Denton Record Chronicle
Johnny Carson: Album records conversation, music highlights
December 20, 1974
Some highlights of the comedy, conversation and music which have made NBC Television Network‘s “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” the most successful late-night series in the history of network television have been incorporated in a two record album now in distribution across the nation.
The album, “Here’s Johnny – Magic Moments From The Tonight Show,” preserves some of the impromptu comedy of star Johnny Carson, announcer Ed McMahon and music director Doc Severinsen (who have been with Carson since the
show began Oct. 1, 1962). It also presents a sampling of the many guests who have appeared on the program during the past 12 years.
THOSE HEARD on the album include (alphabetically): Desi Arnaz Jr., Luci Arnaz, their mother Lucille Ball, Pearl Bailey, Jack Benny. Joey Bishop. George Burns. Glen Campbell, George Carlin, Sammy Davis, Peter Falk, Aretha Franklin, Judy Garland, Buddy Hackett, Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Groucho Marx, Bette Midler, former President Richard M. Nixon, Don Rickles, Jay Silverheels, the Smothers Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner and Jack Webb.
Billboard, a music trade publication, included the two-disk release in its Top Album Picks. In an accompanying review, Billboard said “. . . there is no way the LP will not become an instant collector’s item.”
Manheim Fox, producer of this Casablanca Records album, said:'”It took nearly two years of work – including the planning, selection of material and actual production – for this recording to progress from an idea to a finished product.
FOX SAID HIS AIM, in assembling material for the album, was to offer a capsulized history of “The Tonight Show” while putting the accent on entertainment.
“This album tells the story of the show which changed America’s bedtime hour. People used to go to bed at 11:30 p.m., now they stay up to be entertained by Johnny Carson. It’s an amazing success story. In trying to give some perspective to this, – we – go back to the early days of the show in two spots, to include performances by the late Lenny Bruce and Billie Holiday which took place on the Tonight Show before Carson became host.
(“The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” is colorcast on NBC-TV Mondays-Fridays’at 10:30 p.m. on Channel 5, KXAS-TV)
