RARE AND UNUSUAL XANADU RELATED RECORDING!

'Election 80' Dickie Goodman PRL808-AS (Prelude Records) This single was released in late 1980 in time for the presidential election between Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter and independent candidate John Anderson. The recording itself was a comedic cut and paste piece that was popular on the nationally syndicated radio program, The Dr. Demento Show

This record is worth noting here as two tracks from xANADU were used for this songle, 'Magic' and 'Xanadu' In the recording, Dickie Goodman is heard interviewing Reagan, Carter and Anderson on the eve of the election and each of the candidates responds back through recorded lines from the Top 40 hits of that time. Goodman asks Carter on how he has handed his first four years in office and the line "Upside Down" from the Diana Ross hit of the same name is heard. Then Goodman asks "...and how are you able to change things?' and you hear, "You have to believe we are magic" from Magic. Later in the recording, Goodman is interrupted by a long distance phone call from John Anderson and asks where Anderson was calling from. "Xanaduuuu!" "Where?!?!" "Xanaduuuu-uuuu!"

Dickie Goodman (left) with a record executive in the mid-70's

Dickie Goodman has made a career out of these types of novelty records, going far back to 1956 as part of 'Buchanan & Goodman' with their first hit, The Flying Saucer Pt. 1 & 2. This first single had space men invading Earth while Goodman asks questions to them and authorities with small excepts of hits from that same year were used for answers. Goodman continued to issue similar records that comedicly mirrored the times: Mr. Jaws* (for the popular movie), Energy Crisis 74, Watergrate (Nixon and Watergate), Kong (for the 1977 remake), Superfly Meets Shaft, On Campus (1969), Hey E. T.!, Buchanan & Goodman On Trial (1956 single responding to the lawsuits from the their first single) and so on. Dickie died in 1989 and his son had written his father's biography, King Of Novelty for Libris Books in 2002. 'Election 80' was out-of-print for years until in 1998 when a second CD collection of Goodman's works was released, entitled 'Greatest Fables Vol. 2', which is believed to be still in print. *For you more anal-retentive fans, especially the ONJ ones, Goodman used a part of the chorus from 'Please Mr. Please' in the original 1974 Mr. Jaws single. NOTE: Be sure to get the ORIGINAL version as subsequent reissues have edited out the original ONJ cuts and have replaced them with a cover recording, due to, one might guess, legal pressure.

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