Big Ears
Music Lover
This is When Zazz Turned Blue from Born to Laugh at Tornadoes by Was (Not Was). The guest singer is jazz star Mel Torme, who performs the weird lyrics, about a boy who is strangled in the park, completely straight. The production is sparse, with solitary piano and subtle strings giving a cool lounge feel to a bizarre lyric. I think it is the strangest record I have ever heard. Critics at the time (1983) thought the lyrics were weak compared with the rest of the album, but they were missing the point.