Dickie Goodman | |
---|---|
Birth name | Richard Dorian Goodman |
Also known as | Dickie Goodman |
Born |
Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
April 19, 1934
Died | November 6, 1989 North Carolina, U.S. |
(aged 55)
Genres | Parody, break-in/sampling |
Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter, producer |
Instruments | Spoken voice |
Years active | 1956-1988 |
Richard Dorian "Dickie" Goodman (April 19, 1934 – November 6, 1989) was an American music and record producer born in Brooklyn, New York. He is best known for inventing and using the technique of the "break-in", an early precursor to sampling, that used brief clips of popular records and songs to "answer" comedic questions posed by voice actors on his novelty records. He also wrote and produced some original material, most often heard on the B-sides of his break-in records.
In June 1956, Goodman created his first record, The Flying Saucer Parts 1 & II, which he co-wrote with his partner Bill Buchanan, and which featured a four-minute rewriting of Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio show. This recording was the subject of a copyright infringement case against Goodman. The court eventually ruled his sampled mix was considered a parody, and was an entirely new work. The song "The Flying Saucer" was officially released under the artist name "Buchanan and Goodman" and was Goodman's highest-charting single on Billboard, peaking at #3. Buchanan and Goodman followed up with four other records: Buchanan and Goodman on Trial (#80 in 1956), Flying Saucer The 2nd (#18 in 1957), The Creature (From A Science Fiction Movie) (by Buchanan and Ancell) (#85 in 1957), and Santa and the Satellite (Parts I & II) (#32 in 1957).
With Mickey Shorr in 1959, Goodman recorded two singles under the name "Spencer and Spencer," both of which relied much less on sampling and more on sketch comedy. "Russian Bandstand" was a re-imagining of the then-popular TV series American Bandstand set in a totalitarian Soviet Union. "Stagger Lawrence" imposed Lloyd Price's recording of "Stagger Lee" onto a spoof of The Lawrence Welk Show, borrowing heavily from an earlier Welk parody done by Stan Freberg. Neither recording with Shorr would be as popular as the recordings Goodman made with Buchanan.