POP MUSIC REVIEW : Stupeds--Saviors of Dumb Songs

Got a favorite dumb song? Something like, say, “Sugar, Sugar”? Or maybe the Animals’ old ‘60s classic “San Franciscan Nights”? Worried that such soaring anthems as “You Light Up My Life” and “I Write the Songs” might be lost to posterity?

Never fear, the Stupeds are here. Performing at Santa Monica’s At My Place Tuesday night, the San Francisco-based Society to Undertake the Preservation of Endangered Dumb Songs demonstrated that it is the right group at the right time.

Who else would risk performing the B side of Napoleon XXIII’s “They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa”--famous among trivia-lovers as the backwards version of the A side? And what better way to deal with acute hypoglycemia than the Stupeds’ diabetic medley of “Candy Man,” “My Boy Lollipop,” “Sugar Town,” “Sugar Shack” and “I Want Candy?”

Lurking deceptively behind the inane material, the crowd’s jeers and the shouts for “Less! Less!” was the simple fact that the Stupeds, led by guitarist Rick Right and keyboardist J. Raoul Brody, were doing a remarkable job of covering an enormous range of styles. Like such illustriously silly predecessors as Anna Russell, Spike Jones and Victor Borge, the Stupeds are skilled performers who clearly care enough about all those dumb songs to have fun with them.