Blogpost #21

Hi, crimestoppers! (This is where you respond 'Hi, Steve!') That's a line from Steve Martin's "Wild And Crazy Guy" LP, one of the best selling comedy albums in history.

This week's show is a birthday tribute to Steve, who was born on V-J Day, August 14, 1945. The sleeve above is from his top twenty single "King Tut", which closes this week's show.

As a treat for my listeners, I am sharing one of the rarest albums in my collection. It's a 1978 radio show on LP featuring a revealing interview with Steve conducted by David Brandes. I found a copy in a used record store back in 1982, and I haven't seen another one since. I have seen copies offered online for $68 and up.

The radio show was produced by Warner Brothers to promote his "Wild And Crazy Guy" LP, and it featured clips from his first two albums. Unbelievably, some of the clips included profanity, which I have edited out. This might explain the extreme rarity of the LP. Steve was interviewed in the fall of 1978 when he was in the midst of shooting his "Wild And Crazy Guy" TV special which aired November 22, 1978.

Technical note: this LP is in very poor shape, and it had to be specially remastered for broadcast. Many hours were spent removing clicks, pops, scratches, and surface noise. I'm undecided as to whether it was worth the effort, because now it sounds more like a tape than an album. I'm the only one who knows how much the sound was improved, so I guess it was really just my way of paying tribute to Steve. I feel like I restored the LP just for him, even though he'll never know it.

Last year, Steve published his memoir, "Born Standing Up", now available in paperback from Amazon. It details his strained relationship with his parents, who initially disapproved of his showbiz career. There's a brief reference to this in the radio interview. If you haven't read the book, I recommend it as a companion piece to this program.

Next week, we remember Elvis on the anniversary of his death. Please tune in.