Chevy Chase On the Mic Gettin' Physical

It's April Fool's Day, gang, and once again, I'd like to present to not waste your time with a fake gag post but present you a very real, incredibly silly Hip-Hop record.  How about, oh, I don't know... Chevy Chase's stab at rapping from 1980?  Yes, that Chevy Chase, from Vacation, Fletch and Caddyshack.  1980, of course, is quite early in the days of rap records, and his song is called "Rappers' Plight," which, of course, is a riff on The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight."  Now Sugarhill's record had been such a phenomenon that Chase was hardly in original territory to take a stab at "Rapper's Delight."  Female rappers Xanadu and Sweet Lady had already released a female version in 1979 on Joe Gibbs Music and there was a Canadian parody 7" released in 1980 called "Rapper's De Feet," where yes, they rap about feet.  There's also a curious cover version from Panama by a group called the Yimiyon Gang, but I'm not sure quite when that was released.

Anyway, it's not that surprising to see Chevy Chase take a stab at releasing an album.  This was after his time at SNL, and The Blues Brothers had already blown up.  Plus, he already had a history in the music industry before he became the Chase we know today.  He started out in a band called Chameleon Church, who released a major label album in 1968, and he was even the drummer for Steely Dan before they became famous.  So it was almost inevitable when he released his own self-titled album on Arista Records, which was even produced by one of the major musicians behind the Blues Brothers, Tom Scott.  And unlike some other SNL alumni who went on to release records, Chase was at least smart enough to stick to joke songs.

Such as it is.  I mean, "Let It Be" is just a straight cover of The Beatles' original, except his voice is pitched up, a la The Chipmunks.  And it doesn't get much funnier throughout.  A lot of the humor just comes from inserting drug references, and I think it's fair to assume this was all recorded under a variety of influences.  So his version of "I Shot the Sheriff" goes, "after toking all the PCP."  He has a parody record of "Short People," which was already a joke record, but he just inverts it.  So instead of "short people got no reason to live," he lists reasons why they're actually better off.  He does a version of "Wild Thing," where the whole joke is that he's crying as he sings the lyrics, and in the chorus he blows his nose.  I think one of the problems is that like when other comedians release albums, they want to prove that they’ve got genuine musical ability, too.  So the clever lyrics we're hoping for often take a back seat to indulging these guys' jam sessions.

But we're here for "Rappers' Plight."  And the good news is that you don't have to cop the whole Chevy Chase LP to get this on vinyl if the perverse sensation ever takes you.  The only single released for the album was "Short People" b/w "I Shot the Sheriff," and that was only on 7".  But there's a promo-only 12" called Three Cut Rebate From the New Fall Chevy, which as you can see comes in a sticker cover.  The first two songs are just "Short People" and "I Shot the Sheriff" again, but the third song is "Rappers' Plight."

And it's interesting.  Because he's got Scott and the whole band, it's got a well-played disco groove that definitely emulates the famous Chic bassline, but is otherwise distinctly original.  It starts off with Chase making fun of Wonder Mike's famous scatting, "a hip hip diggity dog and a bibbity bobbity boo, zippity do dah, coo coo ca choo."  Then we get into the first verse, where again, the joke is Drug References.  "The party don't stop if you wanna bop, I got uppers, downers, LSD.  Don't be low, have a blow, a little get-up-and-go, Joe.  Have yourself a little freeze."  And through the rest of the song, he does characters: a smokey drug dealer, and most memorably, a milquetoast square who's somehow wandered into the wrong party, "excuse me fellas, I hate to be a bother. I was wondering if any of you happened to have seen a little alligator purse; it belongs to my wife. She left it on the corner of the sofa over there."  This plays almost exactly like Bobby Jimmy's stock broker bit in his parody of Ice-T's "Colors" nearly a decade later.

Eventually the characters are talking over each other as the song devolves into chaos and it all wraps up in a weird sort of skit where Chase has walked out with everybody's stolen property.  I don't know if I'd say it's really actually funny, but it's amusing and easily the best thing about Chevy Chase.  I don't recommend the album, but if you're the kind of person who likes to mix a few quirky options into your crates, the 12" isn't terribly rare or hard to find, so it could make a fun, cheap score for the holiday.