Do you do vests in mauve?

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

27/08/61 : Beyond The Fringe - Beyond The Fringe

Before we get to this, I have to report on another album I can't track down - String Along With Nat King Cole, which is quite the curious one because it's on Spotify but for some unclear reason it wouldn't let me listen to it.  So we come to our second comedy album of the year which is one I'm quite surprised I've never listened to - I imagine I will laugh at some of it, but other bits will be so dated that I won't have the faintest clue what it's on about.

Actually, there was an awful lot that I didn't have a clue about - it felt like it was probably quite scathing about targets that I vaguely recognise from my youth (elderly vicars, 60s politicians, people who'd lived through the war), but I wasn't entirely sure.  I also suspected that it was quite visual in places, which unsurprisingly didn't really come across on the album.  I did, however, have some good chuckles at "The End Of The World" ("Will there be a mighty wind?") and Dudley Cook was also very good on the piano throughout.

We're at #13 in the chart this week on their third week of a four week run, which is somewhat oddly its second run - its first run was three weeks and its third run was nine weeks, including a peak of #11.  The top five this week were George Mitchell (seriously?!?), South Pacific, Elvis, Barber/Bilk and The Sound Of Music.  There are no new entries in the chart this week and we have four albums still to meet, including one which (get ready for this) features a named woman - Peggy Lee and George Shearing (#20).  Whether we'll actually get to meet her though is another matter...

Wikipedia doesn't have an entry on the album, but does have an entry on the show (which are basically the same thing) and it says that people generally liked it (except for old people, who didn't).  It's quite mad when you look at the talent of all the people involved - Peter Cook, Jonathan Miller, Dudley Moore and Alan Bennett, who is still with us at the ripe old age of 90.

"Customers also listened to" "no similar recommendations", which somewhat surprised me because this feels like an album that certain people would listen to quite often - but maybe they've either all got it on the original vinyl or they've simply died off because, although I can believe it was a very influential and important cultural experience, it certainly feels of its time.

20/08/61 - Very much of its time
03/09/61 - A most peculiar album