| Bill Cosby Is Not Himself These Days - Rat Own, Rat Own, Rat Own | |
| Type: | Album |
| Artist: | Bill Cosby |
| Cover: | Cosbynothimself.jpg |
| Released: | June 1976 |
| Recorded: | 1976 |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Length: | 33:22 |
| Label: | Capitol/EMI Records |
| Producer: | Stu Gardner |
| Prev Title: | Down Under |
| Prev Year: | 1975 |
| Next Title: | Disco Bill |
| Next Year: | 1977 |
Bill Cosby Is Not Himself These Days - Rat Own, Rat Own, Rat Own (1976) is a musical comedy album by Bill Cosby. He parodies various rhythm and blues artists including James Brown and Barry White. The songs were written with producer and keyboardist Stu Gardner. This is also his first album on Capitol Records, his fourth musical album release overall (not counting the 1971 band project Badfoot Brown & the Bunions Bradford Funeral & Marching Band and its 1972 sequel).
For nine years, Cosby released at least an album a year, starting in 1964. After a three-year hiatus, this was his first comedy album since 1973's Fat Albert, albeit in musical form, and he wouldn't return to a full-fledged stand-up album again until 1977's My Father Confused Me... What Must I Do? What Must I Do?.
The first single, "Yes, Yes, Yes", became one of Cosby's biggest charted hits after "Little Ole Man (Uptight, Everything's Alright)", reaching number 46 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the Billboard rhythm and blues singles chart.[1] The song spoofed Barry White's deep-voiced spoken word monologues. "Ben" was sampled by Jurassic 5 on their 2002 song "After School Special".