Fact #89328
When:
Short story:
Capitol Records releases the Frank Zappa-composed single The Big Surfer by Brian Lord and the Midnighters in the USA.
Full article:
Frank Zappa : There were these things called novelty records, you know? Like Please, Mr. Custer. Radio still had a slight sense of humour. So if you could do a novelty record, the chances were you could lease it to a record company.
I wrote one, and Paul and I leased the master to Capitol for the unheard-of sum of a $700 advance. I mean, that was a whopper. And the reason was because this record looked like it was gonna be unbelievably hot. You know why? It was called The Big Surfer, and what it was, it was a guy - a San Bernardino disc jockey named Brian Lord -- who could do Kennedy's voice better than Kennedy. It was like a take-off on the First Family album, where Kennedy is judging a surf contest. And totally produced - sound effects, the whole business, okay?
The unfortunate part of the record was the punchline: the winner of the contest got an all-expense-paid trip as the first member of the Peace Corps to be sent to Alabama. Well, shortly after we signed the contract, Medgar Evers got killed, and Capitol refused to release the record.
(Source : not known)
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I wrote one, and Paul and I leased the master to Capitol for the unheard-of sum of a $700 advance. I mean, that was a whopper. And the reason was because this record looked like it was gonna be unbelievably hot. You know why? It was called The Big Surfer, and what it was, it was a guy - a San Bernardino disc jockey named Brian Lord -- who could do Kennedy's voice better than Kennedy. It was like a take-off on the First Family album, where Kennedy is judging a surf contest. And totally produced - sound effects, the whole business, okay?
The unfortunate part of the record was the punchline: the winner of the contest got an all-expense-paid trip as the first member of the Peace Corps to be sent to Alabama. Well, shortly after we signed the contract, Medgar Evers got killed, and Capitol refused to release the record.
(Source : not known)