Born on April Fool's Day 1927, and just missing his 82nd birthday, half-shot novelty wonder Bob Arbogast died on March 21st.
Half-shot novelty wonder? Well, he wasn't a one-shot novelty wonder, because his lone achievement "Chaos" was co-authored by the late Stanley Ralph Ross. It wasn't much of a wonder at all, since it failed to make the Top 40, but it's still a favorite among fans of ill novelty singles.
Back in 1959, Arbogast & Ross tossed their noisy double-sided parody of radio station disc jockeys into a market saturated with variations on "break ins," the style popularized by Buchanan & Goodman in 1956 (and continued on and on by Dickie Goodman until his suicide).
Your download is both sides of "Chaos," the doings at K-OS Radio. Disc jockey "Speedy Clip" offers a variety of commercials interrupted by singing station identifications, and a series of droning deep-voiced parody versions of Ritchie Valens' "Donna."
Legend has it that "Chaos" failed to hit the charts because it was banned from the radio after it had sold over 10,000 copies "because radio stations suddenly realized it was a parody of radio stations." More likely, it disappeared because by definition, a "novelty" track isn't going to stay novel for very long. It may also have gotten limited airplay if station managers felt they would be offending fans of the recently mangled Ritchie Valens, whose wistful ballad "Donna" was still on the charts.
Some of the gags were pretty zany at the time. At one point "Speedy Clip" shouts, ""I see by the old clock on the wall there's a dead fly!" Later, the station's girl singers warble, "Just to prove it's real, here's the K-OS approval seal!" You guessed it: instant sound effect of a seal barking. To quote a B-side from fellow Liberty novelty act David Seville, "That's almost good." Especially at the time.
Fans who haunt comedy bins of moribund record stores might want to pick up the album "At Carnegie Hall," which Arbogast co-created with another partner, Dick Whittinghill, or perhaps the "My Son the Copycat" album that Arbogast co-wrote (with Stan Ross doing the fake Allan Sherman vocals). Mainly Bob Arbogast's credits involve bouncing around a variety of Los Angeles radio stations, writing comedy for various performers, and doing a lot of zany voiceovers for commercials and some cartoon shows (including 'Roger Ramjet' and 'Hot Wheels.')
Bob's wikipedia entry was obviously written by a relative or a fan of his, and bears some comical warnings from Wikipedia: "This article does not cite any references or sources" and "This article contains weasel words, vague phrasing that often accompanies biased or unverifiable information." Among the yet to be verified information is that "Chaos" was banned anywhere, or that Bob was kicked off radio stations for being an iconoclast. Likewise, the note that Bob "originated" the concept of "The Question Man" in 1951, and is acknowledged for it in Steve Allen's book "The Question Man" is not accurate.
"The Question Man" bit was used in various ways by a lot of comics of the day, including Ernie Kovacs (and was turned into "Karnak" by Johnny Carson). Apparently when Steve began doing it on his show, Arbogast submitted material...and some kind of grouse about having originated the idea. What Steve actually says in "The Question Man," a book compiling some of the gags used on his show, is that "a funny man by the name of Bob Arbogast not only contributed a number of jokes but also provided us with the somewhat unnerving information that he had thought of the Question Man idea itself several years before we did." That's not exactly an admission of guilt. The idea of using a question as the punchline to a joke probably goes back to Shakespeare's day. As most of you know, Steve was an extremely nice guy who never fought about "credit" and "attribution."
The name "Arbogast" was momentarily popular circa 1959-1960, at least in a mentally ill way. It was the name of Martin Balsam's character in "Psycho," as well as the name on a crazy comedy team's novelty single. Exactly 50 years after it was first alarming people on the airwaves, here's "Chaos" back at you, as a salute to the weird duo that made it, Bob Arbogast and Stan Ross.
CHAOS by Arbogast and Ross
It's too late to ask him but I wonder if George Carlin got his idea for "Wonderful WINO" from this cut. It even has the "scoreboard joke" in it and the rapid talk at the beginning of this record sounds a lot like the "Willie West" bit from WINO.
ReplyDeleteYes. Or so he was told.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with sites such as this one -- and Wikipedia, since you brought it up -- is that a person can post anything he or she wants to post, facts or accuracy be damned, and fall back on the excuse that it's only their opinion anyway.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, something he wanted to get done was to correct the errors the Wikipedia entry. He didn't get around to it.
He did more professionally than what you're recognizing here, which is testament to his preference for the money over the fame. Within his own world he was as recognized as he wanted to be. There are people who could tell you that, if you knew who to ask.
His take on The Question Man/ Carnac thing is this: The first time he did it was in Kansas City around 1951.
What I remember him telling me was that the first answer was "Daisy Mae." Li'l Abner being popular at the time, the question was, "Will Daisy?" The gag suffers when read as opposed to being heard. He was doing radio, which takes a certain amount of effort on the part of the listener. And it suffers from the effects of time. Who the hell remembers Li'l Abner?
The thing is, Bob used the gag when he was writing Tom Poston's TV comedy show in the fifties. Then Poston went to work for Steve Allen, the gag turned up on Steve's show and there you have it. Just for the sake of accuracy.
What is missing in this description of what killed the sales of Chaos (KOS) Radio recordings is that as this record spoof of radio stations appeared for such a short time in 1959 there happened subsequently that an upstanding and popular D.J. blew the lid off the practice of illegal activity by "Record Pushers" who were paying D.J.s in "under table payoffs" to plug records regardless of their talent merit and some were quite dubious. This issue was clearly exemplified in the Radio KOS spoof recording where the same melody played over time and again with slight changes in lyrics each time has a different love song name IE "Oh Linda, Oh, Blanch, Etc. and eventually Oh, my Goodness... ". The unveiling of the payoff activity very quickly caused huge and immediate D.J. terminations. I personally was in the Greater Detroit area at the time and within one week there was "CHAOS" in the number of firings going on with radio stations across the dial. Even some TV personalities lost their positions. Broadcast management was in dread fear that the FCC would pull their broadcast licenses for having these illegal practices going on under their jurisdiction and were announcing disclaimers to their involvement in the activity. Naturally no station would even touch the record "CHAOS" let alone air play after that. The affair quickly acquired the title "Payola" for which it has carried historically. After this issue made the news all over the country new rulings came down wherein all music stations would have to read disclaimers on air! Quote: The following records were supplied to the station by such & such record distributors at no charge to station .....etc. This went on for the next year or two and eventually died a slow death. To Arbogast & Ross this event was the death knell for their record as quickly as it was for Vaughn Meader and his best selling "First Family" recordings after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about Payola (wasn't it Stan Freberg who sang about Payola to the tune of "Old Piano Roll Blues?)
ReplyDeleteI think the use of various versions of "Oh Donna" was probably more a comment on how all pop music sounded the same (to these guys).
But the timing is definitely right. The song and the first eruption of the scandal happened roughly around the same time. The Freberg novelty probably arrived a few months after "Chaos" disappeared off the charts.
Stan Freberg, "The Old Payola Roll Blues." As I recall reading, paying a radio station or a disc jockey wasn't illegal. At first, at least. A big factor, I feel, is that a revolution was occurring in Popular Music, from sweet, relaxing, oftentimes bland, sentimental trivia music, early 50's, to loud, raucous Rock 'n Rollers, both White AND (gasp!) Black - Elvis / Little Richard. I'm sure that the middle aged (and older) members of Congress were concerned about this. Congress was just hopped up, on a roll to inquire into 'improprieties' after the lengthy McCarthy hearings, for a long time, in the 50's. Dick Clark also had questionable practices, having 'ownerships' in many record companies, for example. He simply divested himself of these & departed, unscathed. He was a very popular and likeable personality. Alan Freed, on the other hand, not so much. He also had a lot of 'power' in regard to his playing of a record on the radio would turn it into a hit, if there was any chance of this! He did, as a middle aged man, have a talent for making his program sound exciting, with his 'over the top' style, actually perhaps more so than Clark. But, Congress just had to do something, & made Freed a scapegoat. This negative attention resulted in his losing his radio show. (Perhaps he should have spent some of his money, on a good attorney!) Freberg's disc is hilarious, but I'm sure that radio stations would cringe at the thought of playing this, with very blatant references to: Payola! And, including, in the title, no less! In the booklet for the box set for the Vee Jay Record Company story, one of the 'executives' was simply the 'bag man' who provided a weekly 'retainer' to radio stations, to ensure radio station air play of the record company's product. Additional 'inducement' was necessary if V J wanted the radio station to really 'ride,' give more additional airplay to a particular disc. This practice continued, actually, for many years, with a wrinkle: the major labels, such as Columbia, would hire a promoter, 'song plugger,' pay good money, to try to acquire airplay. And, this indirect approach, worked! With strong rumors, that when money wasn't exchanged, drugs such as cocaine, marijuana, etc., were (Nobody Rides For Free - It's Ass, Grass, or Gas!), & new cars, Cadillacs, some - slightly - more indirect forms of 'inducement.' (Also, Stan's disc was very long, especially Parts One & Two, together!)
ReplyDeleteThanks -- greed and corruption -- old twins who try to hide their faces. No question that big record companies, and top stars, would do anything for radio play, just as they'd do shifty things to acquire a hit song (like buying out the original composer's share, or demanding that the singer's name be listed as a co-credit).
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a magazine editor, I had publicists who, if not offering an outright bribe, were more than friendly about offering to take me to lunch, give me copies of all their clients books or records or whatever, or give me free tickets to a concert. Gray areas, I suppose.
Another "deal" I encountered was for a publicist working for a restaurant or a theater offering me a free meal for two, or free tickets, and in return, just included a one-liner on the news page about a) how great the show or restaurant was, or b) slightly less nefarious, just agree to mention a few celebs I saw -- or the publicist saw -- eating at the restaurant or sitting in the theater.
After the Alan Freed incident, the next middle-aged disc jockey favorite, Murray the K, played it much more carefully. He recorded a single called "The Lone Twister," but credited it TO "The Lone Twister," and even the song credit said "The Lone Twister." It was released on Atlantic and, perhaps fortunately, didn't exactly go anywhere on the charts.