Ernie Kovacs - The Ernie Kovacs Album (1976)

"Tom Swift" by Ernie Kovacs

For Steve Allen, Tonight Starring Steve Allen was just a stepping stone to primetime and the culmination of a decade of hard work across radio and television. The reward was The Steve Allen Show, a Sunday evening variety show and NBC's challenge to CBS's top-rated The Ed Sullivan Show. With the workload for Allen's new program on top of the behemoth output required for Tonight, comedian and fellow television pioneer Ernie Kovacs signed on to share the load by hosting Tonight on Mondays and Tuesdays in 1956. Before and after his Tonight run, Kovacs was the star and creative impetus for several iterations of the skit-driven The Ernie Kovacs Show. Some of the more aural-friendly skits from The Ernie Kovacs Show are collected on The Ernie Kovacs Album released in 1976 on Columbia Records.

Ernie Kovacs seemingly never turned down an opportunity in television and, no matter the job, always found a way to play with the new medium and infuse into the work his unique brand of comedy. Dry, absurdist, satirical, irreverent, anarchic, experimental, subversive, antiestablishment aren't enough adjectives to pin down Ernie's comic energy. With his experimentation, he's more of a visual artist than his contemporaries and with his experience in radio, he's more of a an aural artist than his contemporaries. In short, where his fellow television pioneers were satisfied remaking vaudeville, Ernie Kovacs was a comic artist.

As a compilation of some of his best TV skits, The Ernie Kovacs Album can't help but only show half an art form. Although the experimentation is still present in some of the sound collages, the album favors character sketches and satirical bits. The most common subject of his comic criticism is television itself: both its advertising and its stodgy and already calcifying tropes and formats. Under his focus, Ernie captures the human element to get the most laughs whether through the natural or performed awkwardness that television inspires. The record is a dry delivery that multiplies the humor as the straight-faced absurdities layer upon themselves incessantly. "Tom Swift" in particular could go on forever and you really want it to because...will good ol' Tom lead his "feetsball" team (as Tom called it), down 210-to-nothing, to a comeback in the Big Game with only four seconds left to play?

Here is the discography surrounding Ernie Kovac's first album:

Hot Cakes & Sausage (1954 single with the Tony DeSimone Trio)

The Ernie Kovacs Album

The Ernie Kovacs Album (Centennial Edition) (2019 reissue)

"J. Walter Puppybreath / Albert Gridley"

The Ernie Kovacs Show

"Eugene"

"Kitchen Symphony"

Kovacs on the Corner Episode

"Hot Cakes & Sausage" by Ernie Kovacs with Tony DeSimone Trio

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Gladys Knight and The Pips - Letter Full of Tears (1962)

"What Shall I Do?" by Gladys Knight and The Pips

Despite the impression left by the album's title, Diana Ross didn't play a role in the "presentation" of The Jackson 5. Her name was included to cross-promote the start of her own solo career with the Five's debut. Gladys Knight, rather, was the first to bring the Jacksons to the attention of Motown brass. Gladys Knight and The Pips released their debut album Letter Full of Tears in 1962 on Fury Records.

Gladys Knight and The Pips had a tumultuous start. They started with a regional hit, "Every Beat of My Heart," that propelled them out of Atlanta to New York. The requisite album that followed didn't find the same success. Disintegration followed as the family band lost all its female members, including Gladys, to the family way. The Pips hung on as a solid live act and Gladys Knight pursued a solo career in collaboration with her husband.

Their debut album is also a tumultuous start to a storied career. Gladys dominates the album with a natural but young voice not yet ready for the forced crescendos in rock 'n' roll ballads of teenage wanting (the kind of songs Lesley Gore would perfect just a year later.) All the same song structure and none too flattering to a young talent. The Pips meanwhile are left to twiddle their harmonies redundantly behind typical pre-Beatles studio production, only getting a chord in edgewise to button a song. The occasional song does show their promise with "What Shall I Do?" highlighting Knight at her best, a soft, nearly spoken delivery that encourages the listener to lean in, and the song even gives The Pips unimpeded "Hey Hey Hey"'s. The song's last line even brings it all back around by slyly invoking the "Letter Full of Tears" that started the album.

Here is the discography surrounding Gladys Knight and The Pips's debut album:

Whistle My Love (1958 single by The Pips)

Every Beat of My Heart (1961 single)

Every Beat of My Heart (1961 single)

Guess Who (1961 single)

Letter Full of Tears (1961 single)

Letter Full of Tears

Operator (1962 single)

Linda (1962 single by The Pips)

Happiness (Is the Light of Love) (1962 single by The Pips)

Come See About Me (1963 single by Gladys Knight)

Queen of Tears (1963 single by Gladys Knight)

"Every Beat of My Heart" by Gladys Knight & The Pips

"Guess Who" by Gladys Knight and The Pips

"Linda" by The Pips

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Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers - The Original Monster Mash (1962)

"Rabian - The Fiendage Idol" by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers

The scene was rockin', all were digging the sounds

(Wa-ooh) Igor on chains, backed by his baying hounds

(Wa-wa-ooh) The Coffin Bangers were about to arrive

(Wa-ooh) With their vocal group, The Crypt-Kicker Five

Bobby Pickett released his Halloween classic single "Monster Mash" in 1962 and its album The Original Monster Mash the same year on Garpax Records.

The album starts with the "Monster Mash" and builds upon the world established in it. Bobby Pickett's Dr. Frankenstein-like "Boris," henchman Igor, pop idol-aspirant Wolfman and rival "Drac" all return to pad the album with their own dance craze hits and graveyard skits. At its best, Bobby Pickett and his producers hit a Frank Zappa (for kids) level of satire, but that sense of wit is short-lived as the songs feel ever longer and tiresome and the interest in spoofing loses ground to world-building. After a few non-hit singles as just Bobby Pickett, "Boris" and the gang would return to recording every now and then either to spoof the latest trend (Woodstock, Rap) or advocate for social issues like the environment and anti-smoking.

Here is the discography surrounding Bobby Pickett's debut album:

The International Twist (1962 single with The Cordials)

Monster Mash (1962 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers)

The Original Monster Mash

Monsters' Holiday (1962 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers)

Graduation Day (1963 single)

Simon the Sensible Surfer (1963 single)

The Monster Swim (1964 single as Bobby Pickett and The Rolling Bones)

Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) (1964 single as Bobby Pickett and The Filter-Tip Kickers)

Blood Bank Blues (1965 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

Wake Up My Mind (1965 single)

Monster Concert (1970 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

Monster Man Jam (1970 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

Me and My Mummy (1973 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

Monster Rap (1984 single as Bobby (Boris) Pickett)

"Monster Mash" by Bobby (Boris) Pickett and The Crypt-Kickers

"Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" by Bobby Pickett and The Filter-Tip Kickers

"Monster Concert" by Bobby (Boris) Pickett

"Monster Rap" by Bobby (Boris) Pickett

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Hart Valley Drifters - Folk Time (1962)

"Flint Hill Special" by Hart Valley Drifters

"...all sorts of people were in and out of there all the time, because they had heard about it, like the local beats—that term was still used—a bunch of kids from a pad called the Chateau, a wild-haired kid named Jerry Garcia and the Cadaverous Cowboy, Page Browning." — excerpt from Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

Despite attracting a number of curious cats while at Perry Lane, Ken Kesey and his early entourage turned away a number of seekers that didn't mesh including the likes of Jerry Garcia.  Jerry and his future band would, ironically, go on to become the electric sound of the Acid Tests, Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco and the hippie movement but before The Beatles touched down in America, Jerry Garcia was a banjo-playing folkie.

In the early sixties, Jerry Garcia was ever-present on the Bay Area's radio stations playing live folk music—seemingly, every time with new accompaniment and a new band name.  From the start, Jerry is personable with his bandmates and the audience with a knack for bringing everyone in the room together.  He is also largely irreverent towards the folk music he plays.  He respects the songs but warmly mocks the history and songwriters from which he learned them and, in doing so, pleasantly mocks himself.  Folk is nothing to take too seriously because, to Jerry Garcia at least, they are more of a vehicle for his pursuit of chops.  Jerry never recorded an album with these early folk groups but many transcriptions of his radio performances do survive.  The album Folk Time consisting of a 1962 performance with the Hart Valley Drifters is our anchoring tour stop today.  It is warm, off-the-cuff, mistake-riddled and filled with some mighty fine playing... an experience that Jerry Garcia would eventually master.

Note: Again, 1962 is not the year the album was released but the year the session was recorded.

Here is the Hart Valley Drifters discography:

Folk Time

Before the Dead (compilation album by Jerry Garcia and friends)

"Salt Creek" by Black Mountain Boys

"Deep Elem Blues" by Jerry Garcia and Sara Garcia

"Legend of the Johnson Boys" by Sleepy Hollow Hog Stompers

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Roy Clark - The Lightning Fingers of Roy Clark (1962)

"A Maiden's Prayer" by Roy Clark

When Marvin Rainwater was trying to establish himself in the Washington Metropolitan country music scene, Roy Clark was an early supporter and collaborator cutting demos and records with him.  This association was also Clark's key to getting on the popular TV show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, a show on which Rainwater appeared and "won" and on which Clark appeared and did not.  (He came in second.)  Roy Clark released his debut album The Lightning Fingers of Roy Clark in 1962 on Capitol Records.

Here is the discography surrounding Roy Clark's debut album:

Mysteries of Life (1954 single with His Wranglers)

Stepping Stones (1956 single with His Wranglers)

Please Mr. Mayor (1959 single)

Rock, Maggie, Rock (1960 single with The Versitals)

Under the Double Eagle (1961 single)

The Lightning Fingers of Roy Clark

Texas Twist (1962 single)

Talk About a Party (1962 single)

"Twelfth Street Rag" by Roy Clark

"The Day That I Found You" by Roy Clark

"Please Mr. Mayor" by Roy Clark

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The Supremes - Meet The Supremes (1962)

"Time Changes Things" by The Supremes

From The Dakotas to The Supremes, this Motor City trio are next in the T.A.M.I. Show lineup.  The Supremes released their debut album, Meet the Supremes in 1962 on the Motown label.

Here is the discography surrounding The Supremes's debut album:

Tears of Sorrow (1960 single as The Primettes)

I Want a Guy (1961 single)

Buttered Popcorn (1961 single)

Your Heart Belongs to Me (1962 single)

Let Me Go the Right Way (1962 single)

Meet The Supremes

"Let Me Go the Right Away" by The Supremes

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Hayley Mills - Let's Get Together with Hayley Mills (1962)

"Johnny Jingo" by Hayley Mills


The Parent Trap, featuring songs by the Sherman Brothers, was a star vehicle for the Disney child to teen actress Hayley Mills.  One of the songs from the movie "Let's Get Together" became a surprise Top 10 hit and one can only imagine the subsequent record released in 1962 Let's Get Together with Hayley Mills was a way of banking off of its success.

Here is the discography surrounding Hayley Mills's debut album:

Pollyanna Songs (1960 EP)
Let's Get Together (1961 single)
Let's Get Together with Hayley Mills
Jeepers Creepers (1962 single)
Ching-Ching and a Ding Ding Ding (1962 single)
In Search of the Castways (1962 soundtrack)
Enjoy It (1962 single with Maurice Chevalier)
Castaway (1962 single)
Flitterin' (1962 single with Eddie Hodges)
Pollyanna (1963 story album)
Summer Magic (1963 soundtrack with Eddie Hodges)

"Jeepers Creepers" by Hayley Mills


"Castaway" by Hayley Mills


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Little Stevie Wonder - The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie (1962)

"They Call It Pretty Music, but the Old People Call It the Blues" by Little Stevie Wonder


When Marvin Gaye moved to the Motown label, his recording career faulted out of the gate, and, early on, Gaye became more notable on the label for his role as a session drummer and songwriter for other Motown artists including Martha and The Vandellas, The Miracles, and Stevie Wonder.  Then known as Little Stevie Wonder, the boy musical genius signed with Motown at the age of 11 and released his debut instrumental album The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie a year later in 1962.

Here is the discography surrounding Little Stevie Wonder's debut album:

I Call It Pretty Music, but the Old People Call It the Blues (1962 single)
Little Water Boy (1962 single with Clarence Paul)
The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie

"Fingertips" by Little Stevie Wonder


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Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan (1962)

"Talkin' New York" by Bob Dylan


Bob Dylan often relates that the first job as a musician he got was as a harmonica player in Greenwich Village to the tune of dollar a day and a cheeseburger. He received high compliments for his ability, but to Bob they were high compliments that were only worth a dollar. Often never explicitly mentioned by Dylan, Fred Neil was the performer to hire the young folkie as accompaniment.

Bob Dylan was born and raised Robert Allen Zimmerman in Hibbing, Minnesota although in interviews he claimed to hail from South Dakota, possibly to extend his folk credibility. In high school, Bob's bands were rock and roll with one of his young influences being Little Richard. His perspective changed while attending the University of Minnesota and felt unattached to the driving slogans of rock and roll as they couldn't say anything of substance. He became more entrenched in learning folk music and began performing around Minneapolis. About this time, he began introducing himself as Bob Dylan.

Knowing he had much more to learn and wanting to learn from the best, Bob Dylan dropped out of school and, in January 1961, ventured to New York to meet his idol, folk singer and American troubadour Woody Guthrie. At the time, Guthrie suffered from Huntington's Disease but was still able to teach the young acolyte a few techniques and a few songs. He developed a relationship with fellow Guthrie student, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who further taught him some of Guthrie's techniques. Dylan, with an introductory role from Fred Neil, began playing the Greenwich circuit and developing his reputation. He also started playing as a session musician. On one session where he played the harmonica for Carolyn Hester, Hester's producer and legendary talent scout John H. Hammond felt so impressed by Dylan that he signed him to Columbia Records in October 1961.

Recording of Dylan's debut album started soon after the signing with Hammond as producer. The young folk-singer feared revealing too much of himself too quickly to his audience. As a result, the album only featured two of his original songs despite being a very prolific songwriter. The eleven other songs were traditional and folk songs arranged by Bob himself or friends of his. Only half of the songs came from his live sets and were played with more energy and speed than he normally played them. According to Hammond, Dylan played the undisciplined and difficult novice in the studio who 'popped every p', 'hissed every s' or 'wandered off mike'. Dylan later told interviewers that he refused to play second takes as he couldn't bear the idea of playing the same song twice in a row.

Bob Dylan was released in March of 1962 just over a year after Bob had moved to New York. The album received little acclaim and revealed Dylan as the young musician who idolized Woody Guthrie and wished to be Woody Guthrie. The little bit of himself he did reveal on the album seemed more of a a mix of influences without much original voice. The album was unsuccessful, Dylan was deemed "Hammond's Folly" around Columbia, and both Dylan and Hammond wished to quickly move on from it.

Here is the discography surrounding Bob Dylan's debut album:

Minnesota Hotel Tapes (1961 bootleg recordings)
Bob Dylan

"Man of Constant Sorrow" by Bob Dylan


"Song to Woody" by Bob Dylan


If you have any ideas for where the tour should go next, please give a shout. I'm open to whatever as long as the artists are historically related in some way and go in an artist's chronological order.

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Lou Rawls - Stormy Monday (1962)

I couldn't leave 1962 behind. Nick Venet is the connection between The Beach Boys and Lou Rawls, our next stop. Mr. Venet produced both of their debut albums. Although there were several other possible bands and artists to choose from, I could not resist the interesting direction Lou Rawls would take me in. Mr. Rawls's jazz vocals are an immediate change from the surf rock melodies of The Beach Boys, and that's always a good way to keep my ears perked.

The debut album Stormy Monday is a collection of blues and jazz standards featuring (They Call It) Stormy Monday by T-Bone Walker, God Bless the Child by Billie Holiday, and See See Rider by Ma Rainy. These songs are not only standards, they're classics. Mr. Rawls gives these staples his own presentation backed by a jazz trio headed by Les McCann.

Although I'm positive there are singles out there by Mr. Rawls before 1962, they have not surfaced in any places I can find them. The debut album discography:

Stormy Monday



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The Beach Boys - Surfin' Safari (1962)

I grew up on The Beach Boys.  Listening and singing along to music on a car trip was inevitable with my family.  Although we enjoyed a limited variety of music from Bing Crosby to various kids' cassettes, The Beach Boys's compilation album Endless Summer is what stood out to me the most.  Since then, The Beach Boys have always been one of my family's favorite listens.  There's a nostalgia rooted in my relationship with that band and a foundation to my modern taste in music that has me choosing their 1962 debut album Surfin' Safari to kickstart the Tour.

Here's the discography surrounding their debut album:

Surfin' (1961 single)

Barbie (1962 single as Kenny and The Cadets)

Surfin' Safari (1962 single)

Surfin' Safari

Ten Little Indians (1962 single)

Lost & Found 1961-1962 (1991 compilation album)

"Surfin' Safari" by The Beach Boys

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