Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection: The Greatest Novelty Records Of All Time

_When I was a kid there was one crazy dad in the neighborhood that collected novelty and party records- and looked for any excuse to play them- usually for us kids. There are recordings here that I haven't heard for 30 years- and several that I never heard before. There was also some stuff here that I think that I may have heard before at parties, but it was so far into the evening before anyone had the guts to play it that I'm not really sure....

_If you want to drive your carpool crazy on the way to work, then this is the perfect collection for the job. Actually, if you just want to make a permanent impression on people, turn the stereo up full blast, roll down the windows, and play "Masochism Tango" or "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"....they'll never forget you. In fact, they'll probably even write down your license plate number....

You will buy the CD for half of it, and never listen to the other half...no, I don't mean that one of the two is bad. It's just that in a collection as varied as this, you're bound to find about ten songs you love and ten more that you hate. Some of the songs suffer from being jokes that are utterly too long - by the time you reach the punchline, you've skipped to the next track. Others manage to keep you well entertained until then ("The Ballad of Irving" comes to mind). And still others are just a riot the whole way through (Tom Lehrer's two songs instantly come to mind). The moral is - listen before you buy, and figure out if you like enough of the songs to buy the discs. Don't just take someone else's word.

I have worn out two copies of the audio tape in the car. My toddler has probably been permanently warped because of it, but at least he'll have a well-rounded catalogue to work from. For those of us in the shadow of corporate radio, it is a joy to have such a collection to sing along with, loudly (especially at traffic lights - I seem to have no trouble retaining the right-of-way).