Canadian performer Rick Moranis earned widespread recognition through comedic performances in Ghostbusters, Little Shop of Horrors, and Spaceballs, along with his contributions to the SCTV ensemble. Throughout his career he has issued albums at irregular intervals, some devoted entirely to humor and others occupying different territory. His debut arrived in 1981 with The Great White North, credited to the fictional Bob & Doug McKenzie, the latter portrayed by SCTV colleague Dave Thomas; Rush’s Geddy Lee appeared as a guest, the project received a Grammy nomination, and the 1983 soundtrack to the Bob & Doug feature Strange Brew followed. Moranis took a prominent vocal role on the soundtrack for the 1986 screen adaptation of the Little Shop of Horrors musical. In 1989 he issued the comedy collection You, Me, the Music and Me, which contained the bossa-nova-hip-hop track “Ipanema Rap.” Following his wife’s death from cancer in 1991, the demands of single parenthood prompted his retirement from acting in 1997. Even so, drawing from the example of country humorists Kinky Friedman and Roger Miller, he returned with The Agoraphobic Cowboy in 2005 and collected a second Grammy nomination. The 2013 release My Mother’s Brisket & Other Love Songs surveyed lighter aspects of Jewish-American life through numbers such as “My Wednesday Balabusta” and “Live Blogging the Himel Family Bris.”
