I don't know exactly how this happened, but from a few public posts I've made here, I've received 9 (so far) emails from people wanting to know more about the song Cartman sings a few lines of near the beginning of the 8/26 episode (when the boys walk to Kenny's house).
The song is "In The Ghetto." It was recorded in 1969 by Elvis Presley.
I was surprised at first at the level of curiosity about it here -- I didn't even like the song that much when it came out (I was 16) -- but after *hearing* part of it just now on a web site (details below) I now realize it's a fairly unusual/intriguing song, almost haunting, and that this quality isn't even lost when it's sung by Eric Cartman! In addition, the part of it you heard Cartman sing is nowhere near as stirring or emotional as the rest of it.
So here are 2 relevant web sites for the curious:
The FULL LYRICS to the song are located at:
http://users.aol.com/petedixon/elvis/Lyrics/lyricsii.html#297
I give that site's address first because its owner starts it off with a somewhat acidic speech about how he's been ripped off, saying that if you've seen Elvis lyrics anywhere else on the web, they've been ripped off from his site. Well OK, fine, chill. Jeez.
HOWEVER, after you've been there, paid homage, and memorized some of the words, I recommend that you turn your speakers up and visit the very interesting and media-intensive site located at:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Alley/8250/eplns.html
....because, if you have RealAudio -- actually, I'm not *sure* it's RealAudio; it could just be my Netscape working really really hard -- this site plays a 5-minute stream of clips from Elvis Presley songs, and apparently (I loaded the page 3 times and each time the sequence was the same), the first clip is a few seconds from "Suspicious Minds" and the second clip is the main refrain from "IN THE GHETTO" (starting with the lyric "People don't you understand...?") (refer to lyrics at previous site).
Disclaimer: I don't know squat about how this all works, so if you get there and hear something else, or don't hear anything, don't ask me what went wrong! Elvis recorded over 700 songs, so this stuff may rotate on some schedule I'm not aware of -- and *none* of those other 700 would remind you of what Cartman was singing, because most of Presley's songs were recorded much earlier than "In The Ghetto" and were mostly either boppy 1950s-type tunes or soulful love ballads. "In The Ghetto" is somber and serious. To my recollection it was also the only song he ever recorded that fit the social-consciousness fad (change-the-world etc.) that peaked in music of the late 1960s. IMHO it is also one of the few from that era whose lyrics still make a valid point today. (Note, however, that Elvis did not write I.T.G.; Mac Davis did.)
OK, I'd better shut up now or South Park could find itself classified as an educational show. ;)
Mark