My answer for this is the same as Day 3. Very first one in any format was the Sibling Revelry on cassette. First vinyl was Purple Onion. Not only my first albums but also my favorites 🥰 And I share how I got each one of those in that post.
And since I showed the front covers of those albums also on Day 3, and I didn’t want to use the same picture again, I decided to share the back covers this time 😅
There were a total of 12 albums released. During the 60’s, 11. Years later, in 1988, a “Best Of”. And all of them I love to bits. But which one is my favorite?
There’s two.
Sibling Revelry: The Best of the Smothers Brothers
This one which is pretty much like it sounds: a compilation of routines from their albums that are tops. I got the cassette version as a birthday present from a family friend. I don’t remember any other birthday presents I got that year.
It was also my first foray into hearing them. I listened to that a lot. Brought it with me a few months later when I had jaw surgery. Since my whole head was wrapped up in bandages and my eyes swollen, watching tv was out of the question, so I brought things to listen to, this album being one of them. My jaw was also tightly rubber-banded shut to hold things in place, and I couldn’t laugh the regular way. When I wanted to laugh, all that energy had to go somewhere and I convulsed with laughter which shook the hospital bed, and I made weird sounds since I couldn’t move my head. The nurses probably wondered if I was ok 😂.
This is the tracklist of what’s on the cassette version:
Tom Dooley
Chocolate
Laredo
The Saga Of John Henry
Gnus
Crabs Walk Sideways
Mediocre Fred
Mom Always Liked You Best
You Can Call Me Stupid
Jenny Brown
The Military Lovers
I Talk To The Trees
Hangman
Michael, Row The Boat Ashore
I later saw my local library had the CD version which had more routines on it. Needless to say, I checked that out several times until I bought my own copy.
And then at some point I bought the vinyl version. Because that’s the kind of fan I am 🤓
I definitely would recommend this album if you are a new fan.
But it’s easy to say a “Best of” album as a favorite.
The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion
That summer of 1989 I was home recovering from jaw surgery, and my mom mentions that she thinks she has a Smothers Brothers record somewhere.
“Really?!? WHERE?!?”
“Oh, it’s somewhere in the steam trunk”
Although I had my own records when I was little (Sesame Street, Disney, Beach Boys, Elton John), I don’t remember my parents listening to their records. I remember listening to their 8-tracks many many times, and my own. But in ’89 I went through their record collection (Sgt Pepper! Including the sheet of cut-outs!), and lo-and-behold I found the Purple Onion album.
It was a good thing I didn’t know about mom having this record when I was little, because otherwise it would have gone the way of my own records… which is probably why they weren’t brought out often! 😂
Below, my daughter listening to the album on our (then) brand new record player. I am hoping to get a better player later on, because the one I have is 😒.
I love this album, partly for sentimental reasons, but also because it has great balance of routines and songs. One of them, “They Call The Wind Maria”, is my favorite song they sing straight (2nd half of track 4). It has a comedic intro, but once they start singing, they sing it straight.
“Down in the Valley” is also performed straight (again, right after a comedic intro, but this time it’s how people come up to them and question whether or not they are really brothers and if their real name is Smothers 🤣).
And from this album I heard about the famous folk song “Tom Dooley” (track 7) that I had previously never heard of. It was the only routine that I was familiar with, it being the first track from the “The Best of” album. I loved Tom’s intro saying that another group (that I had equally hadn’t heard of – The Kingston Trio) had stolen the song from his brother. I started to listen to the Trio because of this.
Sidenote – Tom Dooley was based on a real person who (according to legend) was innocently hung for the death of his lover. You can begin you rabbit hole journey of the song here, here, and here.
In reality, Tom and Dick would often credit The Kingston Trio for opening the doors to their, and many others, popularity.
Back on track
Below is the playlist of the whole Purple Onion album:
The reasons why this is my favorite boils down to a great balance of straight singing and comedic routines, both done superbly.
Dickie wasn’t established as the straight man yet.
Only the opening routine was recorded at the Purple Onion. Due to technical issues, the other recordings from that performance were scrapped . Most of the album was recorded at the Tidelands Club.
Afterthought – I should have put this part of the challenge after I went through all their albums. Oh well 🙃
This is not to say that I hate the movie. Not at all. This one just is at the bottom of my list.
A Countess From Hong Kong.
There are things I liked about this, but I think it’s the weakest of his films. Mostly, I think, he was not working with his old crew since this was several years into his exile from the United States. Also he gave himself just a cameo.
It is weird to watch a film of his in color. Very much so. Also widescreen. What world have I popped into?
Absolutely love the music! While he as not at his normal stomping grounds of his studio for filming, he did have an excellent access to a great orchestra.
“This is My Song” is one of my favorite Chaplin pieces, both the instrumental version from the soundtrack…
… and the version sung by Petula Clark
And another version that I like a lot:
The thing that bothers me about it (and I have only watched it one time 3 years ago during it’s 50th anniversary) was I could see Chaplin directing them. Not literally of course, but how Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren, and the rest of the cast acted. It didn’t come off as natural as the cast in his earlier films. Some reason that just got to me.
Chaplin, in one of the 2 cameo shots
Other than the music, I thought that Harvey’s character had interesting growth, from jerk to being thoughtful. And Miss Gaulswallow was a hoot! Sophia Loren as Natasha was very elegant the whole time, even when she was wearing baggy pajamas.
And Charlie’s two cameo spots were nice. And being seasick on a ship was reminiscent of the opening scenes of seasick travelers on a boat to America in his The Immigrant 50 years earlier.
Maybe it was just Marlon that I didn’t like that much. He and Chaplin did not get along on set. Marlon was a method actor, and Chaplin was a “do *exactly* how I act it out or we do it again, and again, and again, and…” directing method which he had been doing since his early silent days. And Marlon didn’t like that.
So, no, not a terrible movie. Just below the other movies he made. Would it have been better if he was in it more? I have wondered about how it would have turned out if he made it back when he wrote it in the 1930s with Paulette Goddard being the female lead. One ting for sure: It certainly is an experience to watch a film of his in widescreen and color.
There’s an essay contest going on at TheCelebrityCafe.com and the prize is volume 3 of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour tv show from the 1960s. (If you don’t know who they are, check out their website).
I wrote a short essay on one of my favorite routines they did on the show called “Lessons and Morons”:
