as a performer of song parodies was recognised when a long-playing record of these called "My Son, the Folk Singer" was released in 1962. Although it parodied American summer camps, Sherman's Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (released here in October 1963) was popular in both the USA and the UK. Sherman's talent for wit was shown in the opening lines when he wrote:

"Camp is very entertaining and they say we'll have some fun if it stops raining."

           Sherman's brand of humour caught the mood of the moment in the USA and, according to legend, even President Kennedy was one of his many fans. However his success was relatively short-lived and by 1967 his recording career was at an end. Some artists did not last even that long and fall into the category of one-hit wonders. An example was Jerry Samuels who, under the pseudonym of Napoleon XIV, can lay claim to the most bizarre novelty record of all time: They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa! Samuels was a 28 year old recording engineer who had previously written small-time hits for stars like Sammy Davis Junior. In 1966 he spoke/ chanted his manic depressive tale of failed romance and his impending incarceration in a lunatic asylum to a stunned audience and promptly zoomed up the US charts to number three!

        On this side of the Atlantic, mainstream singers, actors and comedians all made their mark on the novelty record trade. The year 1960 saw the release of the film The Millionairess  starring Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers. Based on a story by George Bernard Shaw the film told the story of a beautiful young and spoiled heiress who had plenty of money but couldn't find love. Sellers played the part of a dedicated but destitute Indian doctor who became the centre of her attention. The success of the film led to the release of the single Goodness Gracious Me in December 1960 in which Loren and Sellers reprised, in song, their roles from the film.

          Just as actors made occasional forays into song, singers tried to develop acting careers. The sickeningly sentimental novelty record Little White Bull comes from the Tommy Steele film Tommy the Toreador released in 1959.

             Although it was not always laughs which defined a novelty record a host of British comic talent did made their mark with the medium. The diminutive Charlie Drake with his shock of red hair, distinctive Cockney voice and his catchphrase Hello My Darlings was a well known figure on British screens in the 1960s. He added to his career as a variety and television artist by releasing an Anglicised version of  Larry Verne's American hit Mr Custer in 1960. An even bigger hit was the song My Boomerang Won't Come Back  co-written by Charlie Drake and Max Diamond in 1961.  The comic genius of Morcambe and Wise, meanwhile, enlisted the support of their scriptwriters Dick Hills and Sid Green in a performance of the hilarious Boom Ooh Yata Ta Ta. Tommy Cooper too brought his own inimitable brand of manic humour to a recording of Don't Jump Off The Roof Dad (1961).

          Frankie Howard also got in on the act.  Howard's career began at the Sheffield Empire in 1946 and his performances soon included the novelty song Three Little Fishes written in 1939 by Saxie Dowell. Howard lent his particular blend of asides and innuendo to the song and it became a firm favourite of stage and radio audiences alike:

Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool
Swam three little fishies and a mamma fishy too