Post by Collector's Connection on Oct 13, 2004 5:16:22 GMT -5
Hey, Hey, Hey, It's Fat Albert! Bill Cosby's Legendary 1973 Comedy Album Finally Released as a Major Label CD
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Bill Cosby, the most prolific and
best-selling comedian in recording history, and the man Life magazine called
"America's best-loved humorist," has racked up yet another major hit with the
Emmy-winning "Little Bill," an animated series on Nickelodeon based on his New York Times best-seller children's books. But it is Cosby's first childhood character, Fat Albert, for which he will always be remembered. This Christmas, Fat Albert steps out of his animated, inner-city world for the first time with the live-action major motion picture Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids. In anticipation, Cosby's classic 1973 FAT ALBERT album makes its major label CD debut with the digitally remastered FAT ALBERT (Geffen/UMe), released November 2, 2004.
More than 30 years after "Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids" first became a Saturday-morning cartoon staple in 1972 (running to 1984, including as "The
New Fat Albert Show"), the series retains a special place in the hearts of those of the baby boomer generation who grew up with it. The program mixed
laughs with positive messages and spun off a lunchbox, board game, comic books, humor books -- and FAT ALBERT the album, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Recording.
The foghorn-voiced, bigger-than-life Fat Albert (which Cosby himself voiced on TV) and the rest of the album's colorful cast of characters were based on kids with whom Cosby grew up on the streets of North Philadelphia, including his own younger brother Russell, Weird Harold, and Dumb Donald.
Staples of his stand-up comedy act, they were first introduced on record on 1964's I STARTED OUT AS A CHILD. Their stories would end on record with Fat
Albert.
Taped live at Harrah's Hotel in Reno, NV, the album finds the master storyteller and mimic in his onstage element, reliving the joys and terrors of his youth to the delight of an adoring crowd. Along with three Fat Albert stories -- "Fat Albert's Car," "Fat Albert Plays Dead" and "Fat Albert Got A Hernia" -- the album includes a tale about Russell and another about Cosby's dad's car plus more grown-up stories about Cosby's wife and children, and a hilarious experience he had in Italy ("Fernet Branca").
During the '60s, Cos racked up an unprecedented string for a comedian of five platinum and three gold albums plus six Grammys. Eight times his albums hit the Top 40, three times breaking into the pop Top 10. In 1970, his first album for MCA was also Grammy-nominated and many other albums would follow.
From hit albums to hit TV series to hit books, Cosby's desire to enlighten (his doctoral thesis was on the educational value of his Fat Albert stories)
has remained as constant as his talent for a personal, observational humor that crosses all ages and races. But, in the end, the title of his debut album in 1963 explains his success from Fat Albert to Little Bill best and
most simply: BILL COSBY IS A VERY FUNNY FELLOW.
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Bill Cosby, the most prolific and
best-selling comedian in recording history, and the man Life magazine called
"America's best-loved humorist," has racked up yet another major hit with the
Emmy-winning "Little Bill," an animated series on Nickelodeon based on his New York Times best-seller children's books. But it is Cosby's first childhood character, Fat Albert, for which he will always be remembered. This Christmas, Fat Albert steps out of his animated, inner-city world for the first time with the live-action major motion picture Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids. In anticipation, Cosby's classic 1973 FAT ALBERT album makes its major label CD debut with the digitally remastered FAT ALBERT (Geffen/UMe), released November 2, 2004.
More than 30 years after "Fat Albert And The Cosby Kids" first became a Saturday-morning cartoon staple in 1972 (running to 1984, including as "The
New Fat Albert Show"), the series retains a special place in the hearts of those of the baby boomer generation who grew up with it. The program mixed
laughs with positive messages and spun off a lunchbox, board game, comic books, humor books -- and FAT ALBERT the album, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Recording.
The foghorn-voiced, bigger-than-life Fat Albert (which Cosby himself voiced on TV) and the rest of the album's colorful cast of characters were based on kids with whom Cosby grew up on the streets of North Philadelphia, including his own younger brother Russell, Weird Harold, and Dumb Donald.
Staples of his stand-up comedy act, they were first introduced on record on 1964's I STARTED OUT AS A CHILD. Their stories would end on record with Fat
Albert.
Taped live at Harrah's Hotel in Reno, NV, the album finds the master storyteller and mimic in his onstage element, reliving the joys and terrors of his youth to the delight of an adoring crowd. Along with three Fat Albert stories -- "Fat Albert's Car," "Fat Albert Plays Dead" and "Fat Albert Got A Hernia" -- the album includes a tale about Russell and another about Cosby's dad's car plus more grown-up stories about Cosby's wife and children, and a hilarious experience he had in Italy ("Fernet Branca").
During the '60s, Cos racked up an unprecedented string for a comedian of five platinum and three gold albums plus six Grammys. Eight times his albums hit the Top 40, three times breaking into the pop Top 10. In 1970, his first album for MCA was also Grammy-nominated and many other albums would follow.
From hit albums to hit TV series to hit books, Cosby's desire to enlighten (his doctoral thesis was on the educational value of his Fat Albert stories)
has remained as constant as his talent for a personal, observational humor that crosses all ages and races. But, in the end, the title of his debut album in 1963 explains his success from Fat Albert to Little Bill best and
most simply: BILL COSBY IS A VERY FUNNY FELLOW.