The television series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, which ran from 1976-77 and starred Louise Lasser in the titular role, inspired a surprising number of records.
In the late '60s, Lasser had appeared in the Broadway production of Henry, Sweet Henry and is featured on a track with Don Ameche on the cast album that ABC Records released. In the late '80s and early '90s, Lasser also appeared in the cult horror films Frankenhooker and Blood Rage.
Mary Kay Place, the actress who played aspiring country singer Loretta Haggers on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, released a number of records in 1976-1977. "Baby Boy," a song about the show sung in the character of Loretta Haggers, became a Top 3 country hit in 1976 and even crossed over to the pop Hot 100. In 1977, Place performed a duet with Willie Nelson, "Something to Brag About," that also reached the country Top 10.
Although Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman was a spoof of soap operas, it became a target of spoofs as well. It was such a popular item for tribute and parody in its time that it even received at least two porn parodies long before parodies became standard fare in the adult industry. One is Hard Soap, Hard Soap (1977), which was recently reissued on Blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome, and the other is Mary Flegus, Mary Flegus (1978).Here's a survey of records from around the time of the series that contain renditions of the Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman theme or original songs that are based on the show. The song titles link to audio on YouTube when available.
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| Record World, Oct. 23, 1976 |
From the UK: Many years ago (in the years before I heard John Peel) I used to lie in bed listening to Radio Luxemburg on my transistor radio. There was country song that got heavy play in around 1976, which had the line, "She's been [something something] for two weeks now, and she's been watching 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman'". The song was in what was called the talkie style, most of the song was spoken rather than sung.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea what it meant (but suspected that it was, obvs, a TV show reference) until I read Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" stories which often mention the show.
As far as I know, the show was never broadcast in the UK and I never saw it until the 2010s when I saw some on Youtube.
Does anyone know the name of the country song I heard? At the time R Luxemburg described it as someone talking with a mouth full of jelly/jello, it was quite difficult to understand and the line I've quoted above was the only bit I could make out.
If anyone reading has any information I would be grateful, I want to hear the song again, it's been bugging me for years!
Thanks