11 Hype Man Intros That Make Albums a Thousand Times Better

"They're so much better live!"

It's what true fans claim about their favorite bands; the energy of the fans, the different arrangements of the songs and, frequently, the stage banter combine to make live recordings worth the often poor sound quality that comes as part of the deal.

But not all interaction comes from the band itself. Sometimes you need a hype man. Usually performed by a local DJ or a roadie (or, if you are Charles Mingus in 1972, Bill Cosby doing some weird proto-Kyle Mooney impression), these introductions are an invigorating part of the experience. Here are the 11 best:

Introduction by: J.R. Smalling

Listen: Kiss on record kinda suck. I mean, they're fun and all, but even if you're pounding cans of Stroh's in your friend's basement all night, those chords get a tad repetitious.

But Kiss is nonpareil when it comes to stagecraft. The makeup, the costumes, the fireballs, the freaking tongue. The Kiss Army even has its own rallying cry, an invocation from the spheres before each live performance. A circular koan (and arguably the most famous example of begging the question) that goes, "You Wanted The Best? You Got The Best! The Hottest Band In The World … KISSSSSSS!"

However, as Charles Darwin and the Fast and the Furious franchise can attest, things evolve. The phrase shouted by Original Kiss Krew roadie J.R. Smalling, heard on their smash live album Alive!, was actually, "You wanted the best and you got it! The hottest band in the land... Kiss!"

I know, I just blew your mind. I got another one for you: Darth Vader never says, "Luke, I am your father."

Now, on Kiss' Alive II (1977), Kiss security member (Ace Frehely's bodyguard, specifically) Eddie Balandas (a former member of Sha-Na-Na) did the introduction. He edged it closer to the slogan we know today by bellowing "You wanted the best and you got the best. The hottest band in the world… Kiss!"

Time would excise that stray "and," turning the phrase into the current dog-whistle for nostalgic burnouts throughout the land. Listen for it on Alive: The Millennium Concert (2006), or search for it on YouTube. I recommend this one. Still, it was J.R. Smalling who got the ritual started years ago.

Introduction by: Kirk "Wheel" Dyer

Like Kiss, fellow '70s rockers Cheap Trick didn't really hit it until their first live album. At Budokan is an absolute masterpiece of hard-edged power-pop that will likely never be matched. There's also plenty of notable stage banter, including the oft-quoted (and sampled by the Beastie Boys) line, "This next song is the first song on our new album!"

But it's also got a terrific introduction by a non-band member. It's particularly amusing because lead singer Robin Zander's voice is so smooth and so sweet, and roadie Kirk "Wheel" Dyer sounds like he's about to crack you over the head with a pool cue.

When he asks, "All right Tokyo, are you ready?!" it's absolutely terrifying. Are those girls squealing with glee or are they just frightened for their safety?

Introduction by: Marley Marl*

Sometimes only a few words are necessary. This live cut from Big Daddy Kane's second album is perfect. Let's break it down.

"He has arrived." Wow, what an opener. It's practically Biblical. Afterwards he should state "It is accomplished."

"...at the Apollo." As we'll see later in this list, this Harlem theater has plenty of live track significance.

"Big. Daddy. Kane!" And then everyone screams as they bust into Wrath of Kane.

This wouldn't be on the list if the subsequent performance weren't so perfect, and if the microphone levels weren't just a little hot. That the shrieking goes into the red is absolutely part of the fun.

*Alas, I cannot 100% confirm that it is DJ Marley Marl making this remarkable intro. He was mixing at the time, so it is probably him. But I have no concrete evidence. If Mr. Marl is reading, please tweet at me to confirm. I can tell you it is not Steve Harvey, who was host of Showtime At The Apollo at the time.

Introduction by: Zacherle

To understand why this is awesome you need to know a bit about Zacherle. The "Cool Ghoul," as he was called, was a radio and TV personality associated with kitschy horror and the underground scene. (He died last year at the age of 98!) Elvira Mistress of the Dark, Svengoolie, the whole Fright Night schtick... it all goes back to Zacherle.

Somehow he ended up onstage at New York's Fillmore East at the beginning of the Grateful Dead's "late show" on Saturday February 14, 1970. (The "glorious Sunday morning" is a reference to the hour. It was already near or past midnight.)

This little piece of audio art begins with call from (I believe) Bob Weir to "Bear" (LSD alchemist and audio engineer Owsley Stanley) to "turn on Mickey's microphone," and concludes with a possibly perplexed John Zacherle, in full Transylvania schtick, welcoming "The Grateful Goddamn Dead????"

That the recording then slams into an extra-propulsive version of "Casey Jones" is just extra filigree on the tab, man.

Introduction by: Pee Wee Marquette

This introduction cuts through all the crap and says what everyone in the audience is thinking: If you clap real hard, you might be able to hear yourself on an album someday. Maybe not such a big deal in the days of YouTube, but for the mid-1950s, it was a gas.

Pee Wee Marquette was the doorman and emcee at the original Birdland club on Manhattan's famed 52nd Street row. (Don't look for anything there now except for daytime food carts.) Everybody in the classic jazz scene knew and loved Pee Wee (Lester Young famously called the short-statured man "half a motherfu**er!") His band introductions were legendary, to the point that there's even an album just of him welcoming musicians to the stage.

This particular one is on the list not just because it's the most famous, but because it starts out serious and then, at the end, quickly turns to excitable mayhem. Pee Wee was New York's greatest jazz hype man, and in those last few seconds you can hear why.

Introduction by: Brother JC Crawford

The recent documentary Gimme Danger provides great insight into the career of Iggy Pop and the Stooges, and you can't tell that story without first introducing their mentors, the Detroit proto-punk band the MC5.

Chaotic and radical, the MC5 were entwined with the White Panther political party. They were very excited, they were very loud, they were on a lot of drugs. There's a lot of speechifying throughout the outstanding live album Kick Out The Jams (and that includes mouth-explosion noises before Rocket Reducer No. 62 and the only use of the word "honky" I know outside of The Jeffersons) but the album begins with band associate Brother JC Crawford screaming his head off about Revolution. It's ridiculous until the music kicks in, at which point it is the greatest thing ever. Up Against The Wall, Motherfu**er!!

Introduction by: Dave Pearce

The iconoclastic black nationalist hip-hop group from New York makes their big stage debut and… this is nasally British voice is what welcomes them?

This disconnect is part of what makes this entrance so invigorating. Those in the know, however, recognize Dave Pearce as the first DJ to bring hip-hop to Britain in any substantial way. His enthusiasm (plus the air raid siren, sure) bring the audience to a fever pitch. Professor Griff's first comment ("Armageddon had been in effect -- go get a late pass!") is sly and badass, and then… and then the concert fades out and the studio album begins.

A great advertisement to catch Public Enemy on their next tour!

Introduction by: Frankie "Hollywood" Crocker

Nobody made an entrance like James Brown. And nobody dragged it out more, either. For the purposes of this list, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business may have boxed himself out of the top three merely due to his myriad potential entries.

Which introduction do I choose? (There are 15 live albums in his discography.) Even narrowing it down: which introduction from an Apollo Theater album do I choose? (He recorded five there.) Yet further: which introduction within an album itself? He'd leave the stage and come back! He made sure the band (The J.B.s) got a welcome separate from himself. James Brown, ladies and gentlemen!

The better James Brown introductions are the ones in which the announcer interacts with the band. Larry "Fats" Gonder did this well on the 1963 album, but it was Frankie "Hollywood" Crocker who really took it to the next level in 1968. Once he declared it to be "Star Time" the horns pop in as he lists JB's accomplishments. I recommend getting a guy like Crocker (a New York DJ who once rode a white stallion into Studio 54) to be your wingman whenever you enter a bar or office meeting.

Introduction by: Jerome Aniton

During Steely Dan's heyday they didn't tour much. (They're on the road more now than when they were on the radio!) But in 1974 they found, so the legend goes, a truck driver named Jerome Aniton who would carouse with the band on the road and make introductions. One of these epic drunken presentations (in which he referred to Donald Fagen as "Mr. Steely Dan or whatever") has been cracking up fans for decades.

"If it's good to ya, it's good for ya!" is a pretty good philosophy, come to think of it.

What's best about this is how some members of the group are having a blast, but the audience is clearly annoyed. The drummer tries to get him to hurry up by counting off, but no way: Aniton was having too much fun flirting with "the purty one" in the front row.

Introduction by: Howard Cosell

Here's one that will make you stand up and cheer right there in your living room.

A big televised event in America's most famous room deserves a grand welcome. Sports broadcasting legend, the oft-ribbed Howard Cosell, is there to get the crowd going. It's weird from the start, with Cosell extolling New York's virtues as, among other things, a shipping and transportation hub, which wasn't even true anymore back in 1974.

As Woody Herman's orchestra swells, Cosell continues freestyling into a frenzy. He's got the same energy as Jerome Aniton in the Steely Dan clip, only he isn't sloshed. He's spitting out vocabulary words at a fantastic clip, and timing it all perfectly to the Chairman's approach to the center stage.

Cosell continues for a glorious three minutes and 12 seconds, and doesn't miss a step. He has the phrasing! He has the control! Ladies and gentlemen, Howard Cosell!

Introduction by: Unknown

Yes, it's true, B.B. King recorded his prison album after Johnny Cash did Live at Folson Prison. And that album opens with a great intro: but it's Johnny Cash presenting himself! ("Hello. I'm Johnny Cash.") It also has some memorable announcements ("These men have receptions: Matlock, a50632, and Batshelter, a39879, they have receptions."), but that was just communicating to the audience. If we go down that road we'll include the stuff about Woodstock's brown acid.

No, the best introduction of all time happened at Cook County Jail, and, sadly, I can't for the life of me track down the name of the woman who is actually at the microphone. Of course, she isn't what makes it interesting; it's the reaction.

Picture this: a yard in the largest single site jail in America, September 10, 1970. Only very recently did they retire the goddamn electric chair. A new program is in place to bring some sort of amusement to the inmates. A woman comes out and says "it's a beautiful day in Chicago" but before B.B. King can come out and play the blues, she'd first like a round of applause for. . .the Sheriff?! Are you kidding me?!

She's met with boos, and then it only gets worse from there until the music starts. This edit that ended up on a "best of" rerelease cuts it down to its essence, and maybe is even better.

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