over nine years. "Angelo" was just one song parodied on "Live in Trouble". Their 1978 release "A Taste of Aggro", which parodied "Rivers of Babylon", "Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs" and "The Smurf Song", became the group's biggest hit with sales of over one million, reaching number 3 in the UK chart. They achieved four other UK hit singles in the 1960s and 1970s but their only US Billboard Hot 100 charted single, "The Topical Song", was another comedic parody written by the American poet Robert Spring White. Based upon Supertramp's "The Logical Song", White, who also took the 1980 American Song Festival award in the folk category for "Where Does The River Go", confined his humorous lyric compositions to the Barron Knights. The group also produced Christmas specials on Channel 4 Television in 1983 and 1984 which continued to be repeated throughout the decade, a mix of sketches and songs with a comedy backbone for which the group brought in comedy writer Barry Faulkner (Grumbleweeds, Tom O'Connor, Week Ending, Russ Abbot's Madhouse) to write sketches and links. In 1986, they sang a parody of the Jimmy Dean song "Big Bad John", called "Big Bad Bond". It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond and his involvement in Australia's victory in the 1983 America's Cup. The single was released by WEA, and had "The Loan Arranger" on the B-side, both taken from their album California Girls. , the group continued to perform for a worldwide audience, with a line-up featuring only Pete Langford from the original band members. Founding member, Barron Antony, retired on 5 October 1985, and fellow founding member Butch Baker retired in January 2007, and was replaced by Len Crawley. The Barron Knights' original lead singer, Duke D'Mond, died on 9 April 2009. Original band member details Barron Antony (born Antony Michael John Osmond, 15 June 1934, RAF Abingdon, Abingdon, Berkshire, England) – bassist, vocalist Peter 'Peanut' Langford (born 10 April 1943, Durham, England) – guitar, keyboards, vocalist Duke D'Mond (born Richard Edward Palmer, 25 February 1943, Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England, died 9 April 2009, Oxford) – vocalist Butch Baker (born Leslie John Baker, 16 July 1941, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England) – lead guitarist, vocalist Dave Ballinger (born David Alan Ballinger, 17 January 1939, Slough, Berkshire, England) – drummer Discography Albums Singles See also List of Epic Records artists List of performances on Top