Bette Davis singing “Feliz Navidad”. Donald Duck quacking “Amazing Grace.”. Nearly anything by Slim Whitman.
All were among the recordings heard, for better and often for worse, on “The Annoying Music Show,” which ran on U.S. public radio from 1996 to 2012.
Jim Nayder, (pictured), 59, the program’s creator, has died from a heart attack at his home in Chicago.
The show, which originated on WBEZ in Chicago, was eventually heard on 197 public radio stations nationwide.
The popular five-minute program, which perversely celebrated music that irritates its listeners, had an unlikely and highly accidental premiere. He was announcing one day in 1996 when the next show on the schedule was not ready. “Hey, Jim, can you fill it in a little?” a producer asked.
He played a record of the renowned country yodeler Whitman, caterwauling through the Disney song “It’s a Small World.” At the end of the song, Jim announced “Welcome to ‘The Annoying Music Show,’ ” and a new career was born.
Much of the humor in “The Annoying Music Show” came from the incongruity of singer and song.
William Shatner, the “Star Trek” actor, was a perennial program choice as he enunciated and emoted his way through the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” and Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.”
Jim Nayder emphasised that he did not play novelty records, nor did he play bad music that could cause listeners to tune out. Rather, he played selections that were, in his words, produced from “sincere and honest efforts in the recording studio.”