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TV stars recording music

Vicki Lawrence was a co-star on The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1978, and from 1983 to 1990 she starred in Mama's Family, which was adapted from a recurring sketch on the Burnett show. In 1973 she had a number-one hit with The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia, which was written by her then-husband Bobby Russell, who also wrote Honey, Little Green Apples and The Joker Went Wild.

As for Carol Burnett herself, her recording career came before her tv series. She made her first album for Decca in 1961: Carol Burnett Remembers How They Stopped The Show, a collection of show tunes.
 
^ I did not know that about Carol. She is an absolute comedy genius----but oh that singing. Those duets she used to sing with established music artists*, some made me cringe. I might have even changed the channel.

I saw on YouTube a nearly-10-minute salute to music in motion pictures, a duet w/ Carol & Eydie Gorme. Some commented how great Carol was as a singer. Well, MMV I guess (my mileage varies).

[*I didn't care for all her singing partners either, but oh well. YMMV.]

cd
 
Well then, I guess I'll take the CD I bought you for Christmas and give it to someone else. It's a reissue of Carol Burnett's 1963 album, Let Me Entertain You, a collection of Jule Styne songs including the title song, Just In Time, Saturday Night Is The Loneliest Night Of The Week, Everything's Coming Up Roses and I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry.

Carol's 1962 live album with Julie Andrews sold fairly well, but Carol had only one solo album on the Top 200: If I Could Write A Song (1972). It spent only two weeks on the chart and stalled at #199. Obviously her 1961 and 1963 albums weren't even that good. :D
 
Well I suppose that you could put Carol B. in a category like Ethel Merman/Carol Channing....I suppose there is a market for the "oversinging" singer :)

The deal, I guess, was, it was Carol's show, and she could do whatever she doggone well pleased.*

But wow, how could we have overlooked Vicki Lawrence? Great catch, above!

*BTW do any of those Best-of-Carol DVDs feature her singing?

cd
 
I bought one of them, the two-disc set titled Carol's Favorites, which includes seven complete episodes. Unfortunately, not all of the seven shows included Tim Conway. And unfortunately, yes, Carol sings at least one song per episode. I hope Judy Collins never heard Carol's dreary rendition of Send In The Clowns. Yikes!
 
Well, if they were "Carol's Favorites," that meant that we must hear her sing!

I guess nothing was as creepy as the ending to Carol-as-Eunice singing "Feelings" on the Gong Show---actually a sketch on the Burnett Show with much of the Gong Show cast, using the actual set of that show. It definitely was a departure from the normal comedy fare.

BTW I wonder if one of the shows had Conway as the Old Man as a firefighter---that one, and the "Went with the Wind" are absolute classics. Just watching Harvey Korman trying to "hold back" never fails to make me smile. :)

cd
 
I assume Russell also penned his own top 40 hits "1432 Franklin Pike Circle Hero" and "Saturday Morning Confusion".

Vicki did a nice job on TNtLWOiG. Her voice fit well in that song. As another poster said though, ymmv.

ixnay
 
Unless I have missed it, has anyone mentioned William Shatner? I don't know if his acting career came first (Star Trek, etc.) or if his "recording" career came first. If any of you know anything about any of the songs that he has "sung," you would know why I have placed everything regarding his "music" in quotes in this reply. I don't think that any of his "music" was meant to be taken seriously.
 
"Why quotation marks were created, Chapter XVII."

William Shatner's "recording" career began in 1968 when he came out with The Transformed Man, an album of dramatic readings of Shakespeare and pop song lyrics. This is the album that included what is arguably Shatner's most "famous" "recording", Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. His first acting role was at age 20 in a 1951 Canadian film The Butler's Night Off. He played one of a group of crooks who were hired to kill a clothing store co-owner. I guess the "Live long" idea wasn't around back then. :D
 
Shatner wasn't the only one.

Telly Savalas actually peaked at #12 Easy Listening in 1975 with his, um, rendition of "If" by Bread. (#93 on Hot 100 I think)

One of the worst songs I ever claim to have heard was Telly's version of Peter Skellern's "You're a Lady"--oughta be on YouTube. The Skellern song I couldn't stand; Telly's version only makes it worse, if that's possible.

cd
 
Golly gee, how could we forget Little Joe Cartwright...and Charles Ingalls...and Jonathan Smith? Actually, Michael Landon's first single came out in 1957 before he started on Bonanza. It was Gimme A Little Kiss, Will Ya, Huh? The song was a number-one hit in 1926 by Whispering Jack Smith. Landon's version was released on Candlelight Records and reissued by Fono-Graf. Then in 1964 Landon recorded Linda Is Lonesome for RCA.
 
cd637299 said:
Shatner wasn't the only one.

Telly Savalas actually peaked at #12 Easy Listening in 1975 with his, um, rendition of "If" by Bread. (#93 on Hot 100 I think)

One of the worst songs I ever claim to have heard was Telly's version of Peter Skellern's "You're a Lady"--oughta be on YouTube. The Skellern song I couldn't stand; Telly's version only makes it worse, if that's possible.
cd
Click to expand...

Wow, I had forgotten all about Telly's "singing" career. What a joke!
 
Let's see if I can write something without the italics sticking like they did in my previous post. In 1967, while starring as The Flying Nun on the ABC series The Flying Nun, Sally Field had a hit album titled The Flying Nun. The album included a single---and no, it was not titled The Flying Nun; it was Felicidad and got to #94. On an episode of the series, she sang the song with a bunch of kids marching around the rocks near water's edge. The album and single were on Colgems, the label that also had a quartet you may have heard of: the Monkees.
 
LARadioRewind said:
Let's see if I can write something without the italics sticking like they did in my previous post. In 1967, while starring as The Flying Nun on the ABC series The Flying Nun, Sally Field had a hit album titled The Flying Nun. The album included a single---and no, it was not titled The Flying Nun; it was Felicidad and got to #94. On an episode of the series, she sang the song with a bunch of kids marching around the rocks near water's edge. The album and single were on Colgems, the label that also had a quartet you may have heard of: the Monkees.
Click to expand...
And effectively, that's how the MONKEES got started, as TV "performers", if not yet stars, recording music.
 
Davy, recording as "David Jones," got to #93 in 1965 with a song titled What Are We Going To Do? An album followed; it was cleverly titled David Jones. He had made his first tv appearance a year earlier. As a member of the London cast of Oliver, he was on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. That telecast featured another quartet you may have heard of: The Beatles.
 
Ooohh! Ooohh! (Said in my best Arnold Horshack voice.) I thought of another tv star turned singer: Gale Storm moved from movies to television in 1952. She starred in My Little Margie until 1955, then did The Gale Storm Show from 1956 to 1960. She began recording in 1954 and had six top-ten hits, including I Hear You Knocking, Ivory Tower and Dark Moon.

By the way, Gale Storm wasn't hear real name. It was Josephine Owaissa Cottle. Yikes!
 
Laverne and shirley

and lenny and Squiggy

both released albums..

connie stevens - 16 reasons

annette - tall paul

ed brynes -kookie with connie stevens

jim nabors..

george maharis - route 66 recorded teach me tonight..
 
Now cut that out! Pardon me for giving the wrong year--The album (also known as Jack Benny Plays The Bee) was reissued in 1978. It first came out on Capitol Records in 1956. There!
 
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