Comedy album

Cal Stewartreleased comedy records as early as 1898.

Acomedy albumis anaudio recordingofcomedicmaterial from acomedianor group of comedians, usually performed either live or in astudio.Comedy albums may featureskits,humorous songs, and/or live recording ofstand-up comedyperformances, but the most common type of comedy albums arestand up,and are often made in conjunction with a DVD with recorded video of a particular comedy show.

Description

Some of the earliest albums recorded for popular commercial distribution were comedy albums. For example, various collections of humorous short stories recited by vaudeville comedianCal Stewartwere released byEdison Recordsas early as 1898.A number ofrecord labelsspecialize in the comedy genre, includingAspecialthing Records,Comedy Central Records,Partee Records,Stand Up! Records,StereolaffsandCelery Sound Records.

Comedy albums have won theGrammy Award for Best Spoken Word Albumon several occasions, includingAmerica Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't,byStephen Colbert(2014) andIf You Ask Me (and of Course You Won't)byBetty White(2012). The first album to win this honor wasThe Best of the Stan Freberg ShowsbyStan Freberg(1959), a variety album including comedy bits.

There is also a podcast that covers the history and influence of comedy albums, primarily on vinyl, titledComedy on Vinyl,which also premiered a 50-year-old lostBob Newharttrack in 2015.

History

Cal Stewart recorded monologues of jokes as the rustic "Uncle Josh" in the late 1890s.Stewart included some of the earliest recordedbanana peeljokes on the recordUncle Josh in a Department Storein 1903.Another notable early example isJoe Hayman's 1913Cohen on the Telephone,part of a series of routines about aJewish immigrantbesieged by technology.The Okeh Laughing Record,a record of a man and a woman simply laughing for three minutes, was a best-seller in 1922.Records of comedy songs became popular, with vaudeville and musical comedy stars such asEddie CantorandFanny Bricereleasing their own.However, when radio became popular with higher-fidelityFM broadcastingin the early 1930s, sales of records dropped.Spike Joneshad some successes in the late 1940s. Comedy albums were held back by the technology of the time only allowing for short recordings, but when longer-durationLP recordswere introduced in 1948, it allowed artists such asLord Buckley,Stan FrebergandTom Lehrerto record material close to modern comedy albums.

The one album to possibly be considered the first modern comedy album isMort Sahl's 1958The Future Lies Ahead,which was a recording of his comedy routine in front of a live audience, organized by jazz record producerNorman Granz.Sahl's records sold well and he is said byShelley Bermanto have directly influenced him.Also the same year'sThe Best of the Stan Freberg Shows,a recording of collected material from Stan Freberg's comedy radio showThe Stan Freberg Show,won the first 1959Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album.Shelley Berman's own 1959 albumInside Shelley Bermanis regarded as the first actual hit and was the first to win a Grammy in the subcategory Spoken Comedy of theGrammy Award for Best Comedy Albumin 1960.Following it was a much bigger hit,The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhartin early 1960. It hit number one on theMono Action Albums chart(Billboard 200) for all recordings, including music. It stayed at the top for 14 weeks.It was only dethroned later the same year by the rushed out sequel,The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!.The two albums occupied the top two spots for nearly 30 weeks, a record not surpassed until 1991 byGuns N’Roses.

The 1960s saw a comedy album phenomenon with the likes ofNichols and May,Smothers Brothers,Jonathan Winters,Dick Gregory,Carl Reiner,Mel Brooks,Tom Lehrer,Bill Cosby,Lenny Bruce,Redd Foxx,Allan ShermanandVaughn Meader.In the 1970s, comedy albums developed a reputation for being targeted towards college students, beingcounterculturaland not being allowed on TV. Notable artists were among othersGeorge Carlin,Cheech and Chong,Richard Pryor,Robert Klein,David Steinberg,Lily Tomlin,National LampoonandSteve Martin.

The Firesign Theatre,animprovisationalsurrealradio comedy troupe formed on Los AngelesKPFKFM on November 6, 1966, released in January 1968 a tightly-scripted comedy albumWaiting for the Electrician or Someone Like HimonColumbia Records.Side 1 consists of a trilogy of extended audio plays: "Temporarily Humboldt County" (9:14), which satirizes the Europeans' displacement of theindigenous peoples of the Americas;"W.C. Fields Forever" (7:39), which satirizes the 1960shippie culture,and "Le Trente-Huit Cunegonde (Returned For Regrooving)" (7:19) which imagined a projected future in which the roles of thehippie countercultureandthe Establishmentculture have reversed roles. Side 2 (17:48) is the title track, a stream-of-consciousness play about an American tourist to anEastern Bloccountry, who ends up in prison and is rescued by theCIA.The Firesign Theatre produced fifteen albums designed for FM air play under two five-year recording contracts, and spawned an underground comedy cult. They won theHugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentationby theWorld Science Fiction Societyfor two of their albums in 1971 and 1972. They continued recording on other labels as late as 2011, and three of their albums received nominations forBest Comedy Album Grammyin 1984, 1988, and 2001.

Party records

Party records were a genre ofblue comedyalbums in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s that were notable for their raunchy adult content and often featuredAfrican Americancomedians. Due to obscenity laws, party records were typically not displayed on record store shelves but were kept under the counter, sold by request, and promoted by word of mouth.Laff Recordswas a notable producer of party records. Comedians who became known due to party records includeRichard Pryor,Redd Foxx,Lawanda Page,Moms Mabley,Rudy Ray Moore,Tina Dixon,Belle Barth,Skillet & Leroy,andRichard & Willie.

Further reading

• Christgau, Robert(March 11, 1973)."The Comedy Album Crop".Newsday.RetrievedJune 7,2018.