Hollywood Hi-Fi

The Star
WE MADE IT TO THE TABLOIDS!
And it's all true!

PLAYBOY MAGAZINE JUNE 1996

ARTLESS AND CHARTLESS

A lot of unfortunate recordings have been made. The ouvre of Vanilla Ice comes to mind. But we have George Gimarc and Pat Reeder to thank for "Hollywood Hi-Fi" (St. Martins Griffin), a book that surveys the ill-conceived platters that have polluted music and killed vinyl over the years. The authors point to the obvious: Rock Sings "Pillow Talk," Mae West's "Great Balls Of Fire," "The Ethel Merman Disco Album," and Hugh O'Brian's "TV's Wyatt Earp Sings" -- which includes a narrative encomium to his extra-long pistol (he calls it his "portable posse" and his "one-eyed jury"). But the book also includes harder-to-find gems such as Sebastian Cabot's dramatic reading of Bob Dylan lyrics, and "You're My Girl: Romantic Reflections by Jack Webb." In case you think only vintage efforts are ridiculed, Crispin Glover's CD, "The Big Problem," with its rap song about masturbation, "Auto-Manipulator," and his disturbed cover of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'," is also here. The book's one misstep is including Penn and Teller's "Never Mind The Sex Pistols, Here's Bongos, Bass and Bob," which was meant to be everything it is.

Billboard Magazine

Very often, big-name actors fall prey to the delusion that since they can act, they must be talented at singing, too. So, brimming with confidence, they make records, most of which are astoundingly awful. these unintentionally hilarious celebrity recordings were lost to posterity until resurrected by Rhino Records popular Golden Throats series. Now, Gimarc and Reeder- self described lovers of oddball recordings- offer an amusing overview of this neglected genre of music.

Best known among the recordings are those of the Star Trek cast, particularly William Shatners infamous renditions of "Mr Tambourine Man" and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (which, as Gimarc and Reeder put it, sounds like Regis Philbin on LSD).

But the authors have dug deeper than that, unearthing more than 100 celebrity recordings and devoting a full page to each performer. There are a lot of surprises here: Bette Davis, Joe Pesci, Farrah Fawcett, Richard Simmons, and Orson Welles. Detailed, entertaining background information is provided on each; the authors clearly spent a lot of time researching the history of each record. (As they say in their forward, Do we need to get a life, or what?)

Gimarc and Reeder's sarcastic, yet affectionate, commentaries are as funny as the music they skewer. Take this introduction to Burgess Merediths "Songs From How The West Was Won": Pardon me, Mr. Record Store Clerk! I m looking for an album of rousing western themes...the type of songs that evoke the grand, rugged territory and hard riding cowboys of the Old West! Oh, and by the way, could they be sung by Batmans nemesis, the Penguin? Or summing up Joan Rivers "Just Like A Man": Can she talk? Yes. Can she sing? NO!

The authors are fair in giving positive reviews to those rare celebrity records that are artistically sound. They also give points to celebrities who have enough of a sense of humor to joke about their failed recording attempts. And, after making fun of actors who can not sing, the authors generously include a section on singers who can not act.

Reading this book makes one immediately want to hear all these wacky records. In anticipation of that desire, Brunswick Records (212-246-7930) is planning to simultaneously release a tie-in Hollywood Hi Fi CD, with 18 celebrity recordings mentioned in the book. The book is also being publicized by a World Wide Web site on the Internet (http://www. onramp.net/RGP/Hollywood.html). The authors plan to do sequels (they have enough material for three or four books) and hope to eventually do a TV special, with vintage clips of the stars singing on various TV shows and in movies.

With the popularity of TV bloopers shows and Before They Were Stars specials, this book and its tie-ins should find an eager audience. TRUDI MILLER ROSENBLUM

InStyle Magazine May 1996

Even before karoke machines, people with little or no musical talent were trying to sing. And as the new book Hollywood Hi Fi chronicles, all that's really needed to get a record made is a recognizable name, such as Bette Davis or Sylvester Stallone. Here are a few samples from Hi Fi authors Pat Reeder and George Gimarc. SYLVESTER STALLONE, Paradise Alley: Sly sounds like a cross between the mating cry of a bull moose and Elvis after a long day in the dentist's chair. BURT REYNOLDS, Ask Me What I Am: Burt calls to mind the frog trio from those Budweiser commercials. CYBILL SHEPHERD, Does It To.....Cole Porter: Cybill's first album was produced by her then paramour, movie director Peter Bogdonavich, proving that love is not merely blind but also quite tone deaf. HUGH DOWNS, An Evening With Hugh Downs: Mr 20/20s 1959 collection of old folk songs for old folks. The surprise here is that he isn't a bad singer.