It Came From the '70s: The Odd Couple Sings

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This is the second of three posts I'm doing concerning odd albums from the 1970s. It seems like if you were a television celebrity in the '70s you were sure to get one of two things: a variety show special or an ill-conceived album. Here, we have the latter.

The Odd Couple Sings. Do they? Do they??? Well, sort of. Tony Randall (aka Felix) sings. Jack Klugman (aka Oscar) not so much, and he even admitted as much. And it's evident from the very first track, entitled Johnny One Note, which seems to tell you right from the beginning "Look: Jack can't sing. I know it. Jack knows it. Now you know it."

How bad is it? Well, in the aforementioned opening track, Jack sings one note through the entire song. I'm not sure exactly which note that is, but it sounds like when you go to the doctor, and the doctor brings out a tongue depressor and tells you to say "Ah", and you say "Ahhhhhhh" with your tongue sticking out. Now imagine that for a mercifully short 2 minutes.

There are ten tracks total, including one entitled The Odd Couple Opera (original title "Imagination") that is, literally, a ten-and-a-half-minute long operatic track. The album is (not surprisingly) out of print, and unlike Lenny and the Squigtones isn't as easy to come by. I'm imagining communities at the time organizing bonfires and trying to obliterate any and all copies from existence.

The saving grace here is, like Lenny and the Squigtones, this album doesn't take itself too seriously. It's played for laughs. The actors are in character, and while it's definitely odd, it doesn't approach the levels of badness that the next album I'll discuss does...

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