The Best Show, formerly the Best Show on WFMU, is a freeform radio show that has always had tremendous ties to the music world. Host Tom Scharpling formerly ran a small record label, his partner in comedy—Jon Wurster—is a member of Superchunk and the Mountain Goats. Tom has defined the show as being comprised of “three hours of mirth, music, and mayhem,” and while all three are always present in large doses, it’s the music that often serves as the heart of the show. Here are ten of the show’s most memorable music related moments, proving why The Best Show is deserving of its very rock’n’roll greatest hits box set and why FOTs (Friends of Tom, as fans of the show refer to themselves) all over the world are thrilled to have it back.
Tom Pens Lyrics to the Instrumental Tracks on Pet Sounds
August 23, 2011
(0:52:00)
It took Brian Wilson almost four decades to release a completed version of the Beach Boys’ lost masterpiece Smile, but, in this 2011 episode, it takes Tom about five seconds to put the finishing touches on Wilson’s previous masterpiece, Pet Sounds. In real time, Tom improvises a set of lyrics for the album’s two instrumental songs—"Let’s Go Away for a While" and "Pet Sounds"—and shows you what the album could have been if the band had a creative genius like Tom at the helm.
Tom Goes to Beatlesfest
March 29, 2011
(2:42:50)
Throughout the course of the Best Show, Tom has not been shy about his adoration for the Beatles, but he will also be the first person to mock the Fab Four when necessary. The show has been back for less than a month and already a considerable amount of its airtime has been devoted to discussing Ringo’s unworthiness as a solo artist in the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. Tom’s Beatles fandom is best detailed in this description of attending Beatlesfest, which will make you hate Gary Wright and show you why there is no instrument more mocking than a kazoo.
The Original First Verse to Bruce Springsteen's "Racing in the Streets"
November 30, 2010
(1:11:42)
For Springsteen fans, there is no such thing as too much information. So, in accordance with the release of the massive Darkness on the Edge of Town reissue at the end of 2010, Jon Wurster made his most pitch-perfect, absurdly detailed call, in character as a Springsteen biographer. There are apocryphal stories about Springsteen’s failed network pilot script and of his many odd jobs in and around the Jersey area, but the most jaw-dropping is Wurster’s a capella performance of the entire, unreleased opening verse to "Racing in the Streets"—a godsend to Springsteen fans who know everything about the Boss, but have always wanted to know a little more about his car.
The Gathering of the Juggalos
July 21, 2009
(1:26:54)
Many times, the truth is stranger than fiction. In one of the Best Show’s most infamous and legendary moments, Tom, with in-studio guest comedian Paul F. Tompkins, watches a real-life video advertisement for the tenth annual Gathering of the Juggalos Festival. Aside from sounding uncannily like the premise for one of Jon Wurster’s calls (a day longer than Woodstock! Helicopter rides! Violent J’s Beach Boys Barbecue Blowout Bash Blast!).
When Elvis Costello Met the Police
January 20, 2009
(1:44:20)
One of the benefits of the Best Show’s three-hour runtime is that Tom’s comedy is given the space it needs to stretch out. This means that he has the time to do things like, say, play Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. In this episode, it means that Tom can watch Elvis Costello interview each member of the Police and stop every few minutes to offer his loving but biting commentary, all of which culminates in a useful piece of advice: If someone ever asks if you’d like to hear an Elizabethan blues ballad, "Get up and walk out."
Tom and The Best Show Listeners Write a Ted Leo Song
June 3, 2008
(2:38:00)
"We started at 8:15, and, at 10:39, we very well may premiere a song written by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, and the listeners, and me." This is exactly what happened over the course of one episode, when a diverse array of callers formed a songwriting workshop headed by Professor Tom. The resulting song—a raucous mini-opera called "The World Is In The Turlet"—is packed with brilliant moments (shout-out to rhyming "cadaver" with "palaver"), but the undisputed highlight is its rousing finale, where Leo shouts, "This was supposed to be my moment of TRIUMPH!" For the Best Show, this whole episode was a moment of triumph.
A Former Member of Aerosmith Gets Lippy With a Thirteen-Year-Old
November 29, 2005
(1:52:00)
Best Show: it’s for the kids. Just ask Mac, a regular caller, who, in this uncanny moment, gets a chance to speak to Jimmy Crespo, a former member of his all-time favorite band, Aerosmith (played, of course, by Wurster). A true-blue FOT with a deep knowledge of the show’s history, Mac, of course, has his doubts, pointing out Crespo’s suspicious tonal similarity to another Best Show caller, but, once Crespo satisfies Mac’s trivia questions, something magical happens. And then, when Crespo starts asking some questions of his own ("How many pull-ups can you do?"), the call truly achieves its status as a Best Show classic.
The World Premiere of "Rock and Roll Dreams'll Come Through"
April 2, 2002
Aside from featuring interviews with a slew of real life musicians, including Kurt Vile and Ben Gibbard, the Best Show has also given its fair share of airtime to some unforgettable artists from its own imaginary hometown of Newbridge, New Jersey. Perhaps the most iconic of these acts is the Gas Station Dogs, whose frontman and sole member Barry Dworkin introduces himself to listeners with a devastatingly detailed list of requirements for his band members and an uproariously confusing set of lyrics.
An Interview With the Music Scholar
September 4, 2001
In this segment, Wurster plays a snobby music fan who takes the concept of cred building and namedropping to a new level, giving first person accounts of early shows by Big Star and the Stooges as well as controversial takes on "ear candy" "guitar pop" bands like the Beatles and X. The call takes a winding route through the history of cool, up to a brilliantly landed punchline about the current state of rock music and where decades of trendhopping eventually lead you.
Rock, Rot & Rule
November 1997
Any list of the Best Show’s most crucial moments would be incomplete without this early call—a routine so closely tied to the music world that it received its own hotly demanded vinyl pressing last year. The first call Wurster ever made into the show, "Rock, Rot & Rule" is one of the Best Show’s finest moments not just due to the novelty of the subject matter (a book designated the "Ultimate Argument Settler" that arbitrarily attributes every band in the history of music with one of the three titular designations), but also because of its response—nearly every caller takes Wurster seriously, many get pissed. In a time when hastily made opinions on music are being dished out faster and more thoughtlessly than ever, Rock, Rot & Rule has only gained relevancy. Meanwhile, it stands as the routine that established the most consistently ruling comedy dynamic on radio.