
Record: The Great Aussie Joke – Maurie Fields and Shane Bourne
Record Label: Hammard
Catalogue Number: HAM 186
Category: Comedy
Also appearing on the LP (not credited, Daryl Somers, Ernie (Ossie Ostrich) Carroll and John Blackman)
Compiled by The Terrace Audio Productions P/L
Engineered by Helen Patullo
Assistant Producer: Suzee Robin
Compiled from “The Great Aussie Joke” Segment of “Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday” – 1988
Released: December 1988 (21 years ago this week, to be precice)
Side 1
The Telegram, Vacuum Salesman, Piggyback, Fingers, The Teacher, The Drunk and the Elephant, The Drover’s Dog, Bath Survey, Australia Post, The Clothesline, What’s Your Name?, The Five Ton Truck, The Gorilla and the Lion, The Barnyard, Ring Back in 10 Minutes, Snakes, Kids on Horses, the Three Hut Island, “The T-Model, the Porsche and the Ferrari”, The Quiz, The Queen of Egypt, Keep Peddaling, The Army Hospital, The Smartest Man in Australia, The Male Sexuality Survey, The Opening Batsman, Two Caterpillars, The Three Legged Chook, How Big is Your Property, Hey Hey It’s Saturday Go To Heaven.
Side 2
The Black Horse, Thanks Donkey, Warrick Capper, The Maternity Hospital, Three Men in Heaven, Explain Yourself, The Diagnosis, The Country Club, Monk It Up!, King of the Jungle, The Farmer, The Fancydress Cow, The Golf Game, The Bald Man, Penguins, The Jewish Flat Hunter, Fluffy the Cat, Three Men and a Firing Squad, David Jones Menswear Dept., Half A Lettuce, The Pet, At The Movies, The Freezer, E. D. K. T. M., Old School Friends, A Man on the Sun, Sulphuric Acid, Geronimo, God Will Save Me, Private Johnson.
60 jokes sent in by viewers from “The Great Aussie Joke” Segment from Hey, Hey, It’s Saturday. (A “Best of 1988″ collection, so to speak)
This was (to date) the only recording of material taken from the show that has appeared commercially.

on a technical note: This LP was one of the last recordings that was released by Hammard, as the company ceased operations around January 1990.
the most hard to read record label?
The title says it all for my first poll in the “off the record” blog
Most of these labels had an eye catching design, but it usually meant it would be at the expense of the legibitilty of the label
Before I get stuck into this poll, I have learned that scanning labels usually ended up making the labels lighter (and as a result easier to read. I have now since learned to fix the colour balance)
the first (and oldest) label in the collection is the original His Masters Voice (HMV) label that was used from the 1940’s until the early 1960’s by EMI
the original label was a darker burgundy colour than this.
THE CARINIA COMPANY (1947-1987)
founded by Polish immigrants in 1947, and originally released recordings from Poland. The company expanded it’s catalogue to include classical music and recordings from New Zealand based Viking Records and of course, Audio Fidelity
for nearly all of it’s LP releases this was the colour combo used (red and silver. Although I have in my collection a version of this label in Black and Gold)
image number three comes from the Mercury Record catalogue.
This label dates from around 1981, and yes it’s the single “Stars on 45″
PYE’S PLUM LABEL
this one is a very rare label. The reason being any recording that was released on the Pye label in Australia would end up appearing on Astor’s Gold series, so labels like these are rare.
While I’m at it, here is Pye’s successor, PRT (after the license was not renewed by Pye in 1980)
(note to self: never use black text on a red and green label design
Late last year, I posted the label gallery of Hammard, and I noted about the “Aussie” label design. (in case you missed it, here it is:)
And finally, the record label of Hollywood studio MGM (this was used from the late 60’s until the mid 70’s when the label was merged with the Polydor catalogue (the Yin Yang seems OK, but was a little bit too dark-ish.))
this is the final list. Are any of these labels seem to be a little bit hard to read, or can you think of something I may have missed? If I have, post your suggestion in the comments below.
The poll is now open, and will remain open until 23:59 on New Years Eve 2010 (Australian Eastern Standard Time, 1:59 AM for the southern states (NSW, Vic., Tas.)
BTW, you can vote two labels if you so wish.