The Goon Show. Here’s an example from 1958.
Admittedly this is radio, rather than TV or movies, but undoubtedly radio is where it originated from.
Why wouldn’t kids today be aware of this sound? Needle scratch sounds are a very common feature of hip-hop music.
I think what we are talking about here is the sound of the needle skating across the record. I would differentiate that from the sounds DJs make by moving the record back and forth while the needle remains in the groove.
Johnny Fever used it intentionally on the first episode of WKRP in Cincinnati, when the station format changed from elevator music to rock. Not sure if it’s exactly what the OP was looking for, but it aired in 1978.
But don’t DJs also sometimes rake the needle across the grooves? I’m sure I’ve seen/heard that done.
I wouldn’t think so. It does a lot of damage to both the vinyl and the stylus tip to do that. DJs “scratching” actaully keeps the needle in the groove.
Monkees–um…I think “The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees”–the song is “Magnolia Simms” which was intended to sound like a 1920’s record, complete with tinny sound, pops, skips and scratches. Circa 1967
Earlier ones have been mentioned, but I thought I’d add Earache My Eye by Cheech & Chong, from 1974. Chong, as a teenager, is listening to an Alice Bowie record when his father (Cheech) comes in and drags the needle off the record, making a severe scratching sound, followed by the line “Heeey! You scratched my record, man!” and the rest of the routine. It was released as a single and got a lot of airplay.
I don’t think that quite counts (at least per your description). The OP is looking for the dramatic “record scratch” sound usually used as a comedic, transitional effect. Minor pops and scratches to make something sound “old-timey” doesn’t really fit the criteria, as it’s neither comedic, dramatic, or transitional.
No–there’s a skip-back where the song repeats (the needle is bumped back along the track). Then there’s a dramatic scratch, as the needle is “picked up”, and finally, the needle’s placed down after the scratch/skip and the song concludes.
US version: Fink Along with Mad, on the song “Mad Extra” in 1963. The song goes into the song “I Want a Nose Job,” which is interrupted and ended by a loud scratch.
From the NPR article:
Everyone seems to be going to music for examples, but I’m not sure that’s what the OP is looking for. I’m going to beat Ally McBeal by a few years and offer The Fresh Prince . Can’t give a cite, but I’m confident it was used many times.
Funny you should say that, because when I first read this thread I actually almost posted about that exact scene in Animal House, but then realized “it couldn’t have been a record scratch – Otis Day and the Nights were playing!” (However, IIRC there is a slight pause in the music and everyone turns to look when Boone yells “Otis! My man!”, so maybe that’s what I’m thinking of.)
That’s DOCTOR Johnny Fever:D:D:D
‘All right, Cincinnati, it’s time for this town to get down! You’ve got Johnny - Doctor Johnny Fever, and I am burnin’ up in here - Whoah! We all in critical condition, babies, but you can tell me where it hurts, cuz I got the healing prescription here from the big KRP musical medicine cabinet. Now I am talking about your 50,000 watts intensive care unit, babies! So just sit right back now, relax! Open your ears real wide and say, ‘Give it to me straight, Doctor, I can take it!’ Oh, I almost forgot, fellow babies… BOOGER!!!"
OK, I have a possible TV citation from 1999 of the record scratch being used in the sense of “Hold on, there!” It’s the documentary “Sideshow” which occasionaly airs on cable, and Jason Alexander narrates. I’ll have to relisten to it to find the exact spot and context though. ETA: Criminy! This was two years ago! I thought maybe six months!
I can bring it back to 1987 and the season finale of Blackadder series three.
The record scratch is definitely used for the moment when the title character, giving his dramatic dying speech, realises that the miniature cannon ball ‘killing’ him has actually been absorbed by a cigarillo case. The sad soundtrack music, Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor, is roughly scratched away at the realisation. Rare bonus, when it transpires something sad has really happened to another character later on, the track is dropped back into the soundtrack, as if the needle has been dropped carelessly onto the disc.
YouTube Clip. The scratch is at 06.19. Warning, spoilers for the ending if that is a concern.
Pengvin.
That’s what I’m thinking. I’ll try to find it.
So two questions here, looking for distinct first instances of comedic use. One is the sound understood as the sound of a needle scratching a record that was playing in the scene.
The “turn of the century” bit in the NPR piece suggests that the sound was known as dramatic punctuation in very early films–it probably didn’t take too many years before this was satirized for comedic effect.
The other is the same sound, but unconnected to a record. It’s just the scratch, abstractly.
Right?
I want to say that the latter was first done by Treg Brown in a Looney Tunes short sometime in the '40s or '50s. It seems like exactly the kind of innovation that would be his. But I have no example to point to.