Lounge lizards off endangered species list

If the current cocktail music craze hasn't convinced you yet that lounge acts are hip again at the end of the 20th century, check out the soundtrack for Beavis & Butt-head Do America.

The movie version of the completely juvenile animated TV series opens in Canadian theatres today. The accompanying music features none other than Vegas showman Engelbert Humperdinck belting out Lesbian Seagull alongside Rancid's I Wanna Riot and AC/DC's Gone Shootin'.

"She flies so gracefully over rocks and trees and sand/ Soaring over cliffs and gently floating down to land," begins the song as sung by the straight-faced Humperdinck.

"She proudly lifts her voice to sound her mating call/ And soon her mate responds by singing 'Caw, caw, caw.' "

There are also strings and a female chorus.

Humperdinck apparently has plans to make a video for the song, which will be released as a B-side to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' cover of the Ohio Players' 1975 hit Love Rollercoaster, the far inferior first single from the soundtrack.

He's also apparently included Lesbian Seagull in his nightly Vegas act, although response reportedly has been cool. Guess it doesn't stack up against Release Me (And Let Me Love Again) and After The Lovin' in the eyes of his older fans.

"They wanted someone to do this song in a romantic style ..." Humperdinck told Billboard backstage at the magazine's annual awards show. "It's obviously caused shock waves among people."

In the movie, Lesbian Seagull is first sung by Beavis & Butt-head's politically-correct, hippie high school teacher Mr. Van Driesen, before Humperdinck gets his hands on it during the film's credits.

Other than the song title, there is little in the way of same-sex content in the lyrics. The last verse is the exception:

"And in the evening as they watch the setting sun/ She looks at her as if to say the day is done/ It's time to find the shelter hidden in the dunes/ And fall asleep amidst the music of the loons."

Still, pretty innocent stuff.

Humperdinck and Las Vegas Hilton house act Wayne Newton recently brought the house down at the Billboard Music Awards when they did the Macarena together on stage.

And other lounge icons reinventing themselves include Tom Jones, who does an excellent cover of Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way in his stage act, and who is currently featured in Tim Burton's alien spoof Mars Attacks! singing It's Not Unusual. Burton obviously has a thing for Jones, as he used the Welshman's trademark song in Edward Scissorhands.

Not to be outdone, Pat Boone has also done an album entirely of metal covers, including Metallica's Enter Sandman. Really.

What's next? Perry Como doing Ironic? Frankie Avalon's take on Bullet With Butterfly Wings?

We shall see.