Jack Paar - The Best of "What's His Name" (1961)

The Best of "What's His Name" by Jack Paar

Tonight! America After Dark busted, so NBC veered quickly back to the proven format Steve Allen had established during his late-night tenure, continuing what was never intended to continue after Allen's departure. In 1957, NBC chose comedian Jack Paar to save their failing time slot's ratings. Jack Paar had an extensive resume by the time he had a contract with NBC. This included time as a disc jockey, as an emcee with the USO during World War II, as a host of his own comedy radio program, as a film actor, and as a game show host. Tonight Starring Jack Paar was the next step in a restless career. Where Steve Allen's Tonight was like a well-kept secret, Jack Paar would make Tonight nightly must-watch television, moving TV sets from the living room to the bedroom.

Steve Allen ran Tonight as an "anything goes" variety show filled with singers, sketches, gimmicks and anything else that would fill the allotted time. The show ran on Allen's improvisational comic styling just as Jack Paar's iteration of the show ran on his more scripted experience in stand-up comedy. Under Paar, the monologue and the interview became the foundation stones of every late night program that came after. Some of Paar's monologues were gathered and cut into a record, The Best of "What's His Name", and released in 1961 on the obscure Ramrod Superrecords. It would be his only album.

Jack Paar was a quick wit, a curious mind, a tastemaker, and an incisive interviewer. None of that is evident on this record. In many ways, the record is a bit of a mystery and seems like a cheap—or even bootleg—release from Paar's peak with Tonight. It was put out by a nothing label with anonymous liner notes and an oversized ad for Jiffy Sew - The Miracle Liquid Mender on the back of the record. It is a collection of the more average, daily Jack Paar performance with less-than-great material. But he manages the material with a veteran's ability to win over a tough crowd and play off a flat joke or a string of them. So, it's not "the best of" Jack Paar. But when "the best of" is all that really survives these days, the not-so-best helps paint a clearer picture of a hard-working, gifted and impactful comedian.

Here is Jack Paar's discography:

I-M-4-U (I Am for You) (1955 single with Jack Haskell)

Paar for Tonight (1957 single)

Funny What You Learn from Women (1958 single)

The Best of "What's His Name"

JFK on The Jack Paar Show

The Jack Parr Program with guests Bette Davis and Jonathan Winters

The Jack Parr Program with guests Liberace and Muhammad Ali

The Jack Parr Program with guest Robert Kennedy

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