[Description by Uncle Ricky, contributed by Eric Rhoads]
This exhibit was created for REELRADIO in 2007 from recordings contributed by Eric Rhoads. It was not broadcast as heard here, though all of the elements were on the radio at one time or another. It begins with the ZAP! used by KCBQ in the early ’70’s, followed by the original 1946 recording of Shaving Cream vocalized by Paul Wynn, as written by Benny Bell.
Dr. Demento made the song popular again in 1975, and it was re-released. The 1946 recording is followed by one of those “Drake Tympani” effects, and then, a 1975 re-sing of Shaving Cream, created by Benny Bell for Y-100. The lyrics include the names of the Y-100 jocks at the time. Jay Marks went into the woodshed, and he writes that these special shaving songs were also created for other stations to promote the record. The exhibit concludes with a generic Good Evening, Friends.
Bell was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1906. His dad wanted him to be a rabbi, but instead, he was making records for cocktail parties at the age of 40, when Shaving Cream first hit the charts. When he did the promotional Y-100 song heard here, he would have been 69. He passed away in 1999 at 93 years of age.