Celebrity Vinyl [Hardcover]

Tom Hamling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2008

Celebrity Vinyl is a laugh-riot reminder of what happens when famous people decide to (unsuccessfully) give singing a try. The number of celebrities, and pseudo-celebrities, that have indulged in such hubris boggles the mind: Burt Reynolds, Shaquille O’Neal, John Travolta, Eddie Murphy, Leonard Nimoy, Alyssa Milano – the list goes on and on, as do the laughs. Over 100 photographs of the album art that houses these celebrity recordings are paired with gut-punch funny captions.

The collection started when the advertising agency that author Tom Hamling worked in elected to transfer its audio library to CDs. Since then, he has spent close to a decade acquiring celebrity vinyl, rooting through record store bins and traveling to far-flung flea markets. Hamling says of his ongoing quest to collect these curiously compelling objects, “Sometimes I feel like Dr. Richard Kimble in search of the one-armed man. Except my one-armed man is the inaudible shriek of Jennifer Love Hewitt.”

Celebrity Vinyl is a pop-culture microscope that reveals the nuances and blemishes of vinyl and celebrity cultures from a bygone era. Every example is accompanied by riotously hilarious captions that dissect the album’s artwork and graphic design, as well as the celebrity in question.

Join Hamling on this personal tour of his peculiar passion. You are sure to laugh more now than you did back then!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Author Tom Hamling is an award-winning advertising creative director whose client list includes adidas, Heineken, Got Milk?, and LEGO. In addition to owning the world's best collection of awful celebrity-based music, he is known, in some circles, to do a pretty decent squirrel call. He lives and works in Los Angeles. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Mark Batty Publisher (June 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979554624
• ISBN-13: 978-0979554629
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 0.8 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,094,510 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Collection of Little Known Old Secrets of Celebrities, June 24, 2008

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Celebrity Vinyl (Hardcover)

In CELEBRITY VINYL Tom Hamling shares a collection of album covers from old long playing 33 1/3 records (remember those?) that are not only nostalgic: this collection of information in the form of record jackets opens secrets of the stars that will surprise many readers. Handsomely designed by Eliane Lazzaris from photographs of the album covers by photographer Jonah Light and edited by Buzz Poole, this book is a scrapbook of memories brought to life by Hamling's spare but cogent comments beneath each page's featured album jacket. Sound simple? The unique aspect of this collection is the fact that the recordings were made years ago by people not remembered for singing!

There are albums of songs by Jerry Lewis, Dick Van Dyke, Lorne Greene, Anthony Quinn, Goldie Hawn, Telly Savalas, Burt Reynolds, Bruce Willis and Eddie Murphy as well as collections of songs as sung by The Brady Bunch, Ethel Merman, Joe Piscopo, John Davidson, a very young John Travolta, David Soul, Marilyn Monroe and many others. The images on these covers are art pieces in themselves, but placing them in context with the out of character stance of stand alone singing makes for a very entertaining read. Tom Hamling makes for sure we find the humor and the nostalgia that viewing these albums creates.

This is a terrific, unique collection of surprises presented in a sophisticated, very entertaining manner. Well worth the attention of a broad audience. Grady Harp, June 08

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to ruin a perfectly good career, June 28, 2008

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Celebrity Vinyl (Hardcover)

I said it once and I'll say it again: kitsch is camp and camp is kitsch and ever the twain shall meet. Yes, I'm jealous. I threw out all my vinyl thirty-three and a thirds when I made the last move to the old folks dementia home. This was long after I threw out my 78s and 45s, alas. (Warped by the sun, but as they spun, they gave off a wavy groove). So Tom Hamling goes on to show us all up and prove that one man's crapola is another man's treasure. Can you imagine? An art book showing the covers of records made by THE WORLD'S WORST CELEBRITIES (and some others)?

I mean, you can't play the music, and according to Hamling, that is all to the good. What he does instead in this "it's so bad it's art!" collection of some albums that never should have seen the light of day is to carefully examine the covers for hints and allegations about the pop culture in mostly the seventies and eighties. John Travolta, who really is a celeb, bless his hairy-chested heart, graces several pages of this frankly amazing tome, as well as appearing in the center of the record playing on the stylish record player on the cover, gets to be embarrassed boocoo times. Hamling's dry comment on the album cover showing Travolta in a dark mop of very thick hair over naked white shoulders: "This can't help the gay rumors."

My favorite (just to get back to me) is "I'm Your Woman" (1985) by Sandra Bernhard (who could actually sing a little) lying seemingly naked in satin sheets looking like somebody just smacked her in the swollen lips for looking too too heroin chic. I also liked "Rick Dees and His Cast of Idiots" in a straight jacket grinning wide-eyed at the camera in "I'm Not Crazy" [Recommend for Adult Listening]. Hamling's comment: "Dees nuts." Ah, yes, dees nuts were made for.... Never mind. Rick Dees, when he did his celebrity trash radio show in L.A., used to give the temperature as "Seventy-eight dees sleaze grees." (Say that several times: "Dees sleaze grees.") Maybe he still does.

There's a bunch of the Brady Bunch, and how bad were they? Oh my Lord how those kids could grin. Throw in some Ed McMahon, some Burgess Meredith, a whole lotta Lorne Greene, the Beverly Hillbillies, Jim Nabors, Leonard Nimoy ("Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space"), Rappin' Rodney Dangerfield, and some stylings by the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, and what have you got? You've got, as Hamling puts it, "the consecration of fame...the veneration of the C-List."

There are some A-List people sprinkled among the desperate, but they are VERY embarrassed (or ought to be). There's Goldie Hawn from 1972 looking good enough to munch (on those pouty lips), and Marilyn Monroe in what ought to be a collector's item entitled "The Very Best of Marilyn Monroe" from Fun Records [Year Not Listed]. Also there's Billy Crystal having black coffee with Billy Crystal in "You Look Marvelous" at some night club booth with celeb photos on the wall.

Sometimes the cover art shows the names of the songs sung by the celeb. Ted Knight in "Hi Guys" intones "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini," "Blueberry Hill," "Mr. Custer," and nine more, in a style that surely had them tapping their pinkies. And "Laverne & Shirley Sing" gives us "Da Do Ron Ron" which I suppose they ought to know about, and the Everley Brothers hit from the fifties, "All I Have to Do Is Dream," which I imagine they warble for laughs.

There are many more affronts to good taste and career development in this Mark Batty signature publication, including "Christmas Day with Colonel Sanders," "Wrestling Rocks" featuring Jesse "The Body" Ventura," "Love in the Afternoon" with the ABC Soap Opera Stars, and heaven help us, "The Ethel Merman Disco Album."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended to community library music collections, August 17, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Celebrity Vinyl (Hardcover)

The ride that success brings - endorsements, movies, television... and then there's the branch into the world of music. "Celebrity Vinyl" is an examination of this move... and how and why it goes so terribly wrong so terribly often. The author is an enthusiastic collector of these horrible albums and suffers for his readers as he outlines each album's story from its earliest concept stages to its life in stores, which is usually mercifully short. From Muhammad Ali to Leonard Nimoy to the Dallas Cowboys, "Celebrity Vinyl" covers them all, and is highly recommended to community library music collections.