"How Bizarre" is a single written and recorded by New Zealandmusical groupOMC. It was released in December 1995 as the lead single from the debut album of the same name, and went on to top the charts in at least five countries: Australia, Austria, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. Outside New Zealand, OMC is generally considered a one-hit wonder; they had a further few successful singles in New Zealand, including "Land of Plenty". The song was featured in the 1998 moviesPalmetto and Disney's The Parent Trap and plays at the start of the first episode of the second season of American sitcomClueless.
Critical reception
The song won the award for "Single of the Year" at the 1996 New Zealand Music Awards. It was also featured on Nature's Best 2, as the 34th greatest New Zealand song of all time as voted for by members of the Australasian Performing Right Association in 2001. In 2002, the song was named as the 71st greatest one-hit wonder of all time on a VH1 countdown hosted by William Shatner. Music & Media wrote about the song: "Polynesian pop with a twist. Pauly Fuemana has a gravelly, deep voice and a major rap attitude. The Spanish guitar, trumpet and the sweet female background vocals create a radio friendly mood. This single from the forthcoming album Time Is Money smashed New Zealand and Australian sales figures; OMC's quirky catchiness should kick up some dust in Europe too."
Chart performance
"How Bizarre" topped the singles charts in New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Canada and Ireland. It also topped the airplay chart in South Africa. As the track was only released to radio in the United States, with no commercial single made available to buy, the song was not allowed to chart on the BillboardHot 100 under the chart rules in force at the time. However, it topped the Mainstream Top 40 for a week, then called the Pop Singles. It also peaked at number four on the BillboardHot 100 Airplay chart. The single was number one for one week in Canada, two weeks in Austria, three weeks in Ireland, three weeks in New Zealand and five weeks in Australia. On 9 February 2010, the song re-entered the New Zealand charts at number 40 after Fuemana's death.
Music video
A music video was released to help promote the single. The video has the lead singer, Pauly Fuemana, driving a 1968 Chevrolet Impala. It also pictures him dancing, rapping, throwing around money and breathing fire. It was a second version, directed by Lee Baker, and released very late in 1995 just as "How Bizarre" went to number one in NZ. Shot on a soundstage in Ponsonby and at Ellerslie Racecourse for a budget of $7,000 from NZ On Air, it was shown on US networks about 15,000 times in 1997 and 1998. Besides Pauly, it features backing vocalist Sina Saipaia, and a Filipino man named Hill who stood in for Brother Pele.
Charts and certifications
Weekly charts
Chart
Peak position
Year-end charts
Chart
Position
Canada Top Singles
41
France
96
Certifications
Release history
Covers and parodies
In 1996, a radio personality named Dean Young created a cover of the song called "Stole My Car". Dean was working with The Rock when the radio station was based in Rotorua on 99 FM. In 2003, the radio stadion ZM and Iain Stables released a compilation album of some of the parodies that were created in the radio company called Stables Label Volume 3. The album name was a parody itself as there was no Volume 1 or 2. The song "Stole My Car" was the 8th track on the album.
