Tom Lehrer was one of comedy's great paradoxes -- a respected Harvard mathematics professor by day, he also ranked among the foremost song satirists of the postwar era, recording vicious, twisted parodies of popular musical trends which proved highly influential on the "sick comedy" revolution of the 1960s. Despite an aversion to the press and a... [+] Read More

Tom Lehrer was one of comedy's great paradoxes -- a respected Harvard mathematics professor by day, he also ranked among the foremost song satirists of the postwar era, recording vicious, twisted parodies of popular musical trends which proved highly influential on the "sick comedy" revolution of the 1960s. Despite an aversion to the press and a relatively small recorded output, Lehrer became a star, although he remained an enigma to even his most ardent fans; he rarely toured, never allowed his photo to adorn album jackets, and essentially retired from performing in 1965, leaving behind a cult following which only continued to grow in his absence from the limelight.

Lehrer was born April 9, 1928; even as a child, he frequently parodied popular songs of the day, and also learned to play piano. In 1944, he left New York City to study math at Harvard, earning his master's degree within three years and remaining as a graduate student through 1953. During his student years Lehrer wrote The Physical Revue, a collection of academic song satires staged on campus in January, 1951; an updated performance followed in May of the next year. He also sang his parodies at coffeehouses and student gatherings throughout the Cambridge, Massachusetts area; as demand for an album of his songs increased, he spent $15 on studio time to cut Songs by Tom Lehrer, a ten-inch record privately pressed in an edition of 400 copies.

The record sold out its entire run, and as the Harvard student body dispersed across the country for Christmas vacation, the disc spread ("like herpes," Lehrer joked) far beyond its intended local audience. Soon Lehrer was inundated with requests for copies from across the nation; after several re-pressings, Songs by Tom Lehrer sold an astounding 350,000 copies on the strength of tracks like "I Hold Your Hand in Mine" (about a man who cut off his girlfriend's hand in order to nibble on her fingertips), "Irish Ballad" (a buoyant romp about a killing spree), and "My Home Town" (concerning a place where murderers teach school and old perverts operate the candy store).

In 1955, Lehrer was inducted to serve in the Army, and was honorably discharged two years later. Finally, in 1959 he recorded a follow-up, More of Tom Lehrer, featuring "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and "The Masochism Tango"; the same collection of songs were also recorded during a live performance at Harvard, and issued simultaneously as An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer. A tour of Europe followed, resulting in another concert collection, Tom Lehrer Revisited, which constituted live renditions of the tracks from the debut LP. However, controversial reactions to his "sick" comedy during a series of Australian performances prompted Lehrer to retire, and he returned full-time to his first love, teaching.

In early 1964, he resurfaced as a songwriter for the NBC news satire That Was the Week That Was. After the show's demise a year later, Lehrer recorded the material written for the program on an LP also titled That Was the Week That Was; the album, which featured his controversial "Vatican Rag," was the first in his contract with the Reprise label, which also agreed to reissue his earlier, self-released records. After re-recording Songs by Tom Lehrer to improve on the original master's poor fidelity, he again retired from show business to return to academia; however, his songs were played regularly on the Dr. Demento radio show beginning in the 1970s, and he became the program's second most requested artist of all time (behind Weird Al Yankovic). Lehrer's subsequent returns to show business were brief -- in 1972 he wrote a dozen tunes for the children's program The Electric Company, updated older material for a 1980 musical stage show dubbed Tomfoolery (produced by Cameron Mackintosh of Cats fame), and some years later agreed to write occasionally for Garrison Keillor. Lehrer continued to teach mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and at age 72 witnessed Rhino Records' 2000 reissue of his complete recorded works in the form of a three-CD box set titled The Remains of Tom Lehrer. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Like Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor before him, Eddie Murphy was the preeminent African-American comic of his era; in fact, Murphy was arguably the preeminent comic of the 1980s, period -- at his peak, no other performer, regardless of race, was a bigger star or a more audacious talent. Combining Pryor's viciously acute observational gifts and... [+] Read More

Like Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor before him, Eddie Murphy was the preeminent African-American comic of his era; in fact, Murphy was arguably the preeminent comic of the 1980s, period -- at his peak, no other performer, regardless of race, was a bigger star or a more audacious talent. Combining Pryor's viciously acute observational gifts and love of obscenities with Cosby's undeniable mainstream appeal, Murphy quickly leaped from clubs to television to film -- even finding success as a serious pop singer -- on the way to establishing himself as the most wildly popular comedian since the heyday of Steve Martin.

Edward Regan Murphy was born April 3, 1961, in Hempstead, NY. By his mid-teens he was already working as a professional stand-up in Long Island clubs; by the age of 17, he was performing at Manhattan's famed Comic Strip and soon mounted a club tour of the East Coast. In 1980 his precocious talent won him a recurring gig as a featured performer on Saturday Night Live; at the moment, the comedy institution was suffering one of its frequent dry spells, and Murphy quickly established himself as its breakout star, graduating to full-time cast member status on the strength of memorable riffs on the Claymation hero Gumby and Our Gang character Buckwheat as well as creations like street pimp Velvet Jones and Mr. Robinson, a ghetto counterpart to Mr. Rogers.

In 1982, Murphy issued his debut comedy album, a self-titled live effort which drew fire for its controversial portrayal of the Asian community and misogynistic overtones as well as "Faggots," the first of many homophobic routines which ultimately resulted in a boycott call from the gay community. That same year he made his feature debut co-starring with Nick Nolte in the buddy comedy 48 Hrs.; the film was a major success, and at the age of just 21 Murphy was a Hollywood superstar, with a 15-million-dollar deal with Paramount Pictures as his reward.

The Delirious concert tour followed in 1983; recorded at a sold-out August performance, the LP Eddie Murphy: Comedian reached the Top 40 while his second feature, Trading Places, emerged as the year's highest-grossing film. A small role in 1984's disastrous Best Defense was Murphy's first misstep, but a year later he returned with Beverly Hills Cop, one of the most successful pictures in box-office history. Also in 1985 he teamed with producer Rick James to record How Could It Be, a straightforward R&B album which spawned the mammoth hit single "Party All the Time."

Murphy was the hottest actor in Hollywood when he signed on for the 1986 quasi-mystical action comedy The Golden Child; the film was a commercial and critical bomb, and for the first time his star power was in question. While 1987's Beverly Hills Cop II stood as the year's biggest blockbuster and restored much of his career's luster, the aptly titled concert film Raw drew considerable heat for its abrasive, politically incorrect ranting. After 1988's Coming to America raked in the revenue, Murphy wrote, directed, and starred in 1989's Harlem Nights, a black gangster tale which performed miserably and took a massive critical drubbing.

Following the Harlem Nights debacle, he agreed to reunite in 1990 with Nick Nolte in Another 48 Hrs. When it too bombed, Murphy's career bottomed out; neither of his 1992 efforts, Boomerang and The Distinguished Gentleman, performed as well as his earlier hits, the 1993 LP Love's Alright failed to chart, and even 1994's seeming sure thing Beverly Hills Cop III tanked. After 1995's Vampire in Brooklyn, an ill-advised horror comedy, he starred in a hit remake of Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor in 1996, but in the early weeks of the following year the action-adventure fiasco Metro took a nosedive. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Hip and irreverent, Stan Freberg was the last network radio comic, a trailblazing satirist whose work greatly expanded the vocabulary of the comedy form. While most postwar comedians used radio and records merely as a springboard for more lucrative film and television gigs, Freberg pushed the envelope in both mediums, creating high-concept... [+] Read More

Hip and irreverent, Stan Freberg was the last network radio comic, a trailblazing satirist whose work greatly expanded the vocabulary of the comedy form. While most postwar comedians used radio and records merely as a springboard for more lucrative film and television gigs, Freberg pushed the envelope in both mediums, creating high-concept musical comedies and sound collages which revolutionized the audio format while setting the stage for the hallucinatory sonic visions of the Firesign Theater and the National Lampoon troupe.

Born in Pasadena, California in 1926, Freberg broke into performing with work in children's puppet shows; while still in his teens, he hopped a bus to Los Angeles and won an audition at the famed Warner Bros. cartoon studios. In short time he was working (albeit uncredited) alongside voice-over genius Mel Blanc on characters like the Goofy Gophers and Pete Puma. Additionally, he contributed to Bob Clampett's puppet series Time for Beany, the precursor to the animated favorite Beany and Cecil.

By the age of 16, Freberg graduated to regular work as a radio, a path he continued for the remainder of the decade. In 1951 he signed to Capitol and released his first novelty single, "John and Marsha," a scathing satire of romantic treacle. After a handful of other releases, in 1953 he issued "St. George and the Dragonet," a painstakingly accurate and lavishly-produced parody of the Jack Webb series Dragnet; far more advanced than any similar other record to date, "St. George" became the era's fastest-selling single, eventually topping the charts.

In 1957, Freberg was tapped to take over Jack Benny's CBS radio program while Benny took the summer months off. Although radio comedy was in its death throes, Freberg made every conceivable attempt to resuscitate the form; his show was visionary, taking full advantage of the broadcast medium's capabilities to create elaborate comic pastiches which pushed the boundaries of vocal and sound effects use. The series, which ran for 13 weeks, won critical raves and immediate legendary status; due to the ascendancy of television, it was also the final original network radio comedy show ever broadcast.

After the 1958 single "Green Chri$tma$," a highly controversial swipe at holiday commercialization, Freberg moved to the LP format for 1961's United States of America, a full-length vaudeville-style musical comedy written especially for the recorded medium. A wildly ambitious satiric history of American life, the album won widespread acclaim, and remains a pivotal landmark in the evolution of recorded comedy. However, after the follow-up, Pay Radio, Freberg flirted with Broadway before shifting the majority of his energies to the lucrative advertising industry, a longtime sideline which became his primary focus as the 1960s wore on. Largely credited with introducing the concept of the "funny" commercial, he continued working in advertising for several decades; perhaps his most famous campaign -- and, sadly, his most abysmal -- was a series of cloying late-1980s TV spots hawking Encyclopaedia Britannica which featured his rather obnoxious son.

In 1988, Freberg published his autobiography, It Only Hurts When I Laugh. Two years later, he returned to broadcasting with Freberg Here, a long-running series of two-minute daily commentaries produced for National Public Radio. On Thanksgiving 1991, NPR aired The New Stan Freberg Show, a one-hour special which marked his first return to long-form comedy in decades; finally, in 1996 he released United States of America, Volume 2: The Middle Years, the long-awaited sequel to his most popular work. A four-disc box set, Tip of the Freberg: Collection 1951-1998, followed three years later. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

During the 1970s, Steve Martin was the most successful stand-up comedian in America, earning the level of commercial success -- sell-out arena performances, platinum records, hit singles and delirous fan adulatation -- usually reserved for rock stars. Although his career went on to encompass stints as an acclaimed dramatic actor and playwright,... [+] Read More

During the 1970s, Steve Martin was the most successful stand-up comedian in America, earning the level of commercial success -- sell-out arena performances, platinum records, hit singles and delirous fan adulatation -- usually reserved for rock stars. Although his career went on to encompass stints as an acclaimed dramatic actor and playwright, for many supporters the "Wild and Crazy Guy" persona defined on his comedy records remains Martin's true artistic legacy.

Although born August 14, 1945 in Waco, Texas, Martin spent the majority of his childhood in California, eventually working a concession booth at Disneyland as a teen. There he learned a variety of performing skills ranging from magic and juggling to playing the banjo and sculpting balloon animals. After graduating college, Martin began writing, and occasionally performing, comic material for television programs including The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Hour and The Sonny and Cher Show. At the tail end of the 1960s he moved to Canada, where, in addition to appearing as a semi-regular on the syndicated series Half the George Kirby Comedy Hour, he also began working as a stand-up.

Soon, Martin graduated to opening for rock performers, where his long hair, scraggly beard and hippie wardrobe aligned him firmly with the counterculture movement of the era. However, while in his twenties his hair began to go white; gradually, Martin began adapting his onstage persona to fit the change, re-emerging as a clean-cut, immaculately dressed conservative. The contrast with his increasingly high-concept comic idenity was sharp: superficially silly and daft, Martin's act contemptuously mocked the inherent stupidity of the stand-up form, mining catch-phrases, props and schtick to create a unique brand of scathing anti-comedy.

After earning a following on the stand-up circuit, Martin rose to national prominence thanks to a series of guest appearances on the NBC network's sketch-comedy phenomenon Saturday Night Live, as well as a number of performances on The Tonight Show. With the release of his 1977 album debut Let's Get Small, Martin's career exploded; the record reached the Top Ten, his concerts became immediate sell-outs, and one-liners like "I am...one wild and crazy guy!" and "Well excuuuse me!" became hip catch phrases. After a cameo in the musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, he made his proper film debut with 1978's The Jerk, which he also scripted; additionally, he wrote a best-selling book, Cruel Shoes.

1978 also marked the release of A Wild and Crazy Guy, Martin's most successful LP. Another platinum seller, it reached the number two slot on the charts on the strength of the hilarious hit single "King Tut," a pseudo-disco record mocking the then-current national obsession with the legendary Egyptian ruler. Nonetheless, Martin was clearly losing interest in the narrow parameters of the stand-up form; after his final two albums, 1979's Comedy Is Not Pretty and the following year's Steve Martin Brothers, he made the film musical Pennies From Heaven, a significant move away from his idiotic Jerk persona, and eventually retired from stand-up performance altogether.

After several underappreciated comedies in tandem with director Carl Reiner (including the clever Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid), Martin won acclaim for his superb slapstick performance in 1984's All of Me. With his sweet performance and stellar screenplay for 1987's Roxanne, a delicate comic spin on Cyrano de Bergerac, he won the critical success which long eluded him, and soon graduated into dramatic roles in films like Lawrence Kasdan's Grand Canyon and the Silas Marner update A Simple Twist of Fate. Still, by the 1990s Martin seemed largely disenchanted with Hollywood filmmaking, virtually sleepwalking through bland, mainstream comedies like Father of the Bride and Sgt. Bilko; instead, he focused his energies on the stage, writing the acclaimed theatrical production Picasso at the Lapin Agile. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Bob Newhart was one of the most successful and beloved comedians of his era; famed for his remarkable deadpan delivery, Newhart's track record as a comic performer was unparalleled, encompassing a string of best-selling albums as well as two of the most acclaimed and long-running sitcoms in television history. While neither as groundbreaking nor... [+] Read More

Bob Newhart was one of the most successful and beloved comedians of his era; famed for his remarkable deadpan delivery, Newhart's track record as a comic performer was unparalleled, encompassing a string of best-selling albums as well as two of the most acclaimed and long-running sitcoms in television history. While neither as groundbreaking nor as controversial as contemporaries like Lenny Bruce or Mort Sahl, Newhart raised the stand-up format to new levels of mainstream popularity; easily palatable but never pandering, his routines were smart and innovative, subtly bridging the gap between the edgy, confrontational satire of the late 1950s with the breezy comic narratives of the mid-'60s.

Born George Robert Newhart on September 5, 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois, he followed a stint in the Army by finding work as a Chicago accountant and advertising copywriter while also performing infrequently in a local theatrical stock company. At the ad agency, Newhart and co-worker Ed Gallagher often whiled away their time by placing long, bizarre phone calls to each other which they eventually began recording as audition tapes for comedy work. When Gallagher opted to begin taking the job more seriously, Newhart continued on alone, honing the one-man, two-way telephone call routines which became the hallmark of his stage act.

In 1959, a Chicago disc jockey introduced Newhart to Warner Bros. talent head George Avakian, who signed the aspiring performer to a contract solely on the basis of his home recordings; to date, Newhart had yet to perform his comedy before a live audience. After developing more phone-call monologues as well as playing off his natural stammer to establish a mild-mannered, even nervous, everyman persona, he began performing in nightclubs; his strongest routines, particularly "The Driving Instructor," skewered suburban sensibilities with a wry, modernist eye akin to a warmer, friendlier Shelley Berman.

His debut LP, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, appeared in early 1960; its success was unprecedented, becoming the first comedy record ever to top the Billboard album charts. Newhart became an overnight star, and quickly graduated from selling out nightclubs to selling out theaters. Later in the year, the follow-up, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!, also proved phenomenally popular, and for over eight months the albums held down both the number one and number two spots on the charts.

After a third successful record, 1961's Behind the Button-Down Mind, Newhart made his first foray into television with an eponymously titled variety and sketch comedy program. Despite critical raves and both an Emmy and a Peabody award, the show fared poorly and was cancelled after only one season; 1962's LP The Button-Down Mind on TV reprised material first heard on the series. That year also marked Newhart's feature-film debut in a supporting role in the wartime drama Hell Is for Heroes, followed in 1963 by the conversational LP Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newhart.

After two more albums, 1965's Windmills Are Weakening and 1966's This Is It, he gradually receded from the nightclub stage; after accepting a string of supporting roles in films, including 1970's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and Catch-22, he returned to television in 1972 with another offering titled The Bob Newhart Show. This one, a sitcom featuring Newhart as Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley, proved remarkably successful; backed by a brilliant supporting cast including Suzanne Pleshette, Bill Daily and Peter Bonerz, the show was an instant hit and aired through 1978, at which point its star felt the series had run its course.

Newhart subsequently returned to the stage for a two-year comedy tour, although he did not record any of the material for live release. In 1982, he resurfaced with the series Newhart, another massively successful effort which ran until 1990. In 1991, Newhart toured for the first time in over a decade; another series, titled simply Bob, followed in 1994, but it lasted little more than a year. In 1997 he released his first album in over three decades: titled The Button-Down Concert, it featured all-new live recordings of the material first presented on the original 1960 Button-Down Mind LP. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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Though not the first standup comedian to release a live recording, Bob Newhart was probably the first to really capture the public's attention, thanks to this debut. Of the six pieces included on this album, five of them are set up as part of a conversation (usually by phone), something that became Newhart's trademark. The material here would... [+] Read More

Though not the first standup comedian to release a live recording, Bob Newhart was probably the first to really capture the public's attention, thanks to this debut. Of the six pieces included on this album, five of them are set up as part of a conversation (usually by phone), something that became Newhart's trademark. The material here would have been novel in any age, and very little of it has dated substantially ("The Kruschev Landing Rehearsal" being the main exception, though it would still be funny even if you had no clue what the sketch was referring to). Though "Abe Lincoln Vs. Madison Avenue" and "Merchandising the Wright Brothers" are both top-shelf Newhart bits, "Driving Instructor" rises to the top of the heap. ~ Sean Carruthers, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Greatest Comedy Hits compiles most of Eddie Murphy's most famous comedy bits, as well as some that were never available on disc before. Murphy's hilarious riffs on Mick Jagger and James Brown, his classic routine on hit-and-run drivers, and his impressions of his drunken father -- they're all here. Included as well are recordings from his films... [+] Read More

Greatest Comedy Hits compiles most of Eddie Murphy's most famous comedy bits, as well as some that were never available on disc before. Murphy's hilarious riffs on Mick Jagger and James Brown, his classic routine on hit-and-run drivers, and his impressions of his drunken father -- they're all here. Included as well are recordings from his films Coming to America and Nutty Professor, as well as some riffs from his concert film, Raw, none of which were ever released on CD before. The real coup, though, consists of the seven previously unreleased recordings made at various club and stage appearances, some apparently from the late '80s and early '90s. Though the sound quality is uneven, which sometimes causes the jokes to be drowned out by the audience, there is still plenty of gold to be mined here. Murphy's take on Moses (most of his miracles were the result of a mistranslated speech impediment), his routine about a conversation with Little Richard, and his description of the birth of his first child are as classic as anything else here. His other new routines are too short (or in the case of "Almost Fucked a Midget," far too long) to be as vintage, but contain scattered laughs here and there. Fans may quibble over absent selections, such as his infamous gay Honeymooners bit, but for newcomers as well as longtime fans, Greatest Comedy Hits is a necessary purchase. ~ Victor W. Valdivia, All Music Guide [-] Hide

The Best of Redd Foxx: Comedy Stew contains the highlights from Foxx's '50s records for Columbia, offering a good overview of one of the most convtroversial and influential comedians of the post-war era. Comedy Stew is an excellent way for nearly anyone to become acquainted with Foxx's ground-breaking routines. ~ Leo Stanley, All Music Guide

The Best of Redd Foxx: Comedy Stew contains the highlights from Foxx's '50s records for Columbia, offering a good overview of one of the most convtroversial and influential comedians of the post-war era. Comedy Stew is an excellent way for nearly anyone to become acquainted with Foxx's ground-breaking routines. ~ Leo Stanley, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Foxx's Laff Records catalog is the source of this best-of collection, which compiles his influential and incisive "blue" material of the early 1960s. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Foxx's Laff Records catalog is the source of this best-of collection, which compiles his influential and incisive "blue" material of the early 1960s. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide [-] Hide