As with all novelty singles, I approach this next number one with trepidation, my finger hovering reluctantly over the play button. But the intro actually sounds quite cool: a new jack swing beat and a squelchy bassline. Something by Janet Jackson perhaps, or a Prince ‘B’-side…
Do the Bartman, by The Simpsons (their 1st and only #1)
3 weeks, from 10th February – 3rd March 1991
The only version available on Spotify is the five minute (!) album version – from ‘The Simpsons Sing the Blues’ LP – so I don’t know for how long this intro did its funky thing on the single-edit. Eventually Homer comes in, yelling at Bart for some unspecified misdemeanour. Nobody saw me… I didn’t do it…
From here on things follow a fairly formulaic hip-hop single format: i.e. rapper tells us how great he is. Except here the rapper is a yellow cartoon boy, voiced by a thirty-five year woman (kudos to Nancy Cartwright here, as it can’t be easy rapping while putting on such a voice). There are some fun lines: I’m the kid that made delinquency an art, Last name Simpson, First name Bart… but the song ends up caught between not being funny enough to work as a novelty, yet still being gimmicky enough to annoy. The ‘joke’ wears especially thin on the, it bears repeating, five minutes long extended album version.
The fact that this does almost work as a pop song is probably down to the alleged involvement of Michael Jackson. He’s not credited – his label insisted he couldn’t be – and there are differing accounts of what he actually contributed towards the song, but it seems he wrote some of the lyrics and contributed backing vocals, as well as giving the song its title. He also apparently insisted that he be name-checked (If you can do the Bart, You’re bad like Michael Jackson…) Jackson would also feature in an episode of The Simpsons a few months after this had been a hit single. The video too is a six-minute long MJ-esque epic, in which Bart takes over a school talent show with his new dance routine (or was it all a dream…?)
It’s credited to ‘The Simpsons’, but it’s largely just Bart. Lisa gets a saxophone solo, and Homer gets to yell throughout. Marge and Maggie are conspicuous by their absence. I wonder if, to many British listeners, ‘Do the Bartman’ was their first exposure to ‘The Simpsons’. At the time this was released, the show was just halfway through its second season in the US, and was only broadcast on satellite TV in the UK (I remember it coming to terrestrial TV, on Channel 4, much later in the mid-nineties). If so, the song’s success is quite remarkable, as I’m not sure it holds much enjoyment for someone who’s never seen the show.
Anyway, in this moment ‘The Simpsons’ was on the verge of becoming the biggest TV programme in the world. Between series three and ten it was untouchable, and a fixture in my own house every dinner time. They even managed a second Top 10 single, another hip-hop track (and actually much better than this) ‘Deep, Deep Trouble’. After that, the show came to a natural conclusion in the early 2000s, and is remembered as one of the best series ever, and as a lesson in how to go out on top. Right? No…?
The UK Number Ones Blog 
I remember this one but had no idea it went to Number 1!
Although I’m not a Michael Jackson fan, I found it interesting to read about the MJ involvement. It doesn’t alter my view of the record, though. I was never a Simpsons person at all. Back to my 70s heroes before Mr Blobby and the Teletubbies appear, I think…
I was 33 when this topped the charts, and it was quite annoying, but blatantly obviously Jackson on vocal and mood as he was by then moving into his Jackswing era. The follow up Deep Deep Trouble was way better, sounded pretty good. As for The Simpsons, greatest sitcom ever between seasons 2 to 9, sharp, inventive, daring, and relevant. It just had the best scripts – and yes I’m old enough to love previous candidates for the crown like prime influence on Simpsons’ Matt Groening Green Acres, plus Blackadder, MASH, Cheers, Married With Children, Young Ones and Batman (oh yes it was a sitcom). Among many others. I had Sky, so was in on the show pretty much from the get go after it failed to impress on the Tracey Ullman Show. And if only they’d ended the show around your pick date. It’s a tough slog beyond that (and Ive tried)!
The Simpsons on Channel 4 at 6pm was as close as I got to a religion in my teenage years… From what I’ve seen of newer episodes, it’s a completely different show – even the animation and voices have lost some of their warmth. But someone somewhere must still be watching it, cause it keeps getting made!
I love the Simpsons and Bart…but not this lol.