For some reason or other, I fell to thinking today about "flying saucer" records--novelty recordings built around the fact that a few seconds of a hit song could be used without permission from or payment to the song's writers or performers. The typical format had a reporter covering some event of current interest; he would ask questions of participants or witnesses, and get responses that were taken from songs. The result was meant to be humorous. (Albert Brooks did a great parody of this on his album A STAR IS BOUGHT.)
The first such record was made in 1956, and was called "The Flying Saucer" (hence the genre's name). In the early 1970s, when I was a lad and was just starting to pay attention to radio, the genre had a resurgence--mostly, as I recall, with records about Watergate. The last one I could remember hearing was inspired by the DeLaurentiis version of KING KONG, but I presume there must have been a few more after that--I mean, someone must have done a STAR WARS-themed one.
Anyway. Over the years, my recollection of the "Kong" record faded, until all I could remember was that at one point it used the line "Hand me down my walking cane" from the Spinners' "Rubberband Man." Thinking about the genre today, I decided to look for verification of this memory--and discovered that the whole thing is on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsELgtExsEs
This has NOT aged well, but I imagine that the completists among you will want to hear it.
The first such record was made in 1956, and was called "The Flying Saucer" (hence the genre's name). In the early 1970s, when I was a lad and was just starting to pay attention to radio, the genre had a resurgence--mostly, as I recall, with records about Watergate. The last one I could remember hearing was inspired by the DeLaurentiis version of KING KONG, but I presume there must have been a few more after that--I mean, someone must have done a STAR WARS-themed one.
Anyway. Over the years, my recollection of the "Kong" record faded, until all I could remember was that at one point it used the line "Hand me down my walking cane" from the Spinners' "Rubberband Man." Thinking about the genre today, I decided to look for verification of this memory--and discovered that the whole thing is on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsELgtExsEs
This has NOT aged well, but I imagine that the completists among you will want to hear it.
