Bob & Ray: Throw a Stereo Spectacular

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Normal Bob & Ray...
Review: In the 1950's, record companies and phonograph manufacturers distributed albums designed to demonstrate the "stereo effect," aimed primarily at people who were either contemplating or had just purchased their first "high fidelity" audio system. Most of these albums had bizarre audio effects (such as sounds moving around the room in a circle or ping-ponging between speakers) to exaggerate the stereo "experience."

For whatever reason, RCA asked Bob & Ray to do a stereo demonstration album. This is it. The album consists of comedy segments parodying the excesses of other stereo demos, separated by one of the strangest collections of musical performances you'll ever hear on one record. (Imagine Lena Horne, Julie Andrews and Abbe Lane sharing an album with the Radio City Music Hall Organ and The Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band.) The musical performances, with the exception of the Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band, are all straight, and all of them were simply lifted from other RCA albums of the time (1958).

You won't hear any of the Bob & Ray classic comedy routines, but the audio demonstrations by "Dr. Ahkbar" they concocted will still get you laughing. If that's not enough, you can enjoy the pseudo-lounge music of George Melanchrino, Dick Schory's New Percussion Ensemble, or The Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. (If you've never heard of any of them, join the club.)