''The Transformed Man'' is the debut album by actor

William Shatner William Shatner (born March 22, 1931) is a Canadian actor. In a career spanning seven decades, he is best known for his portrayal of James T. Kirk in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, from his 1965 debut as the captain of the starship ''Enterpris ...

. It was originally released in 1968 by Decca Records (Cat. #DL 75043), while Shatner was still starring in the original ''Star Trek'' series, and began his musical career. The album's cover refers to Shatner as " Captain Kirk of Star Trek".

Premise

Each of the first five tracks pairs Shatner reciting a monologue from a piece of classical literature (

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

is featured three times) with a

spoken word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

interpretation of a contemporary pop song, with either section intended to compliment the other thematically. The closing title track is an entirely original composition. Shatner is accompanied on the album by dramatic orchestration and, occasionally, backing vocalists. In the decades since its release, most of the album's tracks (particularly the song lyric readings) have been used satirically, either on compilation albums meant to showcase bad celebrity singing (the

Rhino Records A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...

Golden Throats Golden Throats is Rhino Records' series of humorous compilations of critically lambasted cover versions of songs, performed mostly either by celebrities known for something other than musical talent or musicians not known for the genre from which ...

" series) or by radio

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

s looking for laughs.

Critical reception

In a retrospective review in 2011, Greg Prato of music database website AllMusic rated ''The Transformed Man'' four-and-a-half out of a possible five stars, although with serious reservations. He stated that when listening to the album, "it's unclear if Shatner is merely having a good time and goofing around, or if he's embarrassingly dead serious, and creating an overly indulgent work. Most of the album turns out to be a bit too tedious..." He also noted that "you cannot tell if Shatner is play-acting or painfully serious. The result is a must hear, (unintentional?) comedy classic," comparing this attraction to that of comedian

Andy Kaufman Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman ( ; January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. While often called a "comedian", Kaufman preferred to describe himself instead as a "song and dance man". He has sometimes b ...

. In 2000, the album was voted number 3 in the All-Time Worst Albums Ever Made from

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by th ...

''. In 2006, '' Q'' magazine ranked it No. 45 in their list of the 50 worst albums ever. In 2016, the website Alternative Nation crowned the album number 1 on a "Top 10 Musical Oddities" list.

Track listing

Because Shakespeare's and Rostand's work had lapsed into the public domain at the time of the recording, they are not credited on the album.

Personnel

Don Ralke Don Ralke (July 13, 1920 – January 26, 2000) was an American music arranger, composer, and record producer, working for four decades in the Hollywood studio system in films, television, and pop recordings. He was born on July 13, 1920, in Batt ...

– producer * Erick Labson – mastering * Charles Bud Dant – executive producer * Frank Davenport – English translation (poems) * Ryan Null – photo research (reissue) * Mike Ragogna – reissue producer * William Shatner – liner notes

References

External links