The assassination of John F. Kennedy may have marked the end of American innocence, but it crowned Vaughn Meader's First Family LP as the king of the cut-out bins for decades, a position it still holds to this day. What a shame that this fate was not bestowed upon George Atkins and Hank Levine's Sing Along With JFK LP instead. In 1961, Atkins and Levine took snippets of JFK's early presidential speeches, added an accordian player and a chorus, and set Camelot to music. JFK's pal Frank Sinatra was good enough to put out a small pressing of the LP on his Reprise label.
Although the same technique has been applied by others (including the George W Bush Singers), the inspiration of the Sing Along With JFK record has never been equaled, even (and especially) by Atkins and Levine's RFK/LBJ-based followup, Washington Is For The Birds.
Here are all six musical tracks from the LP Sing Along With JFK:
Begin Anew For Two | Let Us Begin Beguine | Alliance For Progress Bossa Nova
Ask Not Waltz | The Trumpet | Let The Word Go Forth
Is that a bra he's sitting atop?
Posted by: Pete | October 27, 2005 at 10:40 AM
The album cover has a sub-headline: "Laugh along with Nixon" -- and it says this thing uses the actual voices of JFK, Nixon and Ike. The six tracks you posted are totally JFK. So what's the deal with the deal with the Nixon material? No accordians, so you figured your listeners wouldn't be interested?
By the way, folks, after listening to "The Trumpet," I think I can safely state that had JFK not met his untimely demise, he might have given Rodd Keith a run for his money as the King of the Song-Poem Singers.
Posted by: Jeff | October 29, 2005 at 07:40 PM
side b has a nixon speech with overdubbed laugh track. not really as good as side a.
Posted by: waylon solos | July 17, 2007 at 06:05 PM
Nixon and Ike were on the B-side of the original LP. The Nixon track presents his bitter, self-pitying rant ("You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore") following his loss to Jerry Brown for governor of California with a TV-style laugh track. The IKE excerpt is the most looney and surreal item on the album. Eisenhower giving a speech with the ambient sound of a bowling alley behind him.
Posted by: Mickeleh | February 04, 2008 at 08:29 AM
I have a copy of the original album, it was my dads and he was a huge fan of JFK.
Is there any value to such a rare recording?
Posted by: Johnny Z | August 04, 2009 at 06:12 PM