Summer Diversions

Summertime is down time, especially in show business and most particularly in the record industry. It sometimes seems it is a time of year when novelty items catch on, with titles that go on almost as long as the hours of daylight. Remember Lonnie Donegan and Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight? Or how about Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini? Well, now there are two more examples of the same kind of lunacy.

Van Lingle Mungo is the tongue-twisting title of a litany of 38 baseball players whose names, recited in unison to a slightly Latin beat, are alleged to evoke peals of campy hilarity. Everyone from Virgil Trucks to Johnny Kucks is lauded by Singer Dave Frishberg. Mungo, the titular hero of the piece, was a 1930s Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher who now spends most of his time fishing and golfing in Pageland, S.C. "I think it's great," he says. "It's the first publicity I've had since I retired."

The other record is an album with a hefty price tag ($4.98), The Best of Marcel Marceao--teasingly close to the spelling of the name of the famed French pantomimist. A typical excerpt goes something like this:

(Applause)

Before the clapping, the listener gets 20 minutes of silence. Come to think of it, maybe $4.98 is a low price to pay these days for a little peace and quiet.

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