": Directing the music behind the singing and narration of Cross were Gil Garfield and Perry Botkin Jr. Botkin later worked behind the scenes as an arranger for such luminaries as Barbra Streisand, Bobby Darin, Carly Simon, and the vastly underrated Maureen McGovern, but is best-known for the song millions hear every weekday: The theme song of the long-running CBS soap opera The Young & The Restless (written with collaborator Barry DeVorzon) which was released as a single in 1976 under the title "Nadia's Theme" and peaked at #8.

If you're still creeped out by the Nam dude, you may want to cleanse your palate by listening to "Nadia's Theme" and watching the great Nadia Comaneci in action.