“The Oo-Oo Bossa Nova” (1964) – Milt Jackson * Written by Manny Albam* Produced by Bob Thiele * Label: Impulse
“Ooh ooh” and “do you mind?” were catchphrases for Joe E. Ross on Car 54, Where Are You? (1961-1963), a Nat Hiken sitcom with a “character actors on parade” quality. Each player specialized in facial distinctions that made it hard for viewers to turn away. Fred Gwynne and Al Lewis of The Munsters were there, for example, each of whom actually look more interesting without their makeup. Joe E. Ross, who played the dimwitted but loveable officer Gunther Toody, might also have transitioned nicely to The Munsters, but he was apparently a severe headache to work with. Two records helped to capture Ross’s pop culture moment. The first is the 1963 single “Ooh Ooh,” featuring him delivering those catchphrases with a stock rock track and nyah-nyah girl chorus, something that would have fit in well for a hypothetical episode calling for Toody to launch an ill-advised recording career. The second, though, is an album track by the suave jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson (written by Manny Albam) called “The Oo-Oo Bossa Nova,” which appeared on Jackson’s 1964 Jazz ‘N’ Samba album a year after the show had run its course. (Producer Bob Thiele, while at Impulse, always kept an eye open for the commercial tie-in). The jazz journalist Leonard Feather, in his liner notes, points to the song’s kinship with “Who’s Got the Pain (When They Do the Mambo)” from Broadway’s Damn Yankees. The gatefold features an image of Joe E. Ross in studio for what would perhaps be his final high-profile Car 54 utterances.