Celebrity Vinyl: Classic Actors Sing

During a weekend trip to my local bookshop I spotted a small coffee table book called Celebrity Vinyl written by Tom Hamling. The book is a showcase for the author’s novelty record collection featuring albums recorded by actors and other celebrities. The book is fun to flip through but Hamling’s a tough critic and seems to enjoy referring to his record collection as the “worst collection ever.” The book got me thinking about some of the most interesting celebrity albums that I’ve come across over the years. A surprising number of classic film and television actors I admire have recorded LPs and I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite discoveries.

I recently learned that Robert Mitchum recorded some albums. His first LP was released in 1957 and titled Calypso — is like so… Mitchum became enamored with Caribbean music while making FIRE DOWN BELOW (1957) and HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON (1957) in Trinidad. When filming ended he made his way back to the states and convinced Capitol Records to let him record a selection of Calypso songs. The album didn’t sell very well but a year later he wrote and recorded the title song for THUNDER ROAD (1958) simply called “The Ballad of Thunder Road,” which was a minor hit and reached #62 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

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