Comedy vinyl classics

47 posts and no one mentioned any of these??!

 

I have no problem listening to bill cosby albums, to Russell my brother especially is good, tops for me is firesign theatre, don't crush that dwarf is pretty amazing

 

I heard a Lily Tomlin album once that was funny, but haven't yet tracked down any of her records.

 

I've got a nice row of comedy LPs in my collection with multiple titles of the usual culprits mentioned here:

Smothers Brothers, Carlin, Cosby, Martin, Sherman, Lehrer, Cheech & Chong.

But some of my other favorites are ones by Redd Foxx (really only the LOMA / Warners years) and Jonathan Winters.

Although I never cared for the Firesign Theatre..

 

I was really into comedy albums when I was a kid, a lot of stuff that's already been mentioned like Carlin, Pryor, Python. Steve Martin definitely.

I also liked Robert Klein a lot. New Teeth is a good one from him, and Child of the '50s.

 

How about the Alan Robin and Earle Doud albums that sold MILLIONS in the early 1960's?
Always remember: "The rubber schwan... is mine"....

 

Found the Sellers album last year in mint condition at a flea market for 1 Euro. Great stuff.

 

Several of Bill Cosby's albums quality in my book- they're very funny.

 

Allan Sherman - My Son The Folk Singer
Albert Brooks - Comedy Minus One (I think this is funnier than A Star Is Bought b/c of Memoirs Of An Opening Act)
Stan Freberg - Best of the Stan Freberg Shows (a 2-LP set of Freb's live CBS Radio shows - there's a great audiophile skit called Herman Horne On Hi-Fi)
Derek & Clive - Live
Peter Sellers - The Songs Of Sellers (has the 3 Beatles cuts plus the absolutely brilliant Peter Sellers Sings George Gershwin)
Bob & Ray - On A Platter (maybe the funniest duo in comedy history and this one is RCA Living Stereo!)
Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album (if for no other reason than Sit On My Face - and there are many other reasons)

 

I have The First Family. Freaking hilarious.

The artist - Vaughn Meader - is a sad story. For a year, Meader was was the most famous comedian on the planet. Everybody wanted him. But after JFK was assassinated, his career fell off the proverbial cliff.

 

Most of my favorites have already been mentioned (Steve Martin, George Carlin, Bill Cosby, Cheech & Chong), but I never actually had them on vinyl. Cassettes and 8-Tracks were what I had them on. But I did have this one on vinyl:

Richard Pryor's Greatest Hits. Listened to this one a lot. Cool cover too.

 

I have Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias' three LPs, which have their moments, but creak a bit now; some of the satire hasn't dated well. Best seen live.
The Goons' Ying Tong Song, and Peter Sellars' single A Hard Day's Night/Help, which was a Top 20 hit in the UK.

 

Napoleon XIV they're coming to take me away haha

 

Here's another odd one my parents had. Haven't listened to it in some time, so I'm not sure how well it holds up.

 

There are plenty of classics listed here, but here's one that hasn't been mentioned so far from Lou Carter.


I got pulled into Lou after hearing someone perform "If I had a Nose Full of Nickels" on Prairie Home Companion....it's a classic.

 

The Dr Demento LP comps are great as well.

 

The First Family by Vaughn Meader was very popular.

 

Yes, my parents had this and one other Newhart record and I loved them.
I also had a few Smothers Brothers records, a few Cosby records, a Jonathan Winters and later Robert Klein and Richard Pryor albums and I loved them all.

 

Here's another one I had on vinyl that I have fond memories of...

We'rd Al Yankovic's self titled debut. I got this shortly before he hit it big with Eat It, after seeing the I Love Rocky Road video. As good as the musicianship is on his later albums, I missed him doing all of the songs on accordion.

 

Cosby's work was great, but I'll never again be able to listen to one of his records for entertainment. The material is too personal, and enjoyment of it hinges on being able to accept Cosby's presentation of himself as a genial family man talking about his childhood or raising his own children. For obvious reasons, I can no longer accept him playing that character. If his humor had been less personal and more abstract it might be possible to separate it from his crimes. But his whole act was based on the premise that he was up there as himself, talking about his real life, so there's really no way to effectively separate the art from the artist in this case.

 

Here's one that hasn't been mentioned yet: A Great Gift Idea by The Credibility Gap. Highlight is the extended Tonight Show parody at the end. Harry Shearer does the best Carson impression I've ever heard, and it's a dead-on mockery of mid-70s Tonight Show tropes: