Tony Christie is probably best known for the song 'Is This the Way to Amarillo?', which had a resurgence in popularity in the UK when it was covered by comedian Peter Kay.
I first heard of Tony Christie through a TV theme tunes compilation that had 'Avenues and Alleyways' on it, the bombastic theme tune to the 70s TV show The Protectors. I saw a 'Best of Tony Christie' CD in a bargain bin a few years later, and bought it.
Most of the album is your typical Tom Jones/Andy Williams-esque balladeering. The kind of music that should swing, but you can't really dance to. No wonder audiences at these kinds of gigs look like they don't know what to do with themselves. Among the weepy schlock is was a song called 'I Did What I Did For Maria'. This song is my record collection confession.
This song is awful, but it's awful in a fascinating way. The lyrics tell the story of a man in the Wild West who hunts down and kills the man who murdered his wife, while the music brims with parpy brass and an easy-listening beat. What exactly were they aiming for with this song? Murder ballad? Pop song? Dinner party music? It's a weird juxtaposition; beneath the upbeat surface this is a song about brutal vengeance, but there's no real air of menace due to Christie's crooning and the muzak-quality score.
The clincher for me is how the lyrics rhyme 'fear' with 'Maria'. Ouch.
It's bad, but I love it because of that.
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( 3 / 121 )The Transformed Man, William Shatner (1968)
Where do you start with this one? This is the album that now serves as a standard-bearer for terrible celebrity albums, when pomposity and a lack of singing talent combine to make something beyond the boundaries of normal music.
To be fair, William Shatner has never been a guy to do things subtly. As an actor, he gives a veritable feast of acting, delivering a full platter of corn, ham and cheese. When you put Shatner's unique vocal stylings to a backing track and add a dash of Shakespearean concept pretension, then you end up with The Transformed Man.
Although the music is hilarious, the liner notes are woth checking out for more than a few chuckles. Shatner wanted to produce an album of songs with contrasting emotions, songs that showed "two sides of the coin". Since I couldn't find the liner notes online, I've typed them up in full, including the Producer's note and tracklist here. Don't say I'm not good to you.
Shatner can't sing, there's no argument with that, but it's the sheer energy, emotion and earnestness that he puts into each over-cooked performance that makes this album and most of his acting performances totems of kitsch.
Shatner singing 'Rocketman'
'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' - with excellent fan-made video
Was Shatner in on the joke? From the liner notes, it doesn't sound like it, although he's certainly made a career recently out of laughing at himself, either through TV series like Boston Legal, or the 2004 album Has Been, recorded with Ben Folds and tongue firmly in cheek. Shatner may be laughing now, but back in 1968, he was deadly serious, which makes his cry of "Mr. Tambourine Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan" all the funnier.
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( 2.9 / 125 )When Sex Leers its Inquisitive Head, Peter Wyngarde (1970)
I recently bought this album, recorded in 1970 by Peter Wyngarde, the man who played the fabulous novelist/detective Jason King in the British TV series of the same name (the character started out in the late 60's series Department S, and was so popular that he got his own eponymous spin-off).
Wyngarde is a fascinating guy. When at the height of his Jason King fame, he was inevitably approached by RCA Records to make an album. Rejecting the Frank Sinatra and Beatles covers offered to him, he went for full artistic freedom and produced one of the weirdest, kind-of-concept, kind-of-experimental albums of its time, with various situations of love and sex being the rough theme running through the album. Wyngarde approached the project with a sense of tongue-in-cheek playfulness, but this seemed to go over most people's heads upon release, and the LP was never given another release beyond its initial pressing. The inclusion of a track called 'Rape' probably didn't help, either. Fortunately, it's widely available on CD (which beats paying silly money for it on eBay).
Wyngarde's strengths in this album are the fact that he never attempts to sing (hello Shatner), and the frankly awesome quality of the music (the intro to the album's first track 'Come In' sounds Daft Punk-esque, and Wyngarde's delivery of 'Jenny Kissed Me' and 'Neville Thumbcatch' are simply mellifluous). I will definitely be playing some of the tracks on future shows.
Jason King TV intro
Oh yeah, and he also played Klytus in Flash Gordon.
All I need is for Jason King look-a-like Ray McVay to cover the album and my kitsch metaverse will collapse in on itself.
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