"There's a New Sound" is a 1953 novelty song by Tony Burrello, written by Burrello and Tom Murray.[1]
Burrello, a songwriter and jazzpianist better known as Tony Tamburello,[2] and Murray started writing novelty songs after they were unsuccessful in having their more serious material recorded by prominent musicians.[1] They noted the success of music that was seemingly intentionally bad, after hearing a disc jockey play Harry Stewart's version of "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" sung in a faux-Japanese accent. According to Murray, the disc jockey said that the record was a hit but also "one of the most horrible records he had ever heard".[3]
Burrello and Murray responded by creating the songs "There's a New Sound", performed by Burello, and "Fish", sung by Leona Anderson, which they released as a single. "There's a New Sound" consists of a single chorus repeated five times, each time in a higher key, with calliope accompaniment.[4] The lyrics describe "the strangest sound that you have ever heard", which turns out to be "the sound that's made by worms".[1] Burrello was credited as the artist on the single,[5] which was released on Burrello and Murray's own record label, Horrible,[4] as catalog numbers H 100 (ten-inch 78 rpm format) and H 100-X45 (seven-inch 45 rpm format).[5] The single was Horrible's only release.
When Billboard magazine reviewed the single, it commented: "A weird one. 'The new sound is the sound made by worms.' Strange sound effects go with nonsense lyric. It's a studied attempt to be as screwy as possible."[5] For the flip side, "Fish", Billboard′s review was "Same comment".[5]
Burrello and Murray originally had only 500 copies of "There's a New Sound"/"Fish" issued to be sent to disc jockeys.[4] However, within two weeks, they received orders for more than 100,000 copies of the single.[4]
Soon afterward, Burrello and Murray were called upon to write a song for Brucie Weil, who was then 6 years old.[6] The song they wrote for Weil, "God Bless Us All", reached #18 on the Billboard singles chart.[7][8] Burrello and Murray were soon called upon to write music for other artists, including a theme song for John Conte and special material for Tony Bennett.[9]
Anderson went on to exploit her newfound fame as a "horrible" musician by making appearances on The Ernie Kovacs Show and signing with Columbia Records for two more singles.[10] In 1957, for Unique Records, Anderson released a full-length album, Music to Suffer By, in the same mock-operatic style she used for "Fish."[10][11]
