I believe that Mony Mony was by Tommy James and the Shondells and Simon Says was by the 1812 Fruitgum Company. They were both from the sixties - allegedly the golden age of pop music. I think Gloria Gaynor was the first to unleash "I Will Survive" upon us. Like Strolling Johnny, my first thought on hearing it was, "I hope you don't love" - well - as a pop star anyway. That was the early seventies, so I guess it belonged alongside other pieces of its time like "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" - (very cheap but not particularly chirpy peice about a rapidly vanishing family).
Frank Farian was/is indeed German, El Greko. If you think he was bad, you should hear Dieter Bohlen, famous wife beater and perpetrator of garbage like "Brother Louie". TS Barnum should have been born into this age. There's one born every second these days!