The Delegates

The Delegates were a novelty song group who scored a hit in the United States in 1972. The "band" was actually Bob DeCarlo, the morning disc jockey at KQV in Pittsburgh, Penn. Bob was approached by Nick Cenci and Nick Kousaleous, local Pittsburgh record moguls, to make a novelty record.^[1] Bob and the two record men assembled "Convention '72," a "break-in" record which consisted of Bob "imitating" several popular television reporters of the day, including Walter Cronkite ("Walter Klondike"), Chet Huntley ("Sidney Bruntley" as a flamboyantly gay reporter - for some reason), David Brinkley ("David Stinkley"), and Harry Reasoner ("Larry Reasoning") asking questions of current politicians involved in that year's presidential election (such as Thomas Eagleton, Sargent Shriver, Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon, Edward Kennedy, George McGovern, Martha Mitchell, Jane Fonda and Henry Kissinger) at a joint national "Get Together" convention of Republicans and Democrats, with the responses given as lines from popular songs of the day (in a manner analogous to that made famous by Dickie Goodman). The tunes sampled in "Convention '72" were (with the artist on the recording):

"Troglodyte (Cave Man)" (Jimmy Castor Bunch)

"I Gotcha" (Joe Tex)

"Lean on Me" (Bill Withers)

"Sealed with a Kiss" (Bobby Vinton)

"The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A." (Donna Fargo)

"Jungle Fever" (The Chakachas)

"Alone Again (Naturally)" (Gilbert O'Sullivan)

"Coconut" (Nilsson)

"A Horse with No Name" (America)

"Take It Easy (In Your Mind)" (Jerry Reed)

"(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" (Luther Ingram)

"Back Stabbers" (The O'Jays)

"Liar" (Three Dog Night)

"How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" (Bee Gees)

"Mr. Big Stuff" (Jean Knight)

"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" (Cher)

"(Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All" (The 5th Dimension)

"Double Barrel" (Dave and Ansell Collins)

"The Candy Man" (Sammy Davis Jr.)

"I Don't Know How to Love Him" (Yvonne Elliman)^[2]

"Convention '72" was a one-hit wonder that year, peaking at #8 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart on Nov. 18, 1972.^[3] Bob later recorded an album by "The Delegates" which included the hit single as well as a cover of the Frank Sinatra hit "My Way" and a segment called "Interviews with Your Favorite Politicians."

References

1. Radio & Records Magazine, Aug. 10, 1984
2. "Early '70s Radio".
3. The Delegates at Allmusic.com