Cadence 3060
Producer: Robert Mack
Track listing: The Experiment/ After Dinner Conversations / The Malayan Ambassador / Relatively Speaking / Astronauts / Motorcade / The Party / The Tour / But Vote!! / Economy Lunch / The Decision / White House Visitor / Press Conference / The Dress / Saturday Night, Sunday Morning / Auld Lang Syne / Bedtime Story
December 15, 1962
12 weeks mono
In early 1962, Vaughn Meader was just another young comedian working the Greenwich Village club scene, at least until his manager suggested he audition for the CBS summer TV series Celebrity Talent Scouts, hosted by Jim Backus. Since Meader wasn’t actually discovered by a celebrity, he was billed as “the producer’s find.” Recalls Meader, “I was doing John F. Kennedy. My impression of Kennedy kind of evolved out of a little political, satirical act I was doing in the Village.” With Kennedy’s popularity at an all-time high, Meader’s impersonation didn’t go unnoticed. Earle Doud, a comedy writer for Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, and Bob Booker, a Miami disc jockey, caught Meader’s performance. “They called me up and said it would be a great idea for an album,” Meader says.
While Doud and Booker may have been convinced, the record industry wasn’t. The pair shopped a demo recording of Meader’s Kennedy act to every major label in New York. “A fellow at CBS told Earle Doud that he wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole,” Meader says. “So for Christmas, Earle sent him a 10-foot pole.” New York-based Cadence Records, one of two small labels to express interest in the project, finally agreed to produce the album. The album, featuring Meader as Kennedy, Naomi Brossart making her recording debut as the First Lady, and Doud and Booker as “heads of state and freeloaders and relatives,” was recorded at Fine Recording studios in New York City in front of a live audience on October 22, 1962. Ironically, this was the night Kennedy made his famed Cuban Missile Crisis speech. “The audience was in the studio and had no idea of the drama that was taking place,” says Meader. “But the cast had heard the speech and our throats almost dropped to our toes, because if the audience had heard the Cuban Missile Speech, we would not have received the reaction we did.”
Once the album was completed, Booker used his connections to help gain exposure. “He knew a few airwave personalities,” Meader says. “So they sent it over to WINS radio in New York.” A disc jockey by the name of Stan C. Burns put it on the air. “It caused so much excitement that the next morning WNEW put it on the air, and so did everyone else.”
Meader became an overnight sensation and at the time, The First Family became the fastest-selling album in history. On December 8, 1962, it debuted at number 11. A week later, it shot all the way to the top of the chart, with sales of 1.6 million in two weeks. It sold 3.6 million in a month, 5.5 million in a year, and went on to win a Grammy for Album of the Year.
A sequel, The First Family, Volume Two, reached number four six months later, but Meader’s Kennedy impersonations would soon have to end. A Kennedy parody of “The Night Before Christmas” was recorded and set for release as a single when Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. “It was almost guaranteed to be a million-seller,” Meader says of the single. “We printed 100 DJ copies, but then he was assassinated.” The record was recalled and The First Family albums were pulled from the shelves. “They dug two graves when they shot the president,” fellow comedian Lenny Bruce told Greenwich Village audiences in the days following the tragedy, “one for Kennedy and one for Vaughn Meader.” In reality, Meader went on to record other albums, including a 1969 album called The Second Company. It received positive reviews, but failed to chart.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 15, 1962
1. The First Family, Vaughn Meader
2. My Son, the Folk Singer, Allan Sherman
3. Jazz Samba, Stan Getz / Charlie Byrd
4. West Side Story, Soundtrack
5. Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, Vol. 2, Ray Charles
5. Moving, Peter, Paul & Mary