You changed four score and seven to 87?

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

08/10/61 : The Button-Down Mind Of Bob Newhart - Bob Newhart

This is a first - we had a couple of comedy albums that were rejected or couldn't be found in 1977, but we have no such luxury in '61.  Having said that, I'm intrigued as to what this is like - it was surprisingly successful (more on this later).

Hmmm - I can't say I found it hilarious, but it did raise a few chuckles.  Part of that was that it's all very American (subjects covered include Abe Lincoln, the USS Codfish, the Wright brothers and baseball) and it's also very dry and understated - it feels quite un-American in that regard.  It was an interesting listen and certainly not the worst use of thirty minutes of my time, but I wouldn't really say I enjoyed it.  I was also struggling to comprehend what the title meant - a quick Google tells me "button-down mind" means conventional in US English.

We're at a surprising #2 in the charts this week on his first week of a three week run - and if you think that sounds more successful than expected, just wait until I tell you that was his fourth run and his first run (which started in October '60) went on for 24 weeks (again peaking at #2).  The rest of the top five were The Shadows, George, The Sound Of Music and Oliver! and there were no new entries in the chart this week.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot to say on the album other than noting its tremendous success - it was #1 in the US for 14 weeks, stayed in the charts for 2 years and won the Grammy award for Album Of The Year (and Bob won the Best New Artist award).  You weren't expecting that, were you?  I checked out his entry because I was only really aware of him from his TV show Newhart that was on Channel 4 in the early days and was intriguingly content-free, but it reminded me that I've also seen him in Catch-22, Elf and Big Bang Theory (for which he won an Emmy).  I was also somewhat surprised to see he's still working at the tender age of 94!

"Customers also listened to" Victor Borge (who my dad used to LOVE), Victoria Wood, Jackie Mason and Tony Hancock - there's definitely some similar comic styling there.  I didn't love this, but it was an interesting listen and you'd have to say it hadn't really dated - there must be a load of sixties "comedy" albums that haven't stood the test of time so well.  It was also fascinating to learn exactly how successful it was at the time. 

01/10/61 - Unusual, but not unbearable
15/10/61 - Better than usual

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