Dickie Goodman (April 19, 1934 – November 6, 1989) is considered one of the earliest proponents of sampling in music. He used a series of "break-in" records he created from 1956 to 1986.
His first record, "The Flying Saucer," was co-written with partner Bill Buchanan, and featured a description of a news-covered invasion of earth from a Martian space ship. While Goodman asked questions of pedestrians, scientists, and even the Martian himself, their responses were "snipped" from lyrics of popular songs of the day, including tracks from Fats Domino, Elvis Presley and Little Richard.
Although "The Flying Saucer" became a major hit, it also landed Goodman in court for copyright infringement - e.g. the songs he used to create his "break-in" records. The lawsuits were later settled out of court when the judge ruled that Goodman's records were burlesques and parodies, and were original creations in and of themselves.
Goodman later recorded other break-in records, usually based around a political theme, or having his reporter (often as "John Cameron Cameron", a reference to newscaster John Cameron Swayze) alter-ego interviewing Batman or Neil Armstrong. In 1975, Goodman returned to the pop charts with "Mr. Jaws," a break-in record in which he interviews several characters from the motion picture Jaws. Peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, "Mr. Jaws" became Goodman's biggest-selling hit record.
Goodman's singles often had instrumental numbers (in which his actual role is uncertain) as B-sides. These are not found on either his original LPs or his CD compilations.
Goodman died in 1989 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Goodman is survived by his sons Jed and Jon and daughter Janie.
His son, Jon Goodman, supervised the issue of Greatest Fables, the first authorised CD collection of Dickie Goodman's recordings in 1998. The album included Jon's tribute, "Return Of The Flying Saucer". Jon also authored a biography of sorts about his dad, entitled "The King of Novelty" in 2000 published by Xlibris Corporation. In 2008, Jon Goodman updated his father's "Energy Crisis '74" which he posted in the Dickie Goodman MySpace page




Info: http://www.allbutforgottenoldies.net/dickie-goodman.html