Recently I posted comedian Morty Gunty’s rendition of “There’s A War.” Here is the flip side of the single, a comedy routine called “Blind Date,” with Morty backed by a cool jazz ensemble.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JAN/GuntyBlindDate.mp3]The writing credit is “A. Cogan,” presumably a misspelling of comedy writer Arnie Kogen, who can be seen with Mark Evanier and some other noteworthy gents, all associated with MAD Magazine.
Arnie Kogen, Al Feldstein, Sergio Aragonés, Mark Evanier, Al Jaffee
“Blind Date” is the “A” side of the single. I don’t know who was backing Morty. The release date is smack dab in the middle of Gunty’s run on WOR-TV, after he’d had his first appearance on Ed Sullivan. I don’t recall hearing him mentioning the record on the show, but I remember him telling his mother-in-law joke about the electric chair, so the material wasn’t strictly kiddie fare.
A first boyfriend is … NAH, I’m not going to go there! Anyway, Bill wasn’t a blind date. Arnie, funny as always; I just wonder why your nephew Bill Monderer didn’t get any of your genes. His brother Stewie now lives in Andover around the corner from my sister Marianne! I don’t know where youngest brother Eric is. It’s amazing that your lovely sister Phyllis even allowed a WASP like me to date any of her boys! She was so gracious and friendly to me! I heard Jack passed away. Now HE had looks! 😉
Doug, did you find out who played the jazz on this record?
Cool! It sounds sorta like a Mad Magazine type of bit, so the Arnie Kogen connection is probably right on the money. “Politically Correct” it is not. A quick check seems to point to a July/August 1964 release date. I wonder if he ever plugged it on his TV show? Probably too “adult”, in the old meaning of “adult”, for his kiddie show audience.