Let's go back to Beatlemania when every record label was trying to scoop up stuff Capitol rejected. Right. Singles released on Vee-Jay and Tollie and "She Loves You" was on Philadelphia's Swan label. ALSO on Swan, was the attempted cash-in comedy album by Fisher & Marks.
Back then, Beatlemania was a hot seller, but so was topical comedy on records. "The First Family" was a sketch comedy album that sold a million copies for the tiny Cadence label. Indie labels drooled over the chance to have big sales like that.
This was back when there were only a few TV channels, and almost nobody was doing sketch comedy or topical humor. There was no "Carol Burnett Show" to do a send-up of JFK and Jackie in the White House OR do a musical parody on The Beatles.
When Elizabeth Taylor began fooling around with Richard Burton, there was Will Jordan's indie "All About Cleopatra" album. When "Man from UNCLE" was a huge hit, up came "The Man from TANTE" from Brill & Foster. Beatlemania led to "Coo Coo Beatles World."
And who were Fisher and Marks? Just a pair of local Philly comics, no threat to Marty Allen and Steve Rossi (who were having hit albums for ABC-Paramount with their "Hello Dere" catchphrase. No threat to even Gaylord and Holiday (who were not having hit albums, and owned the un-PC gay mockery catch-phrase 'Hi, Simply Hi.")
Al Fisher was born Albert Fichera and Marks' last name was Franco (which would explain the duo's other album, Italian comedy parodies ala Allan Sherman titled "Rome on the Range). They began working together in 1948, with Al doing stand-up and pudgy little Lou heckling him from the audience. Lou would then mount the stage for schtick a little less wild than Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. The team wowed 'em in Philly, and later appeared in a few movies, 'Mister Rock and Roll" and "Country Music Holiday," both headed by country singer Ferlin Husky.
Most fans agree that the team was a riot in live performance, and that the movies and record albums do not do them justice. Well, "Coo Coo" doesn't do The Beatles justice, either, and a good parody would have to wait many many years till The Rutles arrived.
Much of the album is padded with non-Beatles items including impressions of Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and a track called "The Real Fisher and Marks."
Since this is a music blog anyway, you get the few musical Beatles parody numbers, including "We Love Rock and Roll" (lyrics stuck atop "Barcarolle" of all things…and what the point of the bad Cockney-accented riddles are, who knows) and "Paul George John and Ringo : All The Way to the Bank," (public domain music "On Top of Old Smokey").
Ladies and Gentlemen, the comedy stylings of Al Fisher and Lou Marks, back when it was a Coo-Coo Beatles World.
FISHER AND MARKS "Coo Coo" BEATLES SONGS
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