Song of the Day 11/18: John Fred and His Playboy Band, “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)”

Hard to believe it took this long, but it appears the George Santos saga is reaching its denouement. The guy who makes Donald Trump’s lying seem timid seems to have gotten his money from the family of an influential Miami lawyer, and the results of a House Ethics Committee investigation are so damning that it appears even Republicans are ready to expel him from Congress.

Santos seems to have expensive taste and spent much of the money frivolously, including on Botox injections. He might want to look into a more effective disguise. For starters, he might want to lose those Elton Jonh-sized glasses.

John Fred and His Playboy Band started in the late ’50s in Baton Rouge, La., playing early rock ‘n’ roll. They had a regional following before Fred misheard the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” as “Lucy in disguise.” He used the mondegreen as the jumping-off point for a parody of John Lennon’s psychedelic lyrics, though they weren’t all simply nonsense – “cross your heart with your living bra” came straight from a TV commercial for Playtex – and set them to a bass line inspired by Fontana Bass’ “Rescue Me.”

“Judy in Disguise” reached No. 1 on the Hot 100 in January 1968 and several other countries soon after. It led to a whirlwind year, including some gigs in Germany, where Fred was amazed to hear the crowd singing along. But the novelty nature of the tune didn’t do much for the long-term fortunes of a band that mostly played R&B. They continued to play for years in and around Baton Rouge where Fred, whose full name was John Fred Gourrier, had been a star athlete in high school and college. He coached youth sports and hosted an early rock ‘n’ roll radio show there before his death in 2005.