Great Compilation!
This is one of the best compilations of "novelty hits" of days gone by to come out on CD (including a couple of tunes that I'd never seen on CD before). Lots of cool trivia in the booklet, too.
A fun romp for grownups or kids. Buy this for your child instead of Britney Spears! They'll thank you later....
Let's hear it for the monkey.
A whopping 25 hits on one disc usually will merit a 5 star review from me but there are some reasons that this disc is not quite up to par. First of all, it answers a question that I have been asking for years. Is there a master tape of Ray Stevens' 1969 single "Gitarzan" that doesn't have the laugh track overdubs on it? I guess the answer to that question is "no". This disc does include the original mono Monument undubbed single version of "Gitarzan" but, unfortunately, it sounds like it was mastered from an original single, and a well worn copy at that. But I'd rather have a sonically inferior undubbed version that a sonically superior version with that infernal laugh track so I won't say anymore about that. The sound quality throughout the disc is generally good although there are a few tracks here and there ("Mr. Custer", "Surfin' Bird", "Gimme Dat Ding") that sound better on Rhino collections that I own. I've heard better digital transfers of "The Mummy" as well. Then again, "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor" sounds better on here than it does on the Rhino Dr. Demento CD. As for "The Flying Saucer", I prefer the sound quality of Rhino's Billboard 1956 disc because they took the time to remaster the song excerpts that were used, and the extraneous surface noise is only audible on the dialog portion of the record. On this disc, the surface noise is prominent throughout the whole track. One other complaint I have is that the version of "Junk Food Junkie" heard here is not the original 1976 hit version (available on one of Dr. Demento's anniversary compilations) but a re-recording. The liner notes don't tell you this though. It makes you wonder if the compilers even realized they were using the wrong version. It's rare to find this kind of error on a Cary Mansfield produced project. Overall, there's some good stuff here ("Got A Match?", "The Jolly Green Giant") and some bad stuff here ("Juanita Banana" and "Mr. Jaws"), but if you like the novelty hits of yester-year, you're gonna dig this disc.
Not the greatest but certainly different and better...
There are reams of rock-era novelty record CD compilations in the market. Varese's "25 All Time Novelty Hits" contribution to this genre, a sampling of less-than-serious tunes spanning the classic period of rock recording, does stand above the crowd with some distinction. While some of the biggest novelty tunes of the rock era are not represented here, that can be forgiven in that they are easily found on other compilations. That may explain the decision not to bill this piece as the 25 "Greatest" novelty hits. In its favor is the inclusion of several novelty tunes that did less on the pop charts and a few big records that have up to now never appeared on legitimate domestic CDs. Rarities found here include the Daddy-O's' "Got A Match", the Peels' "Juanita Banana" and a top-10 novelty hit that has yet to see the digital light of day, "Yogi" by the Ivy Three. The majority of the other cuts are top-20 tunes that would be familiar to even casual early rock-era listeners. Production quality is excellent with all tracks in mono except 12,15,17,21-23,25 which appear in stereo. Interesting liner notes on the included tracks appear in the eight-page liner notes booklet. A well-constructed package, this CD stands out for its generous collection of familiar novelty tunes as well as its inclusion of some previously unavailable-on-CD tunes of the genre.
