"The Homecoming Queen's Got A Gun" by Julie Brown

Birthday wishes go out today to Julie Brown, the American comedienne and actress who scored herself a one-hit wonder in 1984 with The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun...

While the song itself is a parody of the the 'teen tragedy' songs* - which themselves are a sub-genre of 1950s and 1960s American pop - it presaged a spate of high school shootings in the 1990s such as the Columbine massacre; it's because of this event specifically that Brown rarely performs the song in her live act anymore.

Ironically, the song was initially released as the b-side to Brown's single I Like 'em Big and Stupid, but attained such great popularity after being featured by Dr. Demento on his radio show that it is today the better remembered of the two - due in part, at least, to this hilarious video, which hit the airwaves in heavy rotation during the early days of MTV.

*Including such 'splatter platters' as Mark Dinning's trailblazing Teen Angel, Jan and Dean's Dead Man's Curve, and the gold standard Leader of the Pack by The Shangri-las (who more or less specialized in this sort of fare).
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