Warner Bros. 1393
Producer: None listed
Track listing: Automation and a Private in Washington’s Army / The Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Co.) / Bus Drivers School / Retirement Party / An Infinite Number of Monkeys / Ledge Psychology
January 1, 1961
1 week mono
The success of The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a shock to the young comedian. “I saw the album as an adjunct to my new nightclub career. I would go into a town, some people would have heard the album and they would come and see me. So, I was totally unprepared for what happened,” he says. “I certainly never expected it to go to Number One and never expected to sell as many copies as it did.”
Disc jockeys such as Howard Viken at WCCO in Minneapolis and Dan Sorkin at WCFL in Chicago began to play Newhart’s routines from The Button-Down Mind, and sales of the album exploded. Sorkin, who had helped Newhart land his recording contract with Warner Bros., contributed liner notes to the album, and returned on the sleeve of Strikes Back!, boasting that his liner notes on Newhart’s debut had sold well over 200,000 copies. KSFO San Francisco DJ Don Sherwood, and WCCO’s Viken also wrote humorous tributes to Newhart, who had become a full-fledged star by the time he made his way to Hollywood for an engagement at the Crescendo in the fall of 1960.
“It was like New Year’s Eve every night,” Newhart says. “All of a sudden I was getting calls from people asking me to do The Ed Sullivan Show, Jack Paar, and Garry Moore. One night at the Crescendo, George Burns, Jack Benny, Gracie Allen, and Jack Livingston stopped by to say hello. I was floored.”
In the midst of all the excitement, Newhart had to begin to think about his second album. His contract with Warner Bros. called for an album a year over a four-year period. “All the options were with them,” says Newhart. “If the first album didn’t work, they were under no obligation to record a second one.” Of course, Warner Bros. not only wanted a second album, they wanted it as soon as possible.
Strikes Back! was recorded at Freddie’s Club in Minneapolis and the Hungry i in San Francisco in the summer and fall of 1960. The latter location was frequented by folk music sensations the Kingston Trio.
As had been the case when preparing to record his first album, Newhart was faced with a tight deadline and a lack of material. “Before the first album, I was working at a TV station in Chicago with a friend of mine named Bill Daily, who eventually wound up being on my TV show as Howard Borden, the airline pilot. Bill and I were both dabbling in stand-up, but we didn’t have much going,” Newhart says. “Bill had a date coming up and he asked if he could borrow a piece from me called ‘The Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Co.),’ and I said sure. But when the deadline came up for the second album, I had to call him up and tell him I needed it back, because I was one cut short. He didn’t want to give it up, because he said it was his best routine.”
By the time Newhart recorded Strikes Back!, he was no longer a novice. His delivery on the follow-up record is noticeably looser than on The Button-Down Mind. “By that time I was a little more comfortable in front of an audience,” he says. “I had gotten over some of the stage fright. The first one was recorded during my first engagement at a nightclub. By the second one, I had played about 10 different nightclubs.”
THE TOP FIVE
Week of Janaury 1, 1961
1. The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back!, Bob Newhart
2. Music from Exodus, and Other Great Tunes, Mantovani
3. Wonderland by Night, Bert Kaempfert
4. This Is Brenda, Brenda Lee
5. Temptation, Roger Williams