Song of the Day 3/7: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, “The Money Song”

Man, all this agitation for raising the minimum wage to a level a person could live has been going on forever, hasn’t it? Your grandpa probably busted a gut listening to the hot young comedy duo when they cut this routine on a Capitol Records 78 — on shellac — in 1948, voicing age-old complaints about money despite the fact that the U.S. economy was booming at the time.

Martin and Lewis teamed up in 1945, and this record represents the gist of their act in their early years: Martin would try to sing a song straight while Lewis would interrupt and heckle. In nightclubs the banter would descend into slapstick as Martin chased Lewis around the stage, but by 1949 they had adapted the act for radio. By 1951 they were the biggest act in America.