Thursday, January 12, 2012

Ballad of Irving

I owned this 45.  Could I possibly have purchased it?  It seems unlikely, but at 13 (1966) I had odd ideas about what was fashionable - or funny.  I laughed out loud at the Swop column in Yankee magazine every month, and that wasn't even supposed to be funny.



I decided at one point that this was a great example of an early, clumsy use of a laugh track.  Listening again, I'm no longer sure.  Maybe it's real.  Sobering thought.

Note that Bob McFadden appears on the credits, the Bob McFadden who did the parody album "Songs Our Mummy Taught Us" with Rod McKuen, who used the pseudonym "Dor."  Not that it matters much who Rod McKuen was anymore.

5 comments:

Texan99 said...

I don't think that's a laugh track.

Boy, was that an interesting attempt at a Western accent by someone who'd probably never been west of the Hudson River. Some confusion about the R's and the vowels. It reminds me of "Rocky Raccoon," which was pretty convincing for most of the first verse but veered sharply east thereafter.

I'm suffering from Jewish withdrawal, having grown up in a strongly Jewish neighborhood and spent much of my adult life working in a New York bankruptcy law firm. South Texas seems to have no Jews at all. It's kind of a relief when I get some telecommuting work and reconnect. Anyway, I might have enjoyed that more if it had been done in full-up "Hello, Muddah" style.

Sponge-headed ScienceMan said...

I'm thinking it could have been recorded at a supper club.

Gringo said...

It reminds me of Allan Sherman. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwkRz-aMiPE>Cow Patty</a> is another example of a humorous Western song, though without a Yiddish twist. Way out West on West End Avenue also comes to mind.

Michael said...

My recollection is that it was a spoof on Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John". Wikipedia says the song "inspired many imitations and parodies."

Sam L. said...

It's been so long since I heard his voice. And then there's a link to "Stairway to Gilligan's Island" which I only heard on Dr. Demento's show.

Thanks so much!