The Art Company 'Susanna'

Chart Peak: 12

YouTube

Another track I heard for the very first time when I was timing Now 3, so unfortunately I have no hilarious anecdotes about calling them The Fart Company when we were kids or anything. Apparently they were a Dutch act, known in their homeland as VOF de Kunst, who topped the charts in the Netherlands with the original of this song in 1983. After a translation of band name and lyric (and a slight spelling change of the title from 'Suzanne', they somehow took this number into the British Top 20, presumably appealing to people returning from holidays. The version on the album (and presumably the original single) does include that crowd noise and sounds as if the song is already familiar to the audience, who are playing along anticipating the punchlines. Perhaps it was funnier in Dutch, or in the 1980s, but it just leaves me baffled now.

The song was later covered in Spanish by Ricky Martin and in Italian by Adriano Celentano, which I mention as an excuse to post 'Prisencolinensinainciusol'.