''Let's Get Small'' (1977) is an album by American comedian Steve Martin. It includes "Excuse Me", a comedy bit whose title went on to become a national catchphrase. The album went

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

and peaked at No. 10 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Albums Chart. It was recorded at The Boarding House in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. This album won the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

in 1978 for Best Comedy Album. Some of Martin's bits were dependent on visual demonstration, such as when he dances as a Vegas pop singer on the track "Las Vegas" (presumably recognizing this in the context of recording the album, Martin's shoes are audible and quite loud as he performs the dance on this track) and also during the "Let's Get Small" track where he discusses getting small while driving — here he mimed driving a car while being so short as to barely reach the bottom of the steering wheel. Martin had debuted this particular bit in a February 26, 1977 appearance on the show ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

''. The album cover shows Martin wearing balloon animals, bunny ears, Groucho Marx glasses, and a fake arrow through his head; these were all staples of his live act. He made balloon animals on some of his ''Saturday Night Live'' appearances as well as his guest appearance on '' The Muppet Show'', while the fake arrow through the head was spoofed by Dinah Shore for a guest appearance by Martin on her talk show.

Track listing

#"Ramblin' Man/Theme from Ramblin' Man" – 2:14 #"Vegas" – 5:45 #"Let's Get Small" – 13:34 #"Smoking" – 2:10 #"One Way to Leave Your Lover" – 1:33 #"Mad at My Mother" – 1:22 #"Excuse Me" – 2:32 #"Grandmother's Song" – 3:33 #"Funny Comedy Gags" – 3:05 #"Closing" – 2:02 "Grandmother's Song" was released as a 7" vinyl single. A very short excerpt of "Let's Get Small" is the single's B-side.

Production

* Norman Seeff – photography

Legacy

The phrase "well, excuuuuuuse me" has entered the

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

due to a bit featured on this album. The bit was cited as an inspiration for ''

The Legend of Zelda is a media franchise, video game series created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo; some portable installments and re-releases have been outsourced to Flags ...

'' character Link, who uses "Well, excuse me, Princess!" as a catchphrase in the 1989 cartoon.

References

{{Authority control 1977 debut albums Steve Martin albums Warner Records albums Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album 1970s comedy albums 1977 live albums Comedy albums by American artists Stand-up comedy albums