'Where Credit is Due:'The credit card blues, set to music

And now the musical question, "What will become of those caught up in the credit crisis?" finally has a musical answer -- one that comes with a funky beat, too.

The Los Angeles-based Meyer Shaffer Company and its parody music label Versusplus has cranked out a catchy little ditty, sung to the tune of LaBelle's "Lady Marmalade," called "Where Credit Is Due." Here's a sampling of the lyric, which tells the story of a recent college graduate who gets a Mastercard invitation, then by degrees degenerates into a credit junkie:

"Cajoled to go gold, he enrolled
They said, "Here: Have no career? Never fear.
Live large, charge all your gear.
Just pay the minimum, dear."

"Our parodies are musical op-eds," says Marcy Shaffer, who penned the "Credit" lyrics. "Given the state of the world, we have many parodies that address issues relating to the economy; we refer to them as econoparodies."