After building a comic rapport over five years on the show Who Do You Trust?, it was only natural for Johnny Carson to bring along his friend Ed McMahon to be The Tonight Show's announcer and Johnny's sidekick. McMahon always worked through his big, baritone voice. As a teenager, he started as a carnival barker, bingo caller and pitch man, then switched, after war service and college, to radio and, finally, television where he made for a natural announcer. So, it was probably inevitable that Ed McMahon release an album: And Me...I'm Ed McMahon in 1967 on Cameo Parkway Records.
Although some of the internet lists this album as a 1963 release, the fact that two songs sung by McMahon weren't published until 1966 means 1967 is the actual release date. Rather than the songwriting data, it's the jarring mix of a distorted guitar with big band and dixieland touches on the opening track "Claudia" that really screams late Sixties Pop. The production calms down the genre fusion after this but only to scatter the genres throughout the rest of the record. Whether led by strings, brass or guitar, Ed McMahon still can't find a note. He slides in and out of them, and for having such a rich speaking voice, delivers his lines weakly. At least by the end of the album, McMahon does make some interesting—though not necessarily good—decisions, starting with the storybook epic "Beautiful Girl" and ending with genres he finally shows some affinity for: country ("Loving Heart") and western ("They Call the Wind Maria.") It's not much of a reward for making it to the end of the record, however.
Here is the discography surrounding Ed McMahon's debut album:
And Me...I'm Ed McMahon
Beautiful Girl (1967 single)
"They Call the Wind Maria" by Ed McMahon
"Claudia" by Ed McMahon
Ed McMahon Argues with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show
Ed McMahon Budweiser Commercial
Pass the Headphones!!
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