Lily Tomlin's This is a recording makes the list this year. As Ernestine's character would say, “One ringy-dingy, two ringy-dingy.”
Lily Tomlin in costume as a switchboard operator from the TV series, 'Laugh-In', March 29, 1971.
Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Lily Tomlin's This is a recording Earlier today she became the 13th comedy album – and the first by a woman – to enter the National Recording Registry (NRR).
The list of artists who have received this honor includes seven artists who have also received the Mark Twain Award for American Humor. Tomlin received this award in 2003. Others who have received both accolades include Richard Pryor, Carl Reiner, Bob Newhart, Steve Martin, George Carlin and Bill Cosby.
Three of the performers on the NRR list – Mel Brooks, Martin and Cosby – have been honored by the Kennedy Center. Three – Cosby, Newhart and Carl Reiner – have been inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. Note: All three of these prestigious awards were stripped from Cosby after his rape conviction in 2018. We show them why he won them before he lost them.
Two of these albums – by Newhart The Button-Down Mind by Bob Newhart and Vaughn Meader's The First Family – had long runs at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. A third – by Martin A wild and crazy guy – just missed the top spot, logging six weeks at No. 2.
We've all heard that laughter keeps you young, and it seems to be true. Five of those performers lived past 90. Reiner lived to be 98. His frequent comedy partner Brooks is 97, while Tom Lehrer is 96 and Newhart is 94. Mort Shall also lived to be 94.
Here's a closer look at the 13 full-length albums on the National Recording Registry. They are listed in chronological order by release date.
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Tom Lehrer, Tom Lehrer Songs (1953)
Billboard 200 Peak: No chart was made
Notes: Lehrer achieved his greatest success in the 1960s with songs about current social and political issues. He starred in the American adaptation of the British TV show This was the week it was, which aired on NBC from 1963-65. A 1965 album of a similar title, It was the year it waspeaked at No. 18 on the Billboard 200.
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Mort Sahl, In the west of the sun (1958)
Billboard 200 Peak: No chart was made
Notes: This album was recorded in 1955 and released three years later. Sahl hosted the inaugural Grammy Awards on May 4, 1959. He was also nominated for Best Comedy that year for The future is ahead. Sahl's 1960 album, Mort Sahl in the hungry iit reached No. 22 on the Billboard 200. Sahl died in 2021 at the age of 94.
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Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks, 2000 Years With Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks (1960)
Billboard 200 Peak: No chart was made
Notes: This was the first of five comedy albums by the pair, due to the popularity of their '2000 Year Old Man' routine, one of the most famous comedy routines this side of Abbott & Costello's 'Who's on First' (1938) (which is also in NRR). This first one 2000 Years The album received a Grammy nod for Best Comedy Performance – Spoken Word. Three of the pair's subsequent albums were also nominated in this category. The 2000 year old in 2000 won the award in 1999. A 1972 album, 2000 and Thirteen, peaked at No. 150 on the Billboard 200. Brooks is an EGOT winner. Reiner has won 11 Primetime Emmys, not counting his induction into the Television Hall of Fame. He died in 2020 at the age of 98.
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Bob Newhart, The Button-Down Mind by Bob Newhart (1960)
Image credit: NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 1 (14 weeks)
Notes: This held the No. 1 spot longer than any other comedy album in the history of the Billboard 200. This was also the first comedy album to win a Grammy for album of the Year. Newhart also won best new artist — the only comedian to ever win in that category. Newhart didn't have a long career as a top recording artist, but he certainly did on television: He starred in two long-running sitcoms and eventually won a Primetime Emmy in 2013 for a guest appearance on The theory of the Big Bang.
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Stan Freberg, Stan Freberg presents the United States of America (1961)
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 34
Notes: This album received a Grammy Award for Best Comedy. Freberg was nominated in each of the first four years of the Grammys, winning the first year for The best of Stan Freberg's shows. Freberg reached the top Advertising signThe separate Best Sellers and Disk Jockey charts of 1953 with a breakthrough single, “St. George and the Dragonet.” He died in 2015 at the age of 88.
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Vaughn Meader, The First Family (1962)
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 1 (12 weeks)
Notes: This fraud of President Kennedy's family was a sensation in what turned out to be the final year of JFK's presidency. This was the second of two comedy albums to win the album of the year Grammy. It also won a runner-up award for best comedy recording. Meader's career never recovered after Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. Lenny Bruce's darkly funny opening line to a show that Friday night: “Boy, is Vaughn Meader f—ked.” Minter died in 2004 at the age of 68.
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Bill Cosby, I started as a child (1964)
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 32
Notes: He started as a child, had a long and incredible run to the top, and ended in disgrace. Nothing funny about it. For the record, this album received a Grammy nod for Best Comedy. Cosby, 86, has won nine Grammys — more than any other comedian — and four Primetime Emmys.
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Firesign Theater — Don't crush this dwarf, give me the pliers (1970)
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 106
Notes: This is the only comedy troupe with an album on the Registry. The group made the Billboard 200 with eight albums. The highest chart was in 1971 I think we are all Bozos on this buswhich reached No. 50.
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Lily Tomlin, This is a recording (1971)
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 15
Notes: This album, in which Tomlin played the character Ernestine from which she is descended Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, won a Grammy for Best Comedy album. Tomlin was the first woman to win alone in this category. Tomlin, 84, has won six Primetime Emmys and was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Nashville.
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George Carlin, The class clown (1972)
Image credit: Dick Loek/Toronto Star via Getty Images
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 22
Notes: This album contains Carlin's famous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine. This album just missed the top 20. Carlin entered the top 20 with two albums in the 1970s – FM & AM and Toledo window box. Carlin won five Grammys and the premiere episode aired Saturday night live on October 11, 1975. Carlin, a brilliant writer (see Routine “stuff”.), died in 2008 at the age of 71.
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groucho marx, An evening with Groucho (1972)
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 160
Notes: This was a double album from the witty television and film comedian, a member of the famous Marx Brothers. Marx won a Primetime Emmy for Most Outstanding Personality in 1951. He received an honorary Academy Award in 1973 “in recognition of his brilliant creativity and for the unparalleled achievements of the Marx Brothers in the art of motion picture comedy.” He died in 1977 at the age of 86.
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Richard Pryor, Wanted (1978)
Image credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 32
Notes: This double album was Pryor's fourth top 40 album on the Billboard 200, following This Ni-er's Crazy, Is that something I said? and Bicentennial N—er. He returned to the top 40 in 1982 with Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip. Pryor won five Grammys and a Primetime Emmy, the latter for writing a 1973 Lily Tomlin special. In 2006, he became the first (and so far, only) comedian to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy. He died in 2005 at the age of 65.
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Steve Martin, A wild and crazy guy (1978)
Billboard 200 Peak: No. 2 (six weeks)
Notes: This earned Martin his second consecutive Grammy for Best Comedy album. His album Let's be small he had won in this category the previous year. A wild and crazy guy which is presented “King Tut,” a top 20 single on the Hot 100. Martin, 78, has won five Grammys (two for comedy and three for his music, demonstrating the range of his talents). Surprisingly, he has only won one Primetime Emmy, for writing The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1969. In 2013 he received an honorary Oscar.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/lists/comedy-albums-national-recording-registry-full-list/