Album the First Family Rides Again
| The First Family | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Studio album past Vaughn Meader | |
| Released | November 1962 Spring 1963 (Volume Two) |
| Recorded | October 22, 1962 March 18, 1963 (Volume Ii) |
| Studio | Fine Recording Studio, New York Urban center |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Label | Cadence Records |
| Producer | Earle Doud[1] |
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |  [2] |
The Beginning Family is a 1962 comedy anthology featuring comedian and impressionist Vaughn Meader. The album, written and produced by Bob Booker and Earle Doud, was recorded on October 22, 1962, is a good-natured parody of so-President John F. Kennedy, both equally Commander-in-Chief and as a member of the prominent Kennedy family. Issued by Cadence Records, The Outset Family became the largest and fastest selling record in the history of the record industry, selling at more than 1 million copies per week for the first six and one-half weeks in distribution and remained at #one on the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks. By January 1963, sales reached more than 7 million copies. Cadence president Archie Bleyer credited the anthology'south success to heavy radio airplay.[3] The album was outset played past Stan Z. Burns on WINS radio, a friend of Booker, and it instantly became a hit all over New York City. By the fourth dimension the sequel album, The Commencement Family unit Volume Two , was released, The First Family had sold 7.v one thousand thousand copies — unprecedented for any anthology at the time, especially a comedy anthology.
The First Family won the Grammy Accolade for Album of the Year in 1963, condign the second and most recent one-act or spoken word anthology to win the award.
Bandage [edit]
The First Family starred stand-up comedian and impersonator Vaughn Meader as Kennedy and Naomi Brossart as the First Lady. Meader'southward skill at impersonating Kennedy was honed on the stand-up circuit – with his New England accent naturally close to Kennedy's familiar, and often parodied, Harvard accent; he needed to adjust his voice only slightly to sound similar the President. Brossart was a theatre actress and model making her recording début.[4]
The Offset Family was written and produced by Bob Booker, Earle Doud and George Foster; Booker and Doud were also in the bandage and received front encompass billing, every bit the album is officially titled Bob Booker and Earle Doud Present The Kickoff Family. The anthology also features the voice talent of Jim Lehner, Bradley Bolke, Chuck McCann, Bob McFadden, and Norma MacMillan. It was recorded in front of a live studio audience.
Meader afterward revealed, "A lot of people don't know this, but nosotros recorded The First Family unit on the dark of October 22, 1962, the aforementioned nighttime every bit John F. Kennedy'due south Cuban Missile Crisis Speech. The audience was in the studio and had no idea of the drama that was taking place. Simply the bandage had heard the speech and our throats almost dropped to our toes, considering if the audience had heard the Cuban Missile Speech, we would not have received the reaction nosotros did." During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cadence Records well-nigh cancelled the distribution of the record, assuming America would be going to war.
Event on pop culture [edit]
Although the comedy album nail was mushrooming by 1962, production of a record imitating the President met stiff opposition. James Hagerty, a meridian executive for ABC-Paramount Records and President Dwight D. Eisenhower'due south former press secretary, said the proposed album would be "degrading to the presidency" and proclaimed that "every Communist land in the world would love this record." After other rejections, Cadency Records agreed to distribute the album, and within a month the tape was appearing on store shelves, and seeing brisk sales. Two weeks later information technology had sold more than ane million copies, pushing past the debut album by Peter, Paul and Mary.[5]
Within weeks, many Americans could recite favorite lines from the record, including "the rubber schwan [swan] is mine", and "move alee...with great vigah [vigor]", the latter lampooning the President's own words. The anthology poked fun at Kennedy's PT-109 history; the rocking chairs he used for his painful dorsum; the Kennedy clan'south well-known athleticism, football games and family togetherness; children in the White Business firm; and Jackie Kennedy's soft-spoken nature and her redecoration of the White Business firm; and many other bits of knowledge that the public was eager to consume. Kennedy himself was said to have given copies of the albums equally Christmas gifts, and once greeted a Autonomous National Committee grouping by maxim, "Vaughn Meader was busy tonight, and so I came myself."[half-dozen] Co-ordinate to UPI reporter Merriman Smith, during a Cabinet meeting Kennedy played the entire record for everyone. At one printing conference, Kennedy was asked if the anthology had produced "annoyment or enjoyment." He jokingly responded, "I listened to Mr. Meader's record and, frankly, I thought it sounded more similar Teddy than it did me. So, now he's annoyed."[seven]
The Start Family album won the Grammy Laurels for Album of the Twelvemonth in 1963.[8] That March, near of the same cast recorded a sequel album, The First Family unit Volume Ii, a combination of spoken-word comedy and songs. Release in the spring of 1963, Volume 2 was also successful, peaking at #4 on the album chart in June 1963.[9]
Immediately after Kennedy'south assassination on November 22, 1963, producers Booker and Doud, along with Cadency president Archie Bleyer, pulled both albums from sales and had all unsold copies destroyed and so as not to seemingly "cash in" on the President's death. Both albums remained out of print until they were finally re-issued on CD together in 1999.
Similar albums [edit]
In 1962, two similar albums were as well released:
- The Other Family spoofed the Nikita Khrushchev authorities of the Soviet Union and featured Buck Henry, Joan Rivers, and George Segal.
- The President Strikes Back! was an imagined response of President Kennedy to The Outset Family unit, written by futurity Mel Brooks collaborator Ron Clark.
During Lyndon Johnson's administration, Doud and Alen Robin released a serial of two one-act albums using bodily recordings of Johnson and other political figures to create comedic fake interviews: Welcome to the LBJ Ranch (1965)[10] and Lyndon Johnson's Lonely Hearts Gild Band (1967).[11]
In 1966, The New Kickoff Family unit 1968: A Futuristic Fairy Tale was issued, co-produced by Bob Booker and George Foster, and starring impressionist and comic Volition Jordan as the newly elected president Cary Grant in this political fantasy. Two other noted impressionists also appeared on the album – John Byner and David Frye. Frye's impression of Richard Nixon would later exist featured on the Elektra Records albums I Am the President and Radio Free Nixon, amid others. Will Jordan'southward most famous impression – that of TV host and newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan – was not used on The New Starting time Family 1968. Instead, the Ed Sullivan impression heard on the album was washed by Byner.
In 1981, a new album titled The First Family Rides Once more was issued, co-produced by Doud and starring impressionist Rich Picayune as then-President Ronald Reagan.[12]
Runway listing [edit]
The Offset Family [edit]Deed I [edit]
Act II [edit]
| The Start Family Book Two [edit]Human action I [edit]
Act II [edit]
|
Chart positions [edit]
| Chart (1962) | Elevation position |
|---|---|
| The Outset Family: Billboard Top LPs—Monaural | 1 |
| The Starting time Family unit Volume 2: Billboard Top LPs—Monaural | four |
See likewise [edit]
- Cultural depictions of John F. Kennedy
- Lists of fastest-selling albums
References [edit]
- ^ Smith, Ronald 50. (2013). ""The First Family" (1962)" (PDF). Library of Congress.
- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ "The 'Commencement Family' Story. WOW!" Billboard (February ii, 1963)
- ^ Bob Booker and Earle Doud (October 1962). "Anthology notes for The First Family". Collectibles Records.
- ^ Robinson, Peter Yard. The Dance of the Comedians (Academy of Massachusetts Printing, Amherst, 2010), ISBN 978-i-55849-785-vi, pp 132-33.
- ^ "Vaughn Meader, Satirist of Kennedy Family, Dies". washingtonpost.com. Nov i, 2004. Retrieved 3 April 2006.
- ^ JFK: As It Happened. A&E, November 22, 1988
- ^ Making Fun of the Kennedys|Studio 360|WNYC
- ^ Billboard June 1963
- ^ "'LBJ Ranch' LP Runs Hog Wild", Billboard, November 20, 1965.
- ^ "Album Potpourri", Appleton Mail service-Crescent, January 7, 1968.
- ^ The Get-go Family Rides Over again at AllMusic.com
External links [edit]
- Library of Congress essay on the album's addition to the National Recording Registry.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Family_%28album%29
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