An album of skits poking fun at the Kennedy family and presidential administration, while not mentioning any of them by name. Features voice actors Vaughn Meader, Naomi Brossart, Norma Macmillan, Bob Booker, Jim Lehner, Bob McFadden, Bradley Bolke, Mark Hunter, Chuck McCann, Sara Dolley, Zama Cunningham, plus George Foster and Earle Doud.
Recorded in mono and stereo (CLP 25060) at the Fine Recording Studios, New York City on October 22, 1962.
Among the main companies to press this album were Columbia and RCA Custom, with their respective matrix numbers:
- A side: XTV 86619 (Columbia), NO9P-3072 (RCA)
- B side: XTV 86620 (Columbia), NO9P-3073 (RCA)
Yes, there are copies in REAL stereo.
I grew up with one, and I have at least one in my present collection.
Not sure what pressing, though, and I can't easily check.
I believe the one I grew up with had timings listed.
On the stereo version the tinkling of glassware in the room is quite directional,
so even without looking at the label or the jacket you would know for certain.
There was also another variant, Bert-Co typeset like {Images #1230325 & 1230326}, only with RCA's NO9P numbers rather than Columbia's XTV's on the label - and pressed by RCA Hollywood, with a deep groove same as Rockaway's {Images #517904 & 517905} and Indianapolis' {Images #776148 & 776167}.
Even more label variant scans added. My Mono copy has ACT I/ACT II printed ABOVE the center hole. And by my count, every thrift store in America with a record section has at least ONE copy of this album (plus at least one album by Ray Conniff, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass)!!
Well, yeah, they DID mention them by name, Jack, Jackie, Caroline, Little John (or was it Baby John?), and I'm pretty sure one of the people in the press conference track mentioned the name, Mr. or Pres. Kennedy.
Hand-etched 'H's' do indeed indicate a Columbia pressing from Hollywood; that, plus the XTV numbers and newer style pressing ring. (Pitman pressings used Bridgeport's label fonts as on {Images #517423 & 517424}.)
Added a fifth label variant for this release. This has the Columbia matrix numbers listed in the notes section (perhaps a Hollywood pressing as there is hand etched H in deadwax). The front cover of this album came in both a glossy finish or a matte finish.
The ratio of stereo FIRST FAMILY's to mono must have been worse than 80/20, given the handful I've seen relative to the zillions of mono copies you can still find everywhere there are used records. As for the 'stereo' edition, I have a copy, and while it can't really be deemed 'rechanneled' in the normal way we associate that word to Lp sonics, it's not true stereo, either. Sound effects are sometimes panned left-to-right-and-back-again, and voices do move around on occasion, but it seems manipulated and contrived, rather than even an ambient, 'in the studio' sound from a few microphones. One can guess that the unexpected phenomenon that was the album's success may have forced Cadence into asking for a stereo edition; or, having one planned but not expecting much in sales, pressed it in very limited numbers.
Very few copies would have been pressed in stereo (in those days, it was a ratio of 80% mono to 20% stereo in terms of LP pressings), and whatever stereo copies on the market would likely have been destroyed upon the JFK assassination. So stereo copies may have existed at the time, before 22 Nov 1963. I did, however, come across at least one stereo pressing in my travels. Never got it, though, as it wasn't a Columbia pressing.
Album jacket says in stereo as CLP 25060. However Tim Neely in American Records 1950 to 1975 doesn't list a stereo version. All copies listed on e-bay seem to be mono. Discogs has one listing for a stereo copy, but the picture is impossible to read. Wonder if this was really issued in stereo?