Dr. Demento

Dr. Demento (born April 2, 1941, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.) is an American radio broadcaster, record collector, and musicologist whose cult-favorite radio program, the Dr. Demento Show, aired from 1971 to 2010 and revitalized the appreciation of novelty music. Since 2010, the Dr. Demento Show has been produced as a weekly online-only program.

Early life

Barry Hansen’s interest in novelty songs started at a young age. In a 2023 interview with the Long Beach Post, he recalled: “When I was 4 years old my dad brought home a 78 [rpm record] of ‘Cocktails for Two’ [1945] by Spike Jones and it immediately became my favorite song. Also on the other side was ‘Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma.’ I just loved playing records. A year later, when I was 5, my parents got me a stepstool, so I could get up to reach the record player so I wouldn’t have to beg them to put on what I wanted to play.” Hansen started collecting records from resale shops when he was 11 years old, taking a particular interest in discarded rhythm and blues (R&B) records from local jukeboxes. As a teenager, he listened to late-night AM radio programs that featured the music of blues artists such as Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed. By the time he was in high school, Hansen had accumulated a voluminous record collection, and he started deejaying at local sock hop dances. He studied music theory at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and wrote his undergraduate thesis on early 20th-century opera. Hansen worked as a program director at KRRC, Reed’s 10-watt radio station, and he hosted a program called Musical Museum, which featured an eclectic blend of obscure folk, R&B, country and western, and world music selected from his ever-growing collection.

After graduating from Reed College in 1963, Hansen became a key contributor to the Little Sandy Review, a pioneering and influential folk and blues music magazine. He earned a master’s degree in folklore and ethnomusicology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In the late 1960s he produced compilation recordings and worked as a talent scout for the Specialty Records label.

Career

In 1970 Hansen’s friend Steven Siegal, a disc jockey at the free-form rock station KPPC in Los Angeles, asked him to bring some rare early rock and roll discs to play as a guest. Hansen was popular with listeners and earned his own evening slot. His programming featured mostly blues and doo-wop music, but he noticed that listeners responded enthusiastically to novelty and comedy songs. One particular audience favorite was “Transfusion” (1956) by Nervous Norvus, a sound effects–laden novelty tune about a daring but reckless driver. In a 1980 interview with The Washington Post, Hansen recalled that KPPC’s secretary remarked that he had to be “demented” to play “Transfusion” on the radio. “Everyone else at the station had a name—Outrageous Nevada, The Obscene Steven Clean—so I became Dr. Demento.”

The Dr. Demento Show aired weekly on KPPC in 1971, moved to radio station KMET in 1972, and was syndicated in 1974. The show introduced the work of novelty music artists Spike Jones, Allan Sherman, and Stan Freberg to new audiences, and it popularized songs such as “Dead Puppies” (1977) by Ogden Edsl and Bill Frenzer, “Fish Heads” (1978) by Barnes & Barnes, and “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” (1979) by Elmo ’n Patsy. Hansen began appearing as Dr. Demento at special events, spinning records and greeting crowds in his trademark top hat and tuxedo with red accessories. After going into national syndication, the show settled into a two-hour format that included three segments: an opening segment featuring Hansen’s selections and listener requests; a segment dedicated to a particular theme, such as Halloween or Christmas music; and a final segment, called “The Funny Five,” featuring a countdown of the week’s most requested songs. Hansen closed the show with his trademark sign-off, “Don’t forget to stay demented!” At the height of its popularity, the Dr. Demento Show was syndicated on more than 200 stations.

In addition to playing listener requests, the show strengthened its connection to its audience by airing songs that were performed by listeners. One listener who contributed music to the show was a teenager who would later become known as “Weird Al” Yankovic. Yankovic’s breakout song on the Dr. Demento Show was “My Bologna” (1979), a parody of “My Sharona” (1979) by the Knack. “My Bologna” topped “The Funny Five,” and its popularity on the show helped Yankovic build momentum toward an enormously successful career as a novelty song performer and composer. Hansen appeared in many of Yankovic’s music videos, including “Ricky” (1983), “I Love Rocky Road” (1983), and “I Lost on Jeopardy” (1984). He also appeared in Yankovic’s 1989 comedy film UHF. In the biographical parody film Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022), Hansen is portrayed by actor Rainn Wilson.

Hansen drew on his work as a record compilation producer when Warner Brothers released the anthology Dr. Demento’s Delights (1975), which includes the novelty songs “Hellow Muddah, Hello Fadduh” (1963) by Allan Sherman and “The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati” (1973) by Possum. Several similar compilations followed. In 1980 Rhino Records released Dr. Demento’s Dementia Royale, which gathers the oddities “Pencil Neck Geek” (1977), performed by professional wrestler Fred Blassie, and “Making Love in a Subaru” (1979) by Damaskas. Rhino’s Dr. Demento 25th Anniversary Collection (1995) sold well and collected the novelty song nuggets “The Curly Shuffle” (1983) by Jump ’n the Saddle Band and “Rubber Biscuit” (1956) by the Chips. In 2018 the Demented Punk Records label released Dr. Demento Covered in Punk, featuring artists such as Shonen Knife, the Dead Milkmen, and actor William Shatner performing punk-rock renditions of songs popularized by the Dr. Demento Show.

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Hansen’s personal collection includes more than 300,000 records. His book on the history of blues music Rhino’s Cruise Through the Blues was published in 2000, and he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2010, as radio stations trended away from syndicated music programs, the Dr. Demento Show transitioned to an online format with a subscription service.