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Randy Hodgins and Steve McLellan’s lifelong love of comedy was kindled when they met more than 40 years ago in graduate school in Seattle. While managing family and professional work responsibilities, they hosted a one hour comedy radio program on Saturday mornings for 10 years on a small radio station in Olympia, WA and also co-authored two books on northwest popular culture – Seattle on Film (1995) and Wet and Wired (2000). Stuck at home during the early days of the pandemic with hundreds of comedy albums, cassettes and CD’s gathering dust on their shelves, they launched Laugh Tracks Legends of Comedy in May 2020, a weekly mini-program featuring a different comedy icon, with biographical bits and a nice slice of the comedy that made them famous. From standup stars, to stellar sketch teams, to novelty music maestros -- they are all part of our Legends.
Episodes
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
Tuesday Jan 02, 2024
Meet Bob Rivers, long-time Seattle morning disc jockey, Radio Hall of Fame inductee, and for our purposes most importantly the man behind Twisted Tunes! Over the course of a 40 year radio career Rivers wrote and produced hundreds of razor sharp parodies of popular hits. Part of Bob's genius was his ear for voice talent, so his AC/DC parodies really sounded like AC/DC and the Beatles bits sounded like the Beatles. After a "Twisted Christmas" album hit the charts, Bob began releasing more tunes and they grew to have their own life separate from the radio show. When he retired in 2014, he was recalled in the press as a morning host who didn't need to shock -- he just unleashed superior wit and musicianship to get his laughs. As alway, find extra clips below and thanks for sharing our shows!
Want more Bob?
Bob was a master of stylistic satire and his take on Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" is parody perfection. https://youtu.be/9hNkfvW64VU?si=V5ypF_XYpQr4a-80
Bob once said he believed the OJ Simpson murder trial generated more Twisted Tunes than any other single event. This one, "OJ's Dirty Laundry" is a fine parody of Don Henley's then-big hit. https://youtu.be/As5swSslDVM?si=Mz8rc6IQf2JD9ocd
Perhaps the most popular Twisted Tune was Bob's parody of Joan Osborne's "What if God was One of Us?". https://youtu.be/wwnXsdCbUYI?si=BRxPbvGkxdxPmO46
It doesn't happen often, but even in retirement Bob still pops out a Twisted Tune and the one he did for Covid showed he'd lost nothing off his fastball! https://youtu.be/RgAbsDKHaW0?si=5TkunrGaWZ5OUv5b
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