Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Bill Cosby - Little Ole Man (Uptight/Everything's Alright)

Today we find a train song in a most unlikely of places -- a 1967 R&B album by Bill Cosby. Yes, that Bill Cosby.

First, a little history: Four albums into his firmly rooted comedy career, Bill Cosby released "Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings," a collection of mostly straight covers of soul/R&B songs (with a modified lyric here and there for the sake of humor); I know of it only because I found it rattling around in a record bin at Goodwill for a dollar. The reviews on allmusic and wikipedia and the like pretty much universally pan it as a self-indulgent vanity project, which of course it's a self-indulgent vanity project, what about the fake mustache and giant ass sombrero on the cover could convince one otherwise?

But I sort of like it -- there's a wry, self-effacing humor to it. And then there's this song, which essentially repurposes Stevie Wonder, and which was a surprise hit for Cosby, briefly reaching No. 4 on the U.S. charts and achieving gold-record status as a single, if the wiki is to be believed. And it's got a train in it.

1 comment:

Benjy Stone said...

I thoroughly support this posting, as it is in my favorite music genre: vanity albums.