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MBP Presents: Celebrity Vinyl
July 18, 2011
Contact: Kate Abbey-Lambertz
Telephone: 718.314.8000
New York, NY – June 16, 2011 – Celebrity Vinyl is one man’s hilarious mission to catalog the embarrassing albums by TV stars, sports heroes, and other media icons fooled into thinking that a sideline gig as a singer was a good idea. The book features images of more than 100 albums, and author Tom Hamling’s accompanying commentary uses snark for good: half the proceeds will go to Hamling’s favorite non-profit organization, 826LA.
Like trying to look away from a train-wreck, it’s impossible to stop reading Celebrity Vinyl. Burt Reynolds’s chest hair featured on the cover of Ask Me What I Am makes you wonder, “What could be worse?” The answer: A Christmas Album by the New York Islanders. Spanning thirty-three years, the number of celebrities and pseudo-celebrities in Hamling’s collection that have indulged such hubris boggles the mind: Bruce Willis, Alyssa Milano, Shaquille O’Neal, and John Travolta are just a few. Pop culture buffs, FAIL Blog lovers, and Hollywood aficionados and haters will get a kick out of the riotously funny captions that dissect each album’s artwork and graphic design, as well as the celebrity in question.
Celebrity Vinyl got its start when the advertising agency where Hamling once worked decided to throw out all of the records and cassettes in its audio library. Hamling ran upstairs to get his first three albums, and then spent close to a decade rooting through record store bins and traveling to flea markets far and wide. “Sometimes I feel like Dr. Richard Kimble in search of the one-armed man,” said Hamling of his ongoing quest to collect these curiously compelling pieces of pop-culture history. “Except my one-armed man is the inaudible shriek of Jennifer Love Hewitt.”
Mark Batty Publisher and Tom Hamling are pleased to donate half of the proceeds from Celebrity Vinyl to 826LA, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Though fortunately most will never experience the musical stylings of Carol Burnett or Jesse (The Body) Ventura.
Tom Hamling is an award-winning advertising creative director whose client list includes adidas, Heineken, Got Milk?, and LEGO. In addition to owning the world’s best collection of awful celebrity-based music, he is known, in some circles, to do a pretty decent squirrel call. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
Mark Batty Publisher is an independent publisher dedicated to making distinctive books on the visual art of communicating, showcasing the visual power and innovation of contemporary culture in all of its varied poses. Today, the visual comes at us from more places than ever, and its dissemination is faster and more advanced every year. Books from Mark Batty Publisher capture this acceleration on the pages of every book. Affordable, well designed, thoughtfully created, and produced to last, MBP books are artful products that readers want to hold onto forever.
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Celebrity Vinyl
Tom Hamling
Pub Date: June 2011
Page Count: 128
Size: 9 x 9 inches
Format: Paperback
Price: $19.95
ISBN: 978-1-935613-25-1
For a review copy, more information, or to schedule an interview with the author, contact Kate Abbey-Lambertz at 718.314.8000 or kate@markbattypublisher.com.
