Jimmy Fallon - The Bathroom Wall (2002)

"(I Can't Play) Basketball" by Jimmy Fallon

The only person to really benefit from the Tonight Show's Leno/Conan/Leno hosting shuffle was Jimmy Fallon. After a six-year stint as one of SNL's most popular cast members and a misguided turn as a film star, Jimmy Fallon fell into Conan's open seat on Late Night and thus became the natural heir to the Tonight Show desk. (Unlike for Letterman and Conan, Fallon's Late Night tenure felt more like on the job training for future, bigger stakes.) Leno lasted four more years before retiring. Jimmy took over as host of The Tonight Show on February 17, 2014 and has been behind the desk since. Before he was on TV, Jimmy Fallon was a stand up comic. While he was on TV, he released his first comedy album The Bathroom Wall in 2002 on DreamWorks Records.

Jimmy Fallon's hefty bag of impressions impressed Lorne Michaels enough to hire him for SNL where he was a valuable utility player: good for celebrity lampoons and silly-voiced bits. His bag also includes musical impressions; he can break out a guitar and a convincing Dave Matthews yowl. So, the album is naturally designed around this skillset—however far that will carry—and is made up half of musical genre parodies and half of his pre-SNL stand up material. The anchoring routine is also divided into halves. The first half is a run of impressions of celebrities vying to be the spokesman for Troll Productions Inc, makers of Troll Dolls. The second is a run of musical parodies of bands vying to write a jingle for Troll Productions Inc. Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Gilbert Gottfried, then U2, the 4 Non Blondes, R.E.M. et al switch in at breakneck speed, inspiring the awe of recognition. and leave before any one voice or song gets stale and before the audience catches on that the bit is stupid and bereft of actual jokes.

Like any musical parody album, the songs jump through a variety of genres and "parodies" them by contrasting expected lyrical content with actual lyrical content. What if a punk band sang about a snowball fight? What if the Beastie Boys couldn't hoop? What if Prince was an "Idiot Boyfriend"? The characters in these songs are all the same pathetic white boys and the jokes detail exactly how pathetic. Mark Ronson and Justin Stanley handle the production to at least give the songs a professional sheen that helps sell the parodies. But they weren't in the room for the worst musical bit on the album, the closer. A live bit reverse engineered to show off Jimmy's ability to sing off key...I mean, sing popular songs in a way that is vaguely familiar to the originals. The conceit: you can play MC Hammer's "Hammertime" under any 80s pop song. Sure, you can do that, but it doesn't work. It's also not a joke. Good crowd work, I guess.

Back to the stand up material because Jimmy Fallon is more than just impressions though impressions sneak in anyway (see the unfortunate "Chris Rock Was My RA" bit.) The material is all college jokes—roommates, community showers, mini fridges, etc.—and probably been the filler to his routine for nearly ten years at this point (and definitely five years since he was performing the set a year before joining SNL.) But college jokes are timeless especially when delivered to college audiences. On the recording, the college kids are slightly drunk and very generous and unwittingly give voice to the flaw running through Jimmy's whole routine. Impressions and jokes are greeted alike with cheers, not laughs. But Jimmy's a nice guy and the audience wants to have a good time with him and wants him to succeed. So does Lorne, so do NBC executives, and so do his agents. Turns out, doing only one thing well can take you pretty far.

Here is the discography surrounding Jimmy Fallon's debut album:

The Concert for New York City (To Benefit the Robin Hood Relief Fund) (2001 compilation song)

MTV TRL Christmas (2001 compilation song)

The Bathroom Wall

Hammertime (2002 promo single)

Idiot Boyfriend (2002 promo single)

Selections from The Bathroom Wall (2002 EP)

Jimmy Fallon Stand Up

Jimmy Fallon's Late Night Debut

Jimmy Fallon Hosting the 2002 MTV VMAs

Jimmy Fallon Interview Before Taking Over Late Night

Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show Debut Monologue (delivered as if it's his last)

Pass the Headphones!!

Jazz Express - The Songs of Diana Ross (1992)

So, Jay Leno returned to The Tonight Show, as did Kevin Eubanks but only for a couple of months. After the drama surrounding the Tonight Show shuffle and a desire to spend more time with family, Kevin stepped down as Jay's bandleader. Industry veteran Rickey Minor and his TV Band (hired away from their gig as the American Idol band) took the stage in May 2010. Minor brought with him his television professionalism and complemented Jay by playing energetic pop songs and classics that would reinvigorate the audience during breaks in the recording. He started his career as a bassist, playing in groups and in sessions, and notably joined Whitney Houston's band before becoming her musical director. That job title would become his career as he worked with artists across the pop landscape and on shows like American Idol and The Oscars. In the middle of working for Whitney, he recorded with Jazz Express on their debut album The Songs of Diana Ross released in 1992 by the Japanese label Sound Design Records.

There's not much information out there about Jazz Express—probably because there's not much history. They were a studio band that recorded a series of smooth jazz albums with each album focusing on covering hits by a particular artist. They released five albums in 1992 alone and the "first" release I chose—I couldn't find exact release dates—is only based on the earliest catalogue number (SDCH-1016.) Rather than a band with a vision, Jazz Express looks like and sounds like and jazzes like a session job.

The first three songs are dominated by the soothing sax sounds of Michael Paulo. His saxophone's velvet texture is pillowed with organ chords, shimmering cymbals and a touch of chimes in the opening seconds of "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" and creates that cozy sound perfect for when you're contemplating the wonderful end to a romantic date (in the 80s,) enjoying a bubblebath surrounded by scented candles (in a cheeky Old Spice commercial,) or on hold waiting for your doggy daycare's customer service representative (still.) But then the album of Diana Ross covers drops a couple players favoring a smaller combo. Michael Paulo isn't on the rest of the album and neither is guitarist Buzzy Feiten. The main players left are Rickey Minor, drummer Ricky Lawson and pianist Neil Larsen. Neil Larsen punches up the remaining songs by speeding up the tempo, introducing tension, and allowing the two Rick(e)y's larger roles including a nifty drum solo on "Stop! In the Name of Love" and more melodic and prominent lines from Minor. These tracks veer away from the programmed smooth jazz, though still smooth and perfect for background at a convenience store, to a style with a little more forward motion...though not quite enough to be invigorating.

Here is the discography surrounding Jazz Express's debut album:

The Songs of Diana Ross

The Tonight Show Theme

Kevin Eubanks Discusses His Decision to Leave The Tonight Show

Rickey Minor Leaves American Idol

Pass the Headphones!!