"Bah! Humbug!" - Bob Corley (1956) - Part 2

Did you get the chance to listen to Bob Corley's recording of "Bah! Humbug!" from 1956?

I think it's a fun take on "A Christmas Carol" and it seems very mid-50s to me, with the references to "compatible color" and "This Is Your Life" and  "I Led Three "Lives" and such.

I enjoy things with pop culture references from their time period and I really like it if I get the references!

It's strictly a comedy bit, but he actually delivers a concise version of the story with some of the plot elements.

I can't dig up a lot of info about Bob Corley and I could only find this one little picture of him, but I presume he's the same Bob Corley who took over the role of "Beulah" on the radio show of that name when Marlin Hurt, the originator of the character, passed away suddenly in 1946. No offense to Corley, but saner heads prevailed and Hattie McDaniel replaced him in 1947.

Whatever he was up to in between, by 1956 he was doing comic monologues, which seems like a better fit, as evidenced by his run of singles on RCA Victor.

When I first heard "Bah! Humbug!" I immediately thought of "What It Was, Was Football," the brilliant breakthrough monologue for "Deacon" Andy Griffith from 1953. Both routines feature the speaker describing something with which we're familiar through a southern-fried lens.

As a bonus, here's Andy:

Still holds up! "I believe I will have another big orange!"

I'm sure this tradition goes back further, but I think this sort of thing really burst on the pop culture scene in 1952 when Johnny Standley astonishingly had a number-one hit with "It's in the Book," a comedy routine in which a revivalist preacher goes on and on about Little Bo Peep, then leads a sing-along about Grandma's lye soap. Even I don't think that record holds up and I'm an aficionado of 1950s novelty records!

Whatever the case, I think Bob Corley's "Bah! Humbug!" is a lot of fun and is one of the long line of twists on "A Christmas Carol" that are successful because everyone is already familiar with the story, so you know exactly what he's talking about.

Here's a little blurb from the "Billboard" issue of December 1, 1956:

Not a ringing endorsement, but I dig it!