Everything’s Coming Up Profits Steve Young and Sport Murphy Hardcover · 9 1/2 x 9 1/2″ · 252 pages 425 color illustrations
“A wildly entertaining, gorgeous tribute to a world we never knew existed. Anyone interested in American history, music, or culture should buy this book by the fistful.”
—Dave Letterman
“The world of industrial musicals is magical, weird, and funny. Mssrs. Young and Murphy escort you into that world with panache and not nearly enough guilt. Like Steve, I amassed a collection of these records—souvenirs of the days when corporations were rich enough to care about the morale of their employees—and like him, I thought I was 'the only one.' Now these idiots have spent serious time and energy producing a freaking book on the subject. Humor them. Buy this book and
let it change your life.”
—Harry Shearer
“As a veteran of many an industrial, I can attest that EVERYTHING’S COMING UP PROFITS is accurate as well as fascinating and hysterical. If I had friends, I'd tell them about it.”
—Martin Short
“All Singing! All Dancing! All Selling! This delightful history reveals the corny glories of corporate America's fling with motivational musicals, and its vintage graphics are like a peek at an alternate world where the hit songs were about Ford tractors.”
—James Lileks, author The Gallery of Regrettable Food
“Young and Murphy map us to a nether-universe Brill Building located at the intersection of Madison Avenue and Tin Pan Alley. The songcraft is stupefyingly absurd, but thanks to this book a lot of product music has outlived the products.”
—Irwin Chusid, WFMU Radio, author Songs in the Key of Z
Everything's Coming Up Profits
The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals
Steve Young and Sport Murphy
Once upon a time, when American industry ruled the earth, business and Broadway had a baby. This mutant offspring, glimpsed only at conventions and sales meetings, was the industrial musical.
Through the rare souvenir record albums presented in Everything’s Coming Up Profits, an alternate show-biz universe emerges: a universe in which musical theater can be about selling silicone products or typewriters or insurance or bathtubs. Some of these improbable shows were hilariously lame. Some were pretty good. And some were flat-out fantastic.
Get ready for eye-popping album covers… rhymes for words like invoice and compressor… war stories from the people who were there… it’s a surprising slice of Americana that will make you laugh, make you shake your head in wonderment, and make you want to get out there and sell something.
Visit the companion website industrialmusicals.com streaming audio of the songs and more.
