I remember fondly the 1970s soap opera spoof, Mary Hartman Mary Hartman — so named because show creator, Norman Lear, and his writers believed that “everything that was said on a soap opera was said twice.”
Mary Kay Place recorded a Grammy-nominated album, Tonite! At the Capri Lounge, Loretta Haggers, on which she sang as her Mary Hartman character. Columbia released two singles from that Top 10 country album, both written by Mary Kay Place: “Baby Boy” – which went to #60 on Billboard’s Pop chart and #3 on the Country chart in 1976 – and “Vitamin L,” which reached #72 on Billboard‘s Country chart in 1977.
“Vitamin L“
Mary Kay Place (1976)
LP Musician & Production Credits
Mary Kay Place – Lead Vocals
Anne Murray – Backing Vocals
Dolly Parton – Backing Vocals
Emmylou Harris – Backing Vocals
John Ware – Drums & Percussion
Brian Ahern – Ernie Ball Bass & Acoustic Guitar
Emory Gordy – Electric Bass
Albert Lee – Electric Guitar & Mandolin
Hank DeVito – Pedal Steel
Emmylou Harris – Acoustic Guitar
Rodney Crowell – Acoustic Guitar
Herb Pedersen – Banjo & Backing Vocals
Skip Conover – Dobro
Byron Berline – Fiddle
Mickey Raphael – Harmonica
Glen D Hardin – Keyboards
Producer – Brian Ahern
Recorded and mixed in The Enactron Truck
Lyrical excerpt:
Mama made me eat carrots ‘n’ hominy grits
Though I really felt disinclined
But she said they was packed with vitamin A
And if I didn’t that I’d go blind
She said, “Your skin’ll break out ‘n’ you’ll get beri-beri
‘Less you eat all them black-eyed peas
‘Cause them and the greens ‘n’ the lima beans
They all got Vitamin B
‘N’ you’ll get scurvy ‘less you eat them prunes
‘Cause they got vitamin C
Well then, c’mon outside ‘n’ play in the sun
Or get rickets from no vitamin D”
Well, I did what she said ‘n’ I ate what she asked
‘N’ for a while I felt real swell
But I sure wish Mama had told me back then
All about Vitamin L
Yeah, I sure wish Mama had a mentioned to me
All about Vitamin L
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45 picture sleeve
Record World‘s Samuel Graham, in his interview with Mary Kay Place — who was promoting her second Columbia album, Aimin’ To Please — fretted aloud that it would be a downright shame if the “cheese-cake” cover and joke-y song content detract from the music, which is “consistently first rate.”
Record World
Excerpt —
Mary Kay has been aware of the potential conflict between Loretta Naggers and herself since before she began her recording career. “I’d been approached by a few companies to do a record,” she recalls, “but I didn’t want to do some bimbo novelty album, a Laverne and Shirley Sing Hits of the 50s type of thing.” For the first album, she “made sure that the material was all in Loretta’s style. But even then, I treated the novelty songs (such as “Baby Boy” or “Vitamin L“) very seriously, because Loretta meant them seriously-she looked at them as if she were writing classics.”
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LINK to Honky Tonk
LINK to Humor +/- Satire
