A scary thought: building a musical Frankenstein’s monster

With the musical “Young Frankenstein” coming to town after the holidays,  it seems an appropriate time to roll out one of my admittedly more offbeat ideas. But it’s one that may appeal to some of the musically inclined unorthodox “amateur scientists” among our readers.

Your task, should you choose to accept it: Build your own musical Frankenstein’s monster out of song titles that mention different body parts.

I even have a nice prize for the entrant who comes up with what my MinnPost colleagues and I judge to be the most creative musical monster mash-up: food treats from the Red Stag restaurant in Minneapolis.

In the comment area below, you can assemble a musical monster made up of at least five “body part” songs. You can see samples from my more elaborate creation below. The deadline for entries is noon Wednesday, Dec. 16.

You’ve got lots of material to choose from. For a monster consisting of only five songs, there must be jillions of combinations. And there must be bajillions of possible combinations for anyone as crazed as me who builds a musical monster as detailed (but G-rated) as mine.

Is there any math expert out there who cares to calculate the possibilities from these monstrous estimates: I’d guess there must be at least 50 song titles that include the word “head,” another 50 that mention “eyes,” probably 100 with the word “heart” and at least 200 other song titles that mention assorted body parts.

And, of course, there are some songs that offer multiple body parts — I could think of four twofers and even a “four-fer,” but alas, no “three-fer.” Any reader have a suggested “three-fer”? Here’s what I found:

• Four twofers: Paul Anka’s “Put Your Head on My Shoulders,” Brenda Lee’s “Heart in Hand” and lots of versions of “Heart and Soul” and “Body and Soul.”
• And one four-fer: The Wiggles’ “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.”

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So, as we get ready for the “Young Frankenstein” musical’s arrival and celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Mel Brooks film, take a gander at the musical monster I’ve assembled from head to toe. (The body parts are listed in alphabetical order by section.)

Head
• The Serendipity Singers’ “Beans in My Ears”
• “Cheek to Cheek” (Check out this video clip of Desi’s charming rendition — and Lucy’s love-struck look — from the “I Love Lucy” show.)

• The Flamingos’ magnificent “I Only Have Eyes for You”
• The marvelous Nancy Wilson’s “Face It Girl, It’s Over”
•The Cowsills with the title song from the musical “Hair”
• Little Anthony and the Imperials’ “Goin’ Out of My Head”
• Ruth Brown’s “Lucky Lips”
• We Five’s “You Were on My Mind.” (I couldn’t find a “normal” brain song, so this was the closest I could come.)
• Elvis’ “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck”
• And Johnny Crawford’s “Your Nose Is Gonna Grow.”

Body
• Mel & Tim’s “Backfield in Motion” 
• The O’Jays’ “Back Stabbers”
• Allan Sherman’s “I See Bones,” a clever takeoff on “C’est Si Bon”
• The Bellamy Brothers’ “If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me?)”
• “Heart,” from “Damn Yankees”
• The Temptations’ “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep”
• The T-Bones’ “No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach‘s In)” which started out as a classic commercial for Alka-Seltzer.
• And Raymond Lefevre’s stirring “Soul Coaxing (Ame Caline).”

Extremities
• Hot’s “Angel in Your Arms”
• Little Stevie Wonder’s “Fingertips, Part 2″
• Kermit the Frog’s “Happy Feet”
• The Johnny Otis Show’s “Willie and the Hand Jive”
• Joe Tex’s “Skinny Legs and All”
• The Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb”
• And the Harden Trio’s “Tippy Toeing.”

What better way to wrap up this crazy idea than with the classic insanity scene from the 1931 film “Frankenstein”  — and the electrifying line “It’s alive.”

… And a Body Parts ‘extra’
There’s no music involved in this one, but in my extensive research, I came across a family favorite — a familiar Laurel and Hardy movie clip too good to pass up. The scene shows the two of them playing a spirited game of Kneesy Earsy Nosey — a maneuver that, decades ago, prompted my brother Dave and I to have marathon competitions. (For the record, it’s even harder than it looks, particularly the advanced maneuvers.)