# Best "Gimmick" Album? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 26, 2018, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831 "2018-05-26T00:42:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/21 "2018-05-26T20:22:50Z")
> [@betterlifethroughchemistry](#): > > … and I have to say The Blue Brothers “Briefcase Full of Blues” is exemplary,… My wife tells me when she was a kid, on one trip the family car had only one tape in it. It was _Briefcase._ After about the third time _Rubber Biscuit_ came on, her mom punched the eject button and tossed it out the window. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/22 "2018-05-26T21:45:12Z")
I misunderstood gimmick. I was going to say A Kind of Magic by Queen. I’m pretty clueless musically, but I hadn’t seen a band release an album that was basically just a movie soundtrack. It was cool and kind of gimmicky to me. And it is amazing. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > ["Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8s6sSjUyaxUk3mCUqiNuJiMNxs9QdthO)" is a parody of _Sgt. Pepper_, but it’s really well done. Using the original order of the songs on the Beatles’ album, they matched each song to the plotline of the original _Star Wars_ – not just lyrically, but in the tone of the songs, as well. It is amazing. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/23 "2018-05-26T21:53:24Z")
I still love **Grunt** by Sandra Boynton – yes, that Sandra Boynton, who used to do all the cutesy punning greeting cards and the children’s Board books. > **[Grunt: Pigorian Chant from Snouto Domoinko de Silo: Boynton, Sandra:...](https://www.amazon.com/Grunt-Pigorian-Chant-Snouto-Domoinko/dp/0761105948)** > > Grunt: Pigorian Chant from Snouto Domoinko de Silo \[Boynton, Sandra\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Grunt: Pigorian Chant from Snouto Domoinko de Silo Grunt is a parody of the inexplicably one-time oddly popular album **Chant** , featuring the monks of Santo Domingo de Silos performing Gregorian chants: > **[The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos - Chant - Amazon.com Music](https://www.amazon.com/Chant-Benedictine-Monks-Santo-Domingo/dp/B000002SKX)** > > The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos - Chant - Amazon.com Music Boynton’s album is “Pigorian” chant, but it’s much more than a one-joke album. This is evidently a twisted labor of love. If you put it on in the background, the unwary won’t even recognize it as a parody – it sounds like real Gregorian chant. Until, that is, you listen really closely, or peruse the lyrics sheet. It’s a weird mix of real Latin lyrics (but not to traditional chants, being things like “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” translated into Latin), Pig Latin (“Ore-snay!”) and atrocious puns (“Gloria to Egg Shells each day-o”) Definitely worth picking up. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2018, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/24 "2018-05-26T22:47:34Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Of course the Blues Brothers were awesome - they had one of the best R&B bands ever put together, A friend of mine says the BB Band was essentially the MG’s without Booker T. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/25 "2018-05-27T00:35:52Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > A friend of mine says the BB Band was essentially the MG’s without Booker T. Well… and without Otis Redding, and Sam & Dave, and Rufus Thomas, and … ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/26 "2018-05-27T10:31:53Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Of course the Blues Brothers were awesome - they had one of the best R&B bands ever put together, and both Ayckroyd and Belushi put their heart into it. Belushi even turned into a pretty good singer. > > I’ll give a shout-out to [Dread Zeppelin](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N2GY5O3tI-c), in which a 300lb Elvis impersonator and his band do Reggae-influenced covers of Led Zeppelin - that mostly work quite well. Along vaguely similar lines - the deceased Elvis makes new musical friends (also deceased, obviously) and is then reincarnated in the form of Belfast postman **James “The King” Brown** , to create a new album ( **Gravelands** ) featuring songs by his new friends. Come As You Are, Love Will Tear Us Apart, Somethin’ Else (twice, kinda) and so on. > **[James Brown (Elvis impersonator)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Brown_(Elvis_impersonator))** > > James "The King" Brown (born 1968) is a Belfast-born Elvis Presley tribute act known for his covers of songs done in the style of Elvis. In the vein of "songs that Elvis should have done," Brown often performs songs by other artists such as "Whole Lotta Rosie", originally by AC/DC, and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", originally by Queen. > Initially a career Belfast postman, Brown became a singer after the positive reaction he received performing "Suspicious Minds" and "The Wonder of You" at ... j ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/27 "2018-05-27T17:06:20Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There was a band called Big Daddy that did modern songs (back in the '80s) as if they were songs from the '50s; _Sussido_ in the style of _Runaround Sue_, that sort of thing. It’s kinda fascinating, sometimes. > > They also did a version of Sgt. Pepper. Here’s [A Day in the Life](https://youtu.be/LMEAg3mUtyk) done as a Buddy Holly song. It works. I had considered mentioning Big Daddy, as well. 🙂 A couple of my favorite examples: [“Nothing Compares 2 U” done in the style of Little Richard.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG-hNFb7kjU) [“Money For Nothing” done in the style of Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “Sixteen Tons.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfsLV-OLJNo) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2018, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/28 "2018-05-27T19:24:37Z")
Fans of Big Daddy and Dread Zeppelin should check out Richard Cheese. He covers songs in a lounge style. Here’s his version of [Gin and Juice](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owutDdnIMUI) and [Welcome to the Jungle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr7EBuz-2xI). ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/29 "2018-05-29T03:31:16Z")
Jethro Tull’s Aqualung album was regarded by many critics as a concept album due to there being a distinct theme to each of the two sides of the album. Ian Anderson disagreed with these themes being strong enough to be called a “concept album”, and so for Tull’s next album set out to create the ultimate concept album: Thick as a Brick. Over-the-top gobbledygook lyrics meandering all over the place while seeming to be serious, mixed with some passages of complete nonsense (“We walked through the maternity ward and saw 319 BABIES WEARING NYLONS”), all wrapped together in one continuous (save for flipping the album over) 45 minute piece of music. They took it even further by making an overly elaborate gag newspaper to serve as the album cover and liner notes, filled with all sort of ridiculousness that one might find in a small-town newspaper but taken to a more extreme level, led by the cover claiming that the lyrics to the piece had been written by a 12-year-old boy and were entered into a poetry contest that he was disqualified from in a “last minute rumpus”. It’s probably my favorite Tull album, precisely because it doesn’t try to hide their pretentiousness at all. It fully basks in its glory, and it’s magnificent. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/30 "2018-05-29T03:57:28Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > Jethro Tull’s Aqualung album was regarded by many critics as a concept album due to there being a distinct theme to each of the two sides of the album. Ian Anderson disagreed with these themes being strong enough to be called a “concept album”, and so for Tull’s next album set out to create the ultimate concept album: Thick as a Brick… If not the music, even the newspaper would be enough to attain “gimmick” status. And like the National Lampoon newspaper & yearbook parodies, a thorough reading yields so much interlocked detail. Oh, look, [you can read the entire St. Cleve Chronicle](http://www.world-enlightenment.com/THICKASABRICK/TAAB/INDEX.HTM)… I have friends that allude to it, referring to someone as an “alleged Hell’s Angel” or replying to a non-sequiter with “Hello, who’s Fluffy the Duck talking to this week?” (see the Family Fun Pages, you’ll be glad you did) And speaking of Aqualung, as a kid I spent an entire eight bucks on a Tull ticket, before anyone even knew there’d be a new album that the lads were trying out. They broke right into the entire Aqualung album, and it was mind-blowing. Got my middle-aged mind blown by walking past the same theater a while ago: “Aqualung, 40th Anniversary Concert”, for only 10x what I’d paid the first time. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/31 "2018-05-29T07:02:15Z")
“Your Axed for It” and “Heterosexuals Have the Right to Rock” by the Mentors. Anything by Steel Panther. ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/32 "2018-05-29T13:22:09Z")
> [@betterlifethroughchemistry](#): > > Yes, I know we have chipmunks, comic characters, etc., but I’m from the 60’s/70’s, grew up with the Partridge Family, and I have to say The Blue Brothers “Briefcase Full of Blues” is exemplary, it started as a gag with the amazing original Saturday Night Band, including Matt Guitar Murphy, Donald Duck Dunn, Blue Lou Martini, Steve Cropper, Mr. Fabulous, Murphy Dunne, Willie Hall, not to mention the original Jake and Elwood, they turned a gimmick into a serious blues album… That would be Blue Lou **Marini** which I remember because I can still hear Jake introduce the band on one of their live albums that I owned. Weird thing to stick in memory but I loved that album and the band as well. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/33 "2018-05-29T13:44:33Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > There was a band called Big Daddy that did modern songs (back in the '80s) as if they were songs from the '50s; _Sussido_ in the style of _Runaround Sue_, that sort of thing. It’s kinda fascinating, sometimes. > > They also did a version of Sgt. Pepper. Here’s [A Day in the Life](https://youtu.be/LMEAg3mUtyk) done as a Buddy Holly song. It works. I’ve said it before – my favorite Big Daddy piece is their cover of Celine Dion’s _My Heart Will Go On_ from _Titanic_. They take that ethereal, heartbreaking song and turn it into a happy bouncy Elvis Presley song so far removed from the original that at first I had no idea what song it was. It’s hilarious - especially when you place close attention to what the chorus is singing in the background. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/0skXjpGPex4/hqdefault.jpg "Big Daddy- My Heart Will Go On") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0skXjpGPex4) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/34 "2018-05-29T14:02:39Z")
The Original Concept Recording of Jesus Christ Superstar was considered a gimmick album: Two unknown Brits write a “rock opera” about the last week of Jesus’s life, only from Judas’s point of view, and manage to get it recorded and distributed in England, where it fails to go anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/35 "2018-05-29T15:26:08Z")
I’m gonna nominate the [Beethoven’s Wig](http://beethovenswig.com/) albums, which add lyrics to a bunch of classical music’s greatest hits. Some of my favorites: [Please Don’t Play Your Violin At Night](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay1K5Ek0TLo) (to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) [It’s the Same Every Verse](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmTWj-YEU8U) (to In the Hall of the Mountain King) [Please Keep Your Bull Outside the China Shop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYoxNh4D1J8) (to the Toreador Song from _Carmen_) [Sing Verdi Very Loud](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awJipg83f_c) (to La donna e mobile from _Rigoletto_) [I Want My Diploma](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84wmgB9w1q0) (best use of _Pomp and Circumstance_ ever!) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/36 "2018-05-29T17:02:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I’ve said it before – my favorite Big Daddy piece is their cover of Celine Dion’s _My Heart Will Go On_ from _Titanic_. They take that ethereal, heartbreaking song and turn it into a happy bouncy Elvis Presley song so far removed from the original that at first I had no idea what song it was. It’s hilarious - especially when you place close attention to what the chorus is singing in the background. They did a similar job on _Memory_ (from “Cats”). [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/K80ZNAJqKM8/hqdefault.jpg "Big Daddy - Memory") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K80ZNAJqKM8) ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/37 "2018-05-30T05:19:51Z")
Well if we’re calling Shatner’s “Has Been” a gimmick album…[Loungeapalooza](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdORlzVwuz8&list=PLAvRw_pbS9nmjqcrgWWWGB-JLDu214ygR) has some fantastic tracks on it. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/38 "2018-05-30T08:00:28Z")
> [@digs](#): > > If not the music, even the newspaper would be enough to attain “gimmick” status. And like the National Lampoon newspaper & yearbook parodies, a thorough reading yields so much interlocked detail. It contains a Spinal Tap reference. Which is unusual because it was released twelve years before the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/39 "2018-05-30T08:22:58Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > Well… and without Otis Redding, and Sam & Dave, and Rufus Thomas, and … Rufus? He’s the man. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/40 "2018-05-30T14:28:13Z")
Just to nitpick the OP a bit, Murphy Dunne and Willie Hall were not part of the original Blues Brothers band on SNL or on the Briefcase Full of Blues album. Paul Shaffer and Steve Jordan were the original keyboard player and drummer. Dunne and Hall replaced them in the movie for… contractual reasons? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831.md?page=3)