I remember that with one jab of my needle in the Punjab

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

19/03/61 : Peter & Sophia - Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren

I am aware of "Goodness Gracious Me" and have a slight suspicion that it might be viewed with a sense of horror by plenty these days - if you've not seen it, then you're in for a treat! But I have absolutely no idea what they're going to do on the rest of the album.

Hmmm - the rest of the album is approximately half songs (some with a comedy element, some played straight) and approximately half, well, I think you'd probably call them comedy sketches, but they're extraordinarily lacking in comedy. For instance, "Africa Today" features colonial and white saviour views which I suspect were verging towards unacceptable even back in 1961, so you're waiting for the comedy pay-off - but it never arrives. I was left thinking that Sophia seems like a nice enough person and has a surprisingly good voice, but I bet Mr Sellers was an absolute pain in the arse, although you can't fault his skill at accents. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine why anyone would want to listen to this album.

We're at #13 in the charts this week on the last week of a SEVENTEEN week run, with it having peaked at #5 for a couple of weeks - how very peculiar indeed. The top five this week were Elvis, South Pacific, George, The Everly Brothers and Frank and there was one new entry in the charts for The Crickets (#20). We can also celebrate seeing yet another woman named on a album - Shirley Bassey takes us to a grand total of four seen all year so far.

Wikipedia has nothing on the album - I knew "Goodness Gracious Me" was recorded as a result of them acting together in The Millionairess, but I didn't know it doesn't feature in the film. Peter's entry suggests he was a funny but troubled man - when he died, his estranged fourth wife inherited £4.5 million and his kids got £800.

"Customers also listened to" "no similar recommendations" and I struggle to argue with that because, once again, 1961 has served us up a most strange album indeed - although it was nice to inch the female representation upwards.

12/03/61 - A woman allowed out on her own?
26/03/61 - One of his better efforts