Buchanan & Goodman

There isn’t a lot of humour in rock and roll, but here you have it, right at the outset, this is radically funny, not so much the actual jokes, but the delivery, the pace, the irreverence. Dickie Goodman went on to a career as a spoof artist, but he never got better than this.

I totally can not remember where I got it. It’s not the kind of thing you pick up easily, like on a compilation or something. Possibly the actual single? I do not remember…

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Buchanan & Goodman:

• The Flying Saucer (Parts 1 and 2) – A “break-in” record. That’s like a fake news report, with snippets of songs thrown it to make it funny. Thing is that in this case it is genuinely funny. He calls Little Richard “Madam,” he misnames all the songs and artists (The Platters are The Clatters, Maybelline is “Motor Cool Down” by Huckle Berry). The outrageous story, the frantic delivery, the allaround silliness, it’s never been duplicated. This was a hit in the summer of 1956. Rock and roll was barely a year on the charts, and it was already spoofing itself, with a record that has not been equalled.
• Flying Saucer The Second – More of the same. This part of the story takes place on a distant planet. From the summer of 1957. Elvis plays himself.