From
Henny Youngman to
Steven Wright and on to
Mitch Hedberg, the one-liner comedian has to figure out the tricky problem of the comedy album. One track per joke is ridiculous and lumping them together thematically is tricky, so the beloved
Rodney Dangerfield made it easy on himself by simply dividing his act as the record flipped. While this one track per side method makes putting a best-of together difficult, if anyone is up to the task it's
Shout Factory, the respected pop culture fanatics who just happen to own a label. Their
Greatest Bits release doesn't hack but skillfully extracts the best parts of the
No Respect,
I Don't Get No Respect, and
Rappin' Rodney albums in ten-plus minute segments. By keeping the tracks long, the "you are there" feeling of
Rodney's original albums is retained with all the clinking glasses and other audience ambience transporting the listener to a Vegas of yore. His hilarious riffing on sad situations ("I got a car. Every Sunday I take the family out for push"), growing old ("Eating has replaced sex completely. I had a mirror put in above my kitchen table"), and his own fame ("Prominent people look at me and have one thought; there but for the grace of God...") are all as funny as ever, which is more than you can say for the dated musical number
"Rappin' Rodney." Course, this white-man-rapping-poorly cut is such an unbelievable and oddball novelty it had to be included, and seeing as how
Rodney's joyful everyman version of
"Finiculi Finicula" from the
Easy Money soundtrack is here, all is forgiven.
Shout Factory's collection is right up there with
Hip-O's 2005 set
20th Century Masters, but with the longer tracks and liner notes from the comedian's widow, this one has the personal touch and feels much more genuine overall. ~ David Jeffries
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