Best of Sellers

His first solo album is probably his funniest, containing two of the best rock & roll parodies ever made -- "The Trumpet Volunteer" (Cockney rock & roller decides to get more sophisticated by grafting a classical trumpet line onto typical pop dreck) and "We Need the Money" (a British duke sings a typical upbeat pop-rock ditty about living in the upper class). Also great is "Suddenly It's Folk Song," a dead-on parody of British Isles folk (including a drunken pub singalong, and a session that dissolves into a barroom brawl). Spoken-word comic sketches aren't neglected, giving Sellers a chance to sport his astonishingly wide range of accents -- "Party Political Speech," a typically stuffy and meaningless British harangue, is the best of these. Originally released as a British ten-inch, it's now readily available in its entirety on the Celebration of Sellers box. ~ Richie Unterberger