''The Great White North'' is a Canadian comedy album by the fictional television characters
Bob and Doug McKenzie
Bob and Doug McKenzie are a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted "Great White North", a Sketch comedy, sketch which was introduced on ''Second City Television, SCTV'' for the show's third season when it moved to CBC Television in 1980 ...
(portrayed by actors
Rick Moranis
Frederick Allan Moranis (; born April 18, 1953) is a Canadian actor, comedian, musician, songwriter, writer and producer. He appeared in the sketch comedy series ''Second City Television'' (''SCTV'') in the 1980s and several Hollywood (film indu ...
and
Dave Thomas Dave may refer to:
Film, television, and theater
* Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film
* Dave (TV channel), a digital ...
), released in 1981 by
Anthem Records
Anthem Records is an independent record label based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company was formed in May 1977 by Ray Danniels and Vic Wilson with initial recording artists Rush, Max Webster, Liverpool and A Foot in Coldwater. The three ...
(ANR-1-1036) and distributed in the United States by
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...
(SRM-1-4034). The title is a popular nickname for Canada; the nickname was used for the title of a ''
Second City Television
''Second City Television'', commonly shortened to ''SCTV'' and later known as ''SCTV Network'' and ''SCTV Channel'', is a Canadian television sketch comedy show that ran intermittently between 1976 and 1984. It was created as an offshoot from To ...
'' (a.k.a. SCTV) sketch featuring the Bob and Doug characters. This album was released as a tie-in with ''SCTV'' at the height of the popularity of Bob and Doug, and a still from the show was used on the album cover. The album's sleeve or dust cover was a parody of a newspaper called The Daily Hoser.
Sales and charting
At least one million copies of the album were sold in North America, 350,000 of these in Canada alone, which earned a triple-platinum certification from the
Canadian Recording Industry Association.
''The Great White North'' entered the ''
RPM
Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines.
Standards
ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
'' Canadian album charts at #3 on 12 December 1981 and rose to the #1 position the following week where it remained until 23 January 1982. Overall, ''RPM'' ranked the album #40 of albums released in Canada during 1981. It peaked at number 8 on the American
''Billboard'' 200 album chart in 1982.
"Take Off" single release
The song "Take Off" (identified on the album as "the hit single section"), features guest vocalist
Geddy Lee of
Rush
Rush(es) may refer to:
Places
United States
* Rush, Colorado
* Rush, Kentucky
* Rush, New York
* Rush City, Minnesota
* Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois
* Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream
* Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...
. (Lee and Moranis had gone to grade school together.) This was also where Geddy Lee uttered the famous line “Yeah, um, I, you know, ten bucks is ten bucks”, after being reminded of his pre-show conversation with the brother’s lawyer. It was a hit, peaking at number 16 on the
''Billboard'' 100 singles chart in March 1982, higher than any of Rush's songs ever charted on the U.S. top 40. (Rush's biggest hit on that chart, "
New World Man
"New World Man" is a hit single from the 1982 album ''Signals'' by Canadian rock band Rush. The song was the last and most quickly composed song on the album, stemming from a suggestion by then-Rush producer Terry Brown to even out the lengths of ...
," reached only number 21, and thus "Take Off" has been Lee's biggest hit.) The song also reached #14 on the ''
Cash Box
''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' chart and #5 on
WLS-AM in Chicago.
Awards
In 1982, this album received the
Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year The Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year is awarded as recognition for the best Canadian comedy album released in the previous year. Irregularly presented from 1979 to 1984, the award was then discontinued until the Juno Awards announced in 201 ...
.
In 1983, it was nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album
The Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement in comedy." The award was awarded yearly from 1959 to 1993 and then from 2004 to presen ...
, but lost to ''
Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip''.
Track listing
Side 1
# "This is our album, eh?" - 3:40
# "The Beerhunter" - 2:23 ''This sketch is a beer-drinking game based on ''
The Deer Hunter
''The Deer Hunter'' is a 1978 war drama film co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Slavic-American steelworkers whose lives were upended after fighting in the Vietnam War. The three soldiers are played by Robert De Niro, Chr ...
'':
Russian Roulette with beer cans.''
# "School Announcements" - 1:52 ''This sketch features Doug (Thomas) as a school vice-principal who encourages his charges to "have a beer and talk" at his office.''
# "The Miracle of Music" - 0:41 ''Doug plays the Great White North theme by blowing across beer bottles containing varying levels of liquid.''
# "Peter's Donuts" - 3:02 ''Bob and Doug sit inside a donut shop as their vehicle gets towed, due to being parked on the street because the shop has very few parking spaces.''
# "Gimme A Smoke" - 2:00
# "Take Off" - 4:46 ''This track features singing by guest vocalist
Geddy Lee of
Rush
Rush(es) may refer to:
Places
United States
* Rush, Colorado
* Rush, Kentucky
* Rush, New York
* Rush City, Minnesota
* Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois
* Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream
* Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...
''
# "Coffee Sandwich" - 2:26
Side 2
# "Welcome to Side Two" - 0:58
# "Doug's Mouth" - 3:33
# "Elron McKenzie" - 2:28 ''A clergyman gives a sermon on the evils of killing "bugs".''
# "Black Holes" - 2:06 ''There is a
backwards message
Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. It is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.
Artists have s ...
on this track.''
# "You Are Our Guest" - 2:14 ''The duo's exaggerated accents pronounce "are" and "our" as homophones for comedic effect. Listeners play the "guest" by reading the enclosed script.''
# "Ernie's Mom" - 1:54
# "The Twelve Days of Christmas" - 4:46 ''A comedic rewrite of the
popular Christmas carol; the duo only makes it as far as Day 8 before deciding the song has run long enough.''
# "Ralph The Dog" - 3:11
# "Okay, This is the End, eh?" - 1:57
# "Honest" - 0:31
Side 2 of the original vinyl album also includes a very brief unlabeled track of Bob McKenzie (Moranis) saying the two words "black hole" and then laughing just before the "You Are Our Guest" segment. This is a callback to the fourth track on side 2 called "Black Holes", in which Bob insists the spaces between tracks of a vinyl album are black holes.
Reviews
Liam Lacey's review of the album in ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'' concluded on a negative sentiment, noting the production was "entertaining listening - about twice. Other hosers are going to find it extremely confusing."
In popular culture
Track #7, "Take Off" is featured in ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'' Season 13 episode, "
The Bart Wants What It Wants
"The Bart Wants What it Wants" is the eleventh episode of the thirteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 17, 2002. In the episode, B ...
".
"Take Off" is also featured in ''
Ash vs. Evil Dead'' Season 2 episode, "DUI".
Featured among other classic artists, track #15, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" also appears on a compilation album entitled, ''A Rock 'n' Roll Christmas II''.
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is included on Dr. Demento Presents: The Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All Time.
See also
*
List of one-hit wonders in the United States
A one-hit wonder is a musical artist who is successful with one hit song, but without a comparable subsequent hit. The term may also be applied to an artist who is remembered for only one hit despite other successes (such as "Take on Me" by A-h ...
*''
Strange Brew''
*''
Bob & Doug McKenzie's Two-Four Anniversary
''Bob & Doug McKenzie's Two-Four Anniversary'' is a one-hour Canadian entertainment special featuring the return of the popular SCTV characters, Bob and Doug McKenzie. Portrayed by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, the duo reunited one last time in a ...
''
*
''Bob & Doug'' (2009 TV series)
*''
Second City Television
''Second City Television'', commonly shortened to ''SCTV'' and later known as ''SCTV Network'' and ''SCTV Channel'', is a Canadian television sketch comedy show that ran intermittently between 1976 and 1984. It was created as an offshoot from To ...
''
*''
Brother Bear'' - an animated film in which Thomas and Moranis provided the voices of two Canadian moose characters similar to the McKenzie brothers.
References
External links
bobanddoug.comdmdb.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great White North, The
1981 albums
Anthem Records albums
Mercury Records albums
1980s comedy albums
Bob and Doug McKenzie albums
Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year albums
Second City Television