In the '70s, one of the big mail order products was compilation albums. A company named K-Tell advertised constantly on late night TV, hawking their oldies albums. Mr. Great Big Radio put together a brilliant parody. Get out your credit card and be ready to call.
There's a brilliant parody of the K-Tel ads on the Nat Lamp album "Radio Dinner", that is eerily prescient. It has Bob Dylan shamelessly pitching an album of great protest songs..It's priceless, ending with "Well, it's time for my bootheels to be wanderin'."
ReplyDeleteHearing "Beach Baby" in there made me laugh cause it brought back a memory. When it was popular I was listening to the radio at home when it came on and my dad erupted and told me to turn it off and continued ranting about it and how they'll let anything be played on the radio nowadays. I was pissed, turned it off and left the room only to see him whispering to my mom and she came in and told me why he was so upset. He thought they were singing "Bitch Baby". I almost wet myself laughing and told him they were singing BEACH Baby, not bitch. He just turned red, grumbled and went back to reading his paper.
ReplyDeleteHoward Hoffman -- a truly gifted man!
ReplyDeleteOf course, there's the converse - single artist compilations. SCTV's brilliant Gordon Lightfoot Sings Every Song Ever Written. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F08b_d_Sh0g
ReplyDeleteHoward Hoffman is a national treasure and a local pain in the tuckus.
ReplyDeleteGod, this is fabulous!
I have my own collection: All Your Favorite Fast Songs Sung Slowly. And if you order now you'll get the companion album, All Your Favorite Slow Songs Sung Fast.
ReplyDeleteThe sad part for me was the listing of retailers where the record was sold, which is sort of a list of all the retailing bankruptcies and failed mergers of the past 30 years.
ReplyDeleteThis is the playlist of every syndicated oldies network still in existence and they wonder why their ratings are down.
ReplyDelete@Dave: Oh, you are SO underestimating the scope of my pain-in-the-tuckusness...
ReplyDeleteThis is a nice surprise. Thanks for posting my one and only successful attempt at satire, Ken.
I remember all those. I even remember Norman Greenbaum's "second shot," "Canned Ham." As the title suggests, it was a tad less inspirational that "Spirit in the Sky."
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure LimeWire replaced this type of album.
ReplyDeleteGBR guy is brilliant...
ReplyDelete(And I loved the promo where you called the president a manicurist!)
Nine!!!!
Where can I buy this? I've always liked the one shots of the 60s and 70s (no disco -- they didn't even deserve their one). I remember owning a couple of K-Tels. They always edited the songs, removing a verse etc.
ReplyDeleteParvenue: I've owned Radio Dinner since it came out in 1972. "Those Fabulous Sixties" was the track, and Christopher Guest was Dylan.
ReplyDeleteAnother bit I enjoy is the first track on Robert Klein's second LP a few years later, Mind Over Matter: "We mean literally that. Every record ever recorded since recording began. We drive a truck to your house."
Thanks for bringing back wonderful memories of those K-Tel ads. I never bought one -- always figured they could never be more enjoyable than the commercials touting them.
ReplyDeleteGreat parody, too. It's the credits that make it art.
The original voice of K-Tel commercials was a Winnipeg, Manitoba radio DJ named Bob Washington. K-Tel was based in Winnipeg at that time. Bob told me that he was paid $25. per spot (this was the late 60's and 70's after all, but still that's pretty cheap for spots that ran on radio & TV across North America.)
ReplyDeleteK-tel and others often employed cover bands to do the songs, and this led to a backlash whereupon compilations began to proclaim "Original Hits By The Original Artists!". Then some company got the idea of using a cover band named The Original Artists. Boy, were people pissed.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, that WOULDN'T be a bad album!
ReplyDelete