The Best of Walter Murphy

If Mason Williams was too staid for you, then I guess there's this. Like most 1970s novelty acts — see also Meco — he's strongest doing disco retreads of the music you know ("A Fifth of Beethoven," "Flight '76" with Rimsky-Korsakov, and especially his gloriously gauche arrangement of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," which could rehabilitate United Airlines' soiled reputation all by itself if they ever put it in an ad). His original material, however, never quite matches up: none of it is incompetent (and "California Strut" is even fun), but none of it is special or genre-busting, and the vocals at times ("Keep Dancing" as the worst example) get incongruous. The problem is that's most of this disc. The moral of the story is always give the customer what they want, especially if you're United Airlines. (Content: no concerns.)

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