This Is a Recording | ||||
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Live album by | ||||
Released | March 1971 | |||
Recorded | The Ice House Pasadena, California | |||
Genre | Comedy | |||
Length | 46:51 | |||
Label | Polydor | |||
Lily Tomlin chronology | ||||
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
This Is a Recording is a comedy album released in 1971 by American actress-comedian Lily Tomlin. [2] The album consists of comic sketches of Tomlin in her most famous character, Ernestine, the nosy, aggressive, and sharp-tongued telephone operator. The album's tracks include monologues in which Ernestine tangles over the phone with Joan Crawford, Gore Vidal ("Mr. Veedle"), Martha Mitchell, and J. Edgar Hoover. It was recorded live at the intimate Ice House in Pasadena, California. [1]
The album, Tomlin's first, won her a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Recording. [3] Tomlin became the first woman to win this award for a solo recording (in 1962 Elaine May won for an album with Mike Nichols; in the years since only Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Griffin, and Tiffany Haddish among female comedians have won the award.) The album peaked at #15 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums list, the highest charting solo comedy album by a woman ever on the chart. [4]
In 2024, the album was selected to the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, and/or aesthetically significant". [5]
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Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. Tomlin started her career in stand-up comedy and sketch comedy before transitioning her career to acting onstage and on-screen. In a career spanning over fifty years, Tomlin has received numerous accolades, including seven Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and two Tony Awards. She was also awarded the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014 and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2017.
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Tapestry is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Carole King, released on February 10, 1971 on Ode Records and produced by Lou Adler. The album's lead singles, "It's Too Late" and "I Feel the Earth Move", spent five weeks at number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts.
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Cheech And Chong is the 1971 debut album of Cheech & Chong, produced by Lou Adler. It features "Dave", one of their most famous routines. The album peaked at #28 on the Billboard 200 the week of March 4, 1972. The album was nominated for Best Comedy Recording at the 14th Grammy Awards, but lost to Lily Tomlin's This Is a Recording.
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The First Family is a 1962 comedy album featuring comedian and impressionist Vaughn Meader. The album, written and produced by Bob Booker and Earle Doud, was recorded on October 22, 1962, is a good-natured parody of then-President John F. Kennedy, both as Commander-in-Chief and as a member of the prominent Kennedy family. Issued by Cadence Records, The First Family became the largest and fastest selling record in the history of the record industry, selling at more than one million copies per week for the first six and one-half weeks in distribution and remained at #1 on the Billboard 200 for 12 weeks. By January 1963, sales reached more than seven million copies. Cadence president Archie Bleyer credited the album's success to heavy radio airplay. The album was first played by Stan Z. Burns on WINS radio, a friend of Booker, and it instantly became a hit all over New York City. By the time the sequel album, The First Family Volume Two, was released, The First Family had sold 71⁄2 million copies – unprecedented for any album at the time, especially a comedy album.
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