Artist:Dickie Goodman
Song:Mr. Jaws
Album:Long Live the King
Mr. Jaws was a top five hit in 1975. It was one of two big hits by novelty song specialist Dickie Goodman. He specialized in what was called "break in" recordings where Goodman would conduct an interview and use popular songs as the answers. Goodman usually worked with a songwriter. He was born Apr. 19, 1934 in Brooklyn, NY. He was inspired by Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio show to record the 1956 single The Flying Saucer with songwriter Bill Buchanan. This was released as Buchanan & Goodman on their own label Luniverse. Buchanan played the radio announcer. Goodman played the interviewer. The answers were snippets of pop songs. It was an early example of audio tape manipulation. The record reached #3 on the hit parade. Then Goodman was sued for using the songs without permission. The judge ruled for Goodman saying the record was a parody. This opened the door for others to do this but Goodman was the only one to do it regularly. After a few recordings together, Goodman and Buchanan split up in 1959. Buchanan produced records for The Three Stooges among others. Goodman continued to record novelty records sometimes with his wife Susan. But he didn't have another big hit until Mr. Jaws reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. This used his "break in" format similar to Goodman's earlier records. His co-writer was Bill Ramal and it was released on Goodman's own label Cash distributed by Private Stock Records. He continued to release records until he committed suicide on Nov.6, 1989 at age 55. Goodman's son Jon Goodman owns his recordings and released this CD on the reissue label RockBeat. Here's a video for Mr. Jaws by Dickie Goodman.
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