A Great Gift Idea

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A Great Gift Idea
A Great Gift Idea.jpg
Studio album by
the Credibility Gap
ReleasedJanuary 7, 1974
Genre Comedy
Label Reprise
Producer The Credibility Gap, Russ Titelman, Donn Landee
The Credibility Gap chronology
Woodshtick and More
(1971)		A Great Gift Idea
(1974)		The Bronze Age of Radio
(1975)

A Great Gift Idea is an album by the American comedy team the Credibility Gap, released in 1974. [1] [2] It was intended for the Christmas 1973 season, but was delayed by Warner Bros. Records Inc. until January 7, 1974. [3] The team supported the album with a North American tour. [4] It was reissued in 1979, after two of its principals, Michael McKean and David L. Lander, found success on the sitcom Laverne & Shirley , and again 1994. [5] [6]

Contents

Production

The album was performed primarily by Richard Beebe, McKean, Harry Shearer, and Lander. [7] Lowell George played guitar on some of the tracks. [8] "In Someone's Sneakers" is a parody of Rod McKuen's poetry. [7] "Where's Johnny?" imagines Johnny Carson's fumbling interviews with a prostitute and a member of a gay rights group. [9] "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Hair" parodies the sound of the Jackson Five. [10] "An Evening with Sly Stone" posits Sly Stone as the host of a television talk show (on which he debates William F. Buckley Jr.); in a joke about Stone's notorious lateness and no-shows, Stone ends his show early to ensure that he can get enough sleep for his upcoming concert. [11] [12] "Kingpin", in the musical style of Curtis Mayfield's Super Fly , conceptualizes Martin Luther King Jr. as the lead in a blaxploitation film. [11] [12] "A Date with Danger" parodies a high school scholastic film about venereal disease. [13]

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svg [14]
Robert Christgau A− [15]

The Chicago Tribune opined that "in most of the cases, the group's target are in themselves so ridiculous that the parodies come off second best to the absurdities of the real thing." [9] The Detroit Free Press called the album "an incredibly hilarious set of routines that are masterpieces of subtlety and dry wit." [7] Robert Christgau, writing for Newsday , considered it "the funniest and deepest ... comedy LP in several years." [12] The Los Angeles Free Press said, "In most cases, the Credibility Gap stays dangerously close to its subject, mocking by slight exaggeration, and the overall result is a comedy album that retains its spirit and freshness through more than a few listens." [13]

In 2001, "Weird Al" Yankovic included A Great Gift Idea on his list of the top ten albums he "can't live without". [16] AllMusic concluded, "A fair percentage of A Great Gift Idea is more clever than laugh-out-loud funny, but the best moments are both smart and acidly witty, and the Credibility Gap's no-quarter take on the world around them has dated very little in the decades since its release, and few studio-bound comedy albums of this era are as accomplished as this." [14]

Track listing

Side 1

  1. "Kingpin"
  2. "A Date with Danger"
  3. "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Hair"
  4. "Public Service Announcement"
  5. "Lance Learns to Box"

Side 2

  1. "16 Golden Bits"
  2. "An Evening with Sly Stone"
  3. "In Someone's Sneakers"
  4. "Where's Johnny?"

References

  1. ↑ "Additional Stage News". Calendar. Los Angeles Times. July 7, 1974. p. 38.
  2. ↑ Cobb, Nathan (April 3, 1975). "If you're looking for a good laugh...". Calendar. The Boston Globe. p. 10.
  3. ↑ Prelutsky, Burt (June 1, 1975). "Filling the Risibility Gap". Calendar. Los Angeles Times. p. 79.
  4. ↑ Lander, David L. (2000). Fall Down Laughing. Jeremy P. Tarcher. p. 48.
  5. ↑ "Widening the Gap". Ampersand. The Daily Illini. September 6, 1979. p. 5.
  6. ↑ "Vital Reissues". Billboard. Vol. 106, no. 17. April 23, 1994. p. 65.
  7. 1 2 3 Welt, William (February 3, 1974). "A Great Gift Idea – The Credibility Gap". Detroit Free Press. p. 7B.
  8. ↑ Brend, Mark (2002). Rock and Roll Doctor: Lowell George: Guitarist, Songwriter, and Founder of Little Feat. Backbeat Books. p. 158.
  9. 1 2 Van Matre, Lynn (January 27, 1974). "Sound". Chicago Tribune. p. 6.11.
  10. ↑ Gimarc, George; Reeder, Pat (1996). Hollywood Hi-Fi : Over 100 of the Most Outrageous Celebrity Recordings Ever!. St. Martin's Griffin. p. 46.
  11. 1 2 Marcus, Greil (1990). Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'n' Roll Music (3rd ed.). Plume. p. 224.
  12. 1 2 3 Christgau, Robert (March 3, 1974). "New Kind of Comedy Served on a Platter". Part II. Newsday. p. 3.
  13. 1 2 Rinde, Allan (May 24, 1974). "Records". Los Angeles Free Press. Vol. 11, no. 514. p. 17.
  14. 1 2 "A Great Gift Idea Review by Mark Deming". AllMusic. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  15. ↑ "The Credibility Gap". Robert Christgau. Retrieved September 14, 2025.
  16. ↑ Friedman, Michael, ed. (2001). Star Tunes: Celebrities Reveal the Top Ten Albums They Can't Live Without. Plume. p. 90.
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