the bonzo dog band were a group of british art-school outcasts who loved 50’s and 60’s pop so dearly they couldn’t help but parody it. still a cult favorite, the bonzo’s closest american analog is zappa and the mothers. their classic 1968 lp, “the doughnut in granny’s greenhouse,” traversed most genres of popular music that existed at the time, and even created a few (like the lovesick cockney space shuffle of “beautiful zelda”). my favorite track on the album is the languid music hall number “hello mabel,” on which dry british humour and a genuine love of pop coalesce like the most natural thing in the world:

[mp3] the bonzo dog band—“hello mabel”