In 1975, people were so crazy about Jaws content that they even made Dickie Goodman’s silly novelty song “Mr. Jaws” a hit

The White sharkthe 1974 film adaptation of Peter Benchley’s bestseller, directed by Steven Spielberg, was the first feature film to break the $100 million mark at the box office, and while this is undoubtedly a tremendous success, it is perhaps an even greater indication of how thoroughly The White shark What seeped into the pop culture of 1975 and beyond was the fact that it served as the inspiration not only for a silly novelty song, but also one that became a hit in its own right.

In autumn 1975, a few months after the premiere of The White sharkMusic producer Dickie Goodman released “Mr. Jaws,” a novelty song in which he used “break-ins,” an early form of “sampling” that we now know from music, particularly hip hop. Much modern sampling in songs is done by incorporating instrumental snippets from other songs; in his break-ins, Goodman used short snippets of sung lyrics from popular songs of the time and inserted them into his comedic spoken word recordings to serve as surprisingly witty answers to questions.

Goodman had been making humorous recordings of this kind since 1956, and this was the technique he used for “Mr. Jaws,” a parody of The White shark Goodman acts as a reporter and asks the characters in the film – Brody, Hooper, Quint and even the shark (Mr. Jaws) himself – for their opinion on the events of the film.

As you can hear in the clip above, the song begins impressively with a part of John Williams’ famous theme from The White sharkso I’m assuming Universal has permission for this shot, as well as for the use of the character names and even the Jaws part itself.

Then, over the next two minutes or so of the tune, a rapid-fire sequence of questions and answers follows, with the answers again provided by sampling short vocal interludes from other popular songs of the period.

Some examples of these questions and answers in the lyrics:

Reporter (Goodman): “Captain, can you catch that giant shark?” (Cue “I will, I will, I will!” from “Love Will Keep Us Together” by Captain & Tennille)

Reporter (Goodman): “Oceanographer Matt Hooper has just arrived. Sir, what should someone do if they are attacked by a shark?” (Use: “Do the hustle!” from “The Hustle” by Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony)

Reporter (Goodman): “Mr. Jaws, before you swim out to sea, do you have anything else to say?” (Cue “Why can’t we be friends? Why can’t we be friends?” from “Why Can’t We Be Friends” by War)

Also impressively incorporated into the melody are catchy vocal hits, including the Bee Gees’ “Jive Talkin’,” the Eagles’ “One of These Nights,” Olivia Newton-John’s “Please Mr. Please,” and Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” (the latter two were, I believe, replaced by similar-sounding songs in later recordings, but the other tracks remain impressively in their original versions).

“Mr. Jaws” is so well done, especially in terms of the timing of the questions and answers, that you can’t help but laugh at it, even considering how stupid and trite it ultimately is. In other words, it’s a typical novelty song.

And it was certainly perfect for making my under-10-year-old self and my friends laugh hysterically when we heard it as kids. But there were, of course, plenty of adults who enjoyed the tune too – “Mr. Jaws” eventually reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week of October 11, 1975.

I’m not sure when I first heard the song, but it might have been when I was listening to WLS radio in Chicago, which I could easily get from my parents’ house in southeastern Wisconsin. From what I’ve read, “Mr. Jaws” was a particular favorite among WLS listeners.

It’s also possible that I heard it when someone brought the record to play in our art class at school, while another possibility is that I actually first heard it when I heard Goodman’s follow-up song, “Mrs. Jaws,” which he released in 1978, around the time Jaws 2 (Hey, if Universal wanted to capitalize on the original’s enormous popularity with a sequel, who can blame Goodman for trying the same thing?)

Like Jaws, Jaws Woman uses the same comedic “break-in” Q&A setup, this time to illustrate the events of Jaws 2featuring vocals from popular songs of 1978, including “Grease” by Frankie Valli, “Hot Blooded” by Foreigner, “Copacabana” by Barry Manilow, and “Three Times a Lady” by the Commodores.

How Jaws 2 “Jaws” itself could not match the success of its predecessor, but it is still fun.

Goodman released several more “break-in” style parodies of Hollywood blockbusters in the late 70s and early 80s, including “Kong” (based on the 1976 remake of King Kong), “Star Wars” (a parody of a 1977 science fiction blockbuster), “Super Superman” (a 1979 pun based on the 1978 superhero classic starring Christopher Reeve), “Hey ET” (1982) and “Return of the Jedi” (1983).

You can listen to these and other songs by Goodman on this YouTube channel dedicated to his albums and singles.