After all this time (40+ years), it's positively amazing that this title is on any chart let alone a top 40 hit on the Amazon roster. I remember it well and this, along with The First Family by Vaughn Meader are fine examples of 1960's comedy and a startling contrast to todays accepted humor. Recommended for anyones collection. More at www.atjimsplace.blogspot.com

I'm always accustomed to hearing some sort of music on a compact disc, so a recording of a comedy routine didn't win me over at first. But after hearing the first BUTTON DOWN MIND album, I've changed my tune (no pun intended). A great deal of today's comics rely on physical or slapstick humor to be funny. But comedy also requires expert timing and a considerable amount of intellect. Bob Newhart has both of these in abundance. It's no surprise this album was a smash when it was released, because even if most of the routines are considerably dated, they're still guaranteed to produce belly laughs in these more explicit and permissable times.

Recorded more than forty years ago, "The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart," will not be a big surprise to anyone who anly knows Newhart as a television actor. Newhart's standup routines had the same kind of dry wit that he would later use to perfection as a comedic actor. The six lengthy stories included on this album all have the same basic structure. One character is speaking while others are engaging in unheard conversation or just listening. The high point comes with "Nobody Will Ever Play Baseball," in which a befuddled Abner Doubleday tries to sell the unknown game to a modern toy company executive. The brilliance of the piece is that we only hear the toy executive's end of the telephone conversation. "Abe Lincoln Vs. Madison Avenue" and "Merchandizing and the Wright Brothers" both have a similar themes.

The album's only drawback is that parts of it are quite dated. The Krushchev bit will baffle anyone under age fifty and the Driving Instructor routine is quite sexist. Nevertheless, this recording is a great relic for fans of Bob Newhart.