‘Silly’ songs by bands or artists who were generally known for making more serious music?
(To be clear, I’m not necessarily talking about bad songs, just ones where a usually strait-laced artist decided to have a little fun.)
A couple examples:
Al Stewart - Mondo Sinistro
Al Stewart’s music generally landed somewhere in the intersection of folk and prog rock, and tended to include a lot of historical and literary references. He had some chart success in the late 70s with ‘Time Passages’ and ‘Year of the Cat’.
In 1980, he released this rock song about flirting with a waitress - which mostly seemed like a gag to end as many lines as possible with ‘-o’. It even has a video with Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira):
https://youtu.be/74f7BSUhulk?si=C1SpHvWNadjQTmrd
Dire Straits - Twisting by the Pool
Dire Straits wasn’t humourless, necessarily, but they tended to lean more towards a sarcastic or satirical edge. Certainly nothing like ‘Twisting by the Pool’, a pastiche of early rock and roll which showed up on a 1983 EP. This song’s clearly also tongue-in-cheek, with the references to cost of living and inflation, but it’s also just free-wheeling and fun:
https://youtu.be/DsJ5aYK-S6Y?si=6VETO-bq67aFQa\_I
Any other songs where an otherwise generally serious band or artist decided to cut loose?