Song of the Day 9/9: Big Daddy Graham, “Let’s Call in Sick”

Filed in Arts and Entertainment by on September 9, 2021

The obituary identifies Big Daddy Graham, who died yesterday at 68, as a longtime WIP radio-show host, and that was definitely the most successful of his various gigs. But anyone around her in the ’80s, when the standup comedy boom had clubs opening even in unfunny places like Wilmington, Big Daddy — born Edward Gudonis — worked the circuit with an acoustic guitar and comic songs.

The one that got him noticed was one he and his brother wrote based on their Catholic school education. “Nuns” reflected the fact that Catholic school kids weren’t so much God-fearing as nun-fearing. Sample lyrics:

“Where do they come from?
Where do they go?
What are their real names?
I bet you don’t know.
They’ve been around for millions of years
They were the one thing that dinosaurs feared.
NUNS! Stronger than you and me
NUNS! Looking for someone to beat
I hope it’s not you, I hope it’s not me
NUNS!”

John DiBella, in the mid-’80s Philadelphia’s pre-eminent DJ at WMMR’s “Morning Zoo,” heard the tune and told Graham that if he recorded it, he’d play it. Graham did and DiBella did, and though this was in 1984 and comics already had been joking about sadistic nuns since forever, it stirred up some controversy, which led to more publicity. I couldn’t find it online, but this was another popular tune from Graham’s album, also called “Nuns,” and it gives a pretty good idea of Big Daddy’s sense of humor.

I got a kick out of the video because of the guy in the Upper Dublin football jersey. I grew up in the next district over and they were our Thanksgiving Day rival back in the day. Neither team was ever any good, which made the game that much easier to ignore.

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