Lenny and the Squigtones
Lenny and the Squigtones is a fictional musical group headed by Michael McKean and David Lander, the two actors who played the characters Lenny and Squiggy on the television series Laverne & Shirley. The group's eponymous debut album, Lenny & Squiggy Present Lenny and the Squigtones, was released on the Casablanca label in 1979. Recorded live at the Roxy in Hollywood, they perform parodies of 50s rock ballads ("Night After Night", "Creature Without a Head"). In between, there is schtick and banter ("So's Your Old Testament", "Babyland").
The album is now a collector’s item partly because of guitar work by Christopher Guest, who used the name "Nigel Tufnel". This was the name Guest used for the satirical rock band Spinal Tap several years later, alongside McKean (who used the name "David St. Hubbins" in Spinal Tap). A photo on the album's inside cover also includes two band members, "Murph", the keyboard player from The Blues Brothers, and "Ming the Merciless", purported to be Kiss drummer Peter Criss without his famous "cat" costume and make-up, though Criss denied it was him. McKean has confirmed that the drummer in the photograph is actually Don Poncher.[1]
Track listing[]
All tracks (except where noted) are credited to Michael McKean and David L. Lander.
- Side A
- "Vamp On"
- "Night After Night"
- "Creature without a Head"
- "King of the Cars" (Michael McKean)
- "Squiggy's Wedding Day"
- "Love Is a Terrible Thing"
- Side B
- "Babyland" (For Eva Squiggmann)
- "If Only I'd've Listened to Mama"
- "So's Your Old Testament"
- "Sister-in-Law"
- "Honor Farm"
- "StarCrossed" (Michael McKean)
- "Only Women Cry"
- "Foreign Legion of Love"
- "Vamp Off"
Credited personnel[]
- Lenny (Michael McKean) - guitar, harmonica, vocals
- Squiggy (David L. Lander) - squigophone, vocals
- Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) - guitar, clarinet, vocals
- Ming The Merciless (Don Poncher) - drums
- Lars Svenki (Murphy Dunne) - keyboards, vocals
- Dwight Knight (Steve Benderoth) - bass, vocals
- with
- Jay Seigel - vocal backgrounds
- Production credits
- Produced by Dave Appell and Hank Medress
- Associate producer: Steve Benderoth
References[]
- ^ Michael McKean [@MJMcKean] (16 January 2012). "@VBartilucci Peter Criss was nowhere near this project. The drummer is Don Poncher, aka Ming the Merciless" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- 1979 debut albums
- Fictional musical groups
- Casablanca Records albums