The first time I went to a Capital Steps concert, I didn't know what to expect. A 30-something woman came out in a red dress, something office-appropriate, and looked around. Suddenly, the music for the Banana Boat Song began. You know: "Day-Oh! Day-ay-ay-Oh! Daylight come and we wanna go home!"

The woman started singing, "Day-Care! Day-ay-ay-Care! Daycare call and the Mama go home!

By the time she got to "Hey, Mr. Nanny-man, Nanny me Amanda," I was falling off my folding chair, tears coming out of my eyes--just like the rest of the audience.

That was almost twenty years ago. They're just as topical and funny today, as the two-minute video to the right will show.

The group started in 1981, when Senate staffer Bill Strauss (he was chief counsel and staff director of a subcommittee on energy, nuclear proliferation, and government processes) had go come up with a Christmas party entertainment. As he tells it, a nativity scene would've been nice--but where on Capital Hill could they find three wise men and a virgin?

He worked up a skit with other Republican staffers and music student Elaina Newport, and sang some popular song parodies making fun of new President Ronald Reagan. The group called itself the Capital Steps, and was an immediate hit. (there's a story behind that name, dealing with Senator Jenrette, but unless you remember him it won't be very funny.)

Strauss was afraid they'd all lose their jobs for their antics. Instead, he kept his job until the Senator he worked for lost a re-election bid in 1984. The next year, though, in the wake of Live Aid and other rock concerts, the Capital Steps came out with their second album, We Arm the World .

Strauss began directing and writing for the Capital Steps full-time, and eventually dropped his old requirement that members actually be employed on Capital Hill.

In 1988, they performed for President Reagan at the White House, in front of hundreds of Senators and Representatives.

Sadly, Strauss died on December 18, 2007, leaving behind his wife, three daughters, and many fans. According to his obituary in the Washington Post, by the late 1990s the Capital Steps were "a $3 million industry with more than 40 employees performing on radio, television, and around the country."

And odd highlight to Strauss' productivity: He also co-authored a series of interesting books that include Generations and The Fourth Turning. The books outline repeated trends in American history, showing that new generations cycled through four basic archetypes.

Meanwhile, the Capital Steps just kept growing. After all, with evolving Washington DC news from the invasion of Panama, the ups and downs of the stock market, on into the Clinton years and Monica Lewinsky, war ("Ba-ba-ba, Ba-bomb Iraq" sung to the tune of "Barbara Ann"), disputed elections (electile dysfunctions?), steroid hearings in baseball ("If I had to pee in a bottle. . . ")

Let's just say that anyone who wants to mock the workings of government will never, ever run out of material.