# 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:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/41 "2018-05-30T14:39:51Z")
Do the Dethklok/Metalocalypse albums count? It’s a fictional band from a cartoon series, but they make really good metal albums. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/42 "2018-05-30T14:43:30Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Luther Wright & The Wrongs redid Pink Floyd’s The Wall in bluegrass. It’s very good and to top it off, before releasing it, they got Roger Waters’ blessing. Intrigued, I made the effort. I enjoy bluegrass. I enjoy Pink Floyd. This combo didn’t work for me, and I’m trying to work out exactly why not. ---
**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 30, 2018, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/43 "2018-05-30T15:21:02Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Paul Shaffer and Steve Jordan were the original keyboard player and drummer. Dunne and Hall replaced them in the movie for… contractual reasons? I’m not sure about Jordan, but it sounds like Belushi booted Shaffer from the movie, because he wasn’t happy about Shaffer also doing work at that point for Gilda Radner. From [Shaffer’s Wikipedia entry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Shaffer#Musical_career): > [@](#): > > Shaffer occasionally teamed up with the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players off the show as well, including work on Gilda Radner’s highly successful Broadway show and as the musical director for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd whenever they recorded or performed as The Blues Brothers. Shaffer was to appear in the duo’s 1980 film, but, as he revealed in October 2009 on CBS Sunday Morning, Belushi dropped him from the project. In a memo to fellow SNL colleagues, Belushi said that he was unhappy that Shaffer was spending so much time on a studio record for Radner. Belushi said that he had tried to talk Shaffer out of working on the album in the first place in order to avoid sharing Shaffer’s talents with another SNL-related project. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/44 "2018-05-30T15:54:35Z")
After working in the Caribbean on the film _Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison_, Robert Mitchum recorded _Calypso — is like so_, an album of traditional Calypso songs. One interesting song on the album is [From a Logical Point of View](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N2OYpEAnCQ), which is a cover of Roaring Lion’s [Ugly Woman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZnNwZyaGf8), which later became Jimmy Soul’s [If You Wanna Be Happy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh9ZZgDqzAg) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2018, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/45 "2018-05-30T16:08:59Z")
> [@Johnny\_Ace](#): > > Rufus? He’s the man. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/46 "2018-05-31T01:53:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > 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). I came in here to mention Richard Cheese. Check out [Baby Got Back](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f66kEastC58). Fun stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/47 "2018-05-31T02:59:19Z")
_Thick as a Brick_ when it had the whole newspaper folded in. That was one of a kind. ETA: Beaten to it by **glowacks** and **digs**. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/48 "2018-05-31T17:26:46Z")
David Lee Roth’s _Sonrisa Salvaje_ - Diamond Dave rerecorded the vocals for his debut solo album\* Eat 'Em and Smile\* in phonetic Spanish, and one or two of the songs actually worked better than the original English versions. Supposedly he also recorded Portuguese vocals tracks, but those have never been released. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/49 "2018-05-31T18:01:37Z")
White Canadian rapper WordBurglar did an entire album about G.I. Joe, which is surprisingly good considering that description. Couple examples [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1da1SxhHzw) and [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdCyXeJf844) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2018, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/50 "2018-05-31T19:09:35Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > 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”) While I do agree that Thick as a Brick is a great gimmick album, I myself prefer A Passion Play as an album for these same reasons, because instead of deliberately telling no story, it does tell a story while still engaging in a lot of nonsense (and even having a weird aside to bridge the two album sides). ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2018, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831/51 "2018-06-01T00:54:40Z")
DEVO 2.0. Get a bunch of 9-13 year old kids together to cover Devo songs. What could be more in the theme of de-evolution than have Radio Disney publish an album in which a 13-year-old girl sings “Uncontrollable Urge?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-gimmick-album/814831.md?page=2)