Although there has been no one term consistently used to describe this type of recording, the genre predates the use of the term "concept album" by several decades, dating back to the era of 78-rpm records with such original works as Gordon Jenkins' Manhattan Tower (1946, expanded in 1956), The Letter, (1959) starring Judy Garland, and Stan Freberg's Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years (1961).
[citation needed] Although Manhattan Tower was performed in concert halls, Las Vegas, on television (with Ethel Waters, Cesar Romero and Phil Harris) and later re-recorded on separate record albums by both Patti Page and Robert Goulet, it was never actually presented as a stage musical.
Betty Garrett, repeating her role from the record, was joined on stage by her husband, Larry Parks, Biff McGuire and Eddie Bracken.
Stan Freberg's extravagant musical comedy dealt with the birth of the United States of America in satiric terms and featured original songs, sketches and even dancing (tap-dancing Indians).
In 1963, The Ballad Of Fanny Hill,[5] a double-record set subtitled "An Original Musical Monodrama Based Upon the Book Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland," was released on Fax Records, a label noted primarily for its suggestive comedy LPs.
An interesting variation on the album musical is A Complete Authentic Minstrel Show released in both monaural and stereo in 1958 on the budget label, Somerset Records.
[7] The album is a compilation of classic songs and jokes featured in American minstrel shows, a form of entertainment that was popular during the later 19th and early 20th centuries.
All of the participating actors, voice talents and musicians recorded their parts remotely from all over the world while quarantined inside their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the performing arts.