Three Wheels on My Wagon

Burt Bacharach is not a name readily associated with novelty songs, but this number, co-written with Bob Hilliard, shows he was no fish out of water when it came to setting music to humorous ditties. The singer is a cowboy who is fleeing from pursuing Injuns with three wheels on his wagon, then two, then one, then when the final wheel breaks and he and his family are captured, he invites them to sing along with him. And they do!

This was originally recorded by Dick Van Dyke but the best known version was recorded by The New Christy Minstrels. The song opens to the strains of a banjo playing "Oh! Susanna" badly, and there are worried interjections by the narrator's wife and son which he dismisses angrily.