Comedy Rock
| Comedy rock | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Rock, comedy |
| Cultural origins | Mid-1950s–early 1960s, United Kingdom |
| Typical instruments | |
| Local scenes | |
| Sunset Strip in Hollywood, CA | |
Comedy rock is rock music mixed with comedy, often satire and parody.
Early American examples include Stan Freberg, who lampooned artists such as Elvis Presley, Harry Belafonte and The Platters, and Sheb Wooley. Freberg's "Purple People Eater" reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1958 and stayed there 6 weeks.
In Britain during the 1950s and early 1960s comedians such as Charlie Drake and The Goons frequently appeared in the top ten with humorous rock 'n' roll records—the latter, along with Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, were to influence the word-play of John Lennon's lyrics. Later British groups specialised in comedy: these included The Scaffold, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias. Later in Britain, in the 2000s, Mitch Benn released several studio albums that satirised current affairs using various musical genres, but mainly rock. His 2012 Breaking Strings album was critically acclaimed for its rock sensibility.
Allmusic described Frank Zappa as the "godfather" of comedy rock. The pop rock and folk rock band The Turtles released a comedy rock album, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands, in 1968, though the band had previously incorporated humor into their songs. Two of its members, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman later performed more explicitly comedic songs as Flo & Eddie with their own band and with Frank Zappa.
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