Chef Aid: The South Park Album [Edited]

Performer: Original Soundtrack/South Park
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Producers include: Primus, Rick Rubin, Tim Armstrong, Lars Frederiksen, Master P. Engineers include: D. Sardy, David Schiffman, Robert Casale. This tie-in album to TV's South Park gang of potty-mouthed cartoon cutups comes from an episode chronicling a benefit concert for resident school cook Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes). Calling in such pals as Ozzy Osbourne, Wyclef Jean, and Elton John, Chef Aid: The South Park Album is little more than a soundtrack featuring chart-toppers du jour. But most of the guest artists are peripheral to the surroundings (although Master P's "Kenny's Dead" is a clever goof incorporating both a running gag of the series and Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead"). The real treats come from the animated characters themselves: Chef gets all funky paying tribute to his "Chocolate Salty Balls," and several of his lascivious tunes -- which originated on the show and are naturally soaked in double entendres -- are spread throughout the album. The highlight, however, is resident fatty Eric Cartman's skewering cover of Styx's "Come Sail Away." It not only inflates the original's bloated pretensions, it also mocks an entire faceless, and creatively infertile, period in music in the process. ~ Michael Gallucci This tie-in album to TV's South Park gang of potty-mouthed cartoon cutups comes from an episode chronicling a benefit concert for resident school cook Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes). Calling in such pals as Ozzy Osbourne, Wyclef Jean, and Elton John, Chef Aid: The South Park Album is little more than a soundtrack featuring chart-toppers du jour. But most of the guest artists are peripheral to the surroundings (although Master P's "Kenny's Dead" is a clever goof incorporating both a running gag of the series and Curtis Mayfield's "Freddie's Dead"). The real treats come from the animated characters themselves: Chef gets all funky paying tribute to his "Chocolate Salty Balls," and several of his lascivious tunes -- which originated on the show and are naturally soaked in double entendres -- are spread throughout the album. The highlight, however, is resident fatty Eric Cartman's skewering cover of Styx's "Come Sail Away." It not only inflates the original's bloated pretensions, it also mocks an entire faceless, and creatively infertile, period in music in the process. ~ Michael Gallucci As unexpected as the South Park phenomenon itself may have been, this album is even more of a left-field entry. It takes the guise of a benefit concert for Chef (Isaac Hayes), featuring some very special guests. Predictably, Hayes takes center stage with some single-entendre Love Man R&B ("Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You)"). Cartman is here, too, delivering his hysterically agitated rendition of Styx's "Come Sail Away." The most unexpected aspect of CHEF AID is the fact that everyone from Elton John to Rancid to Master P. takes part in the hilarity. Primus, who provide the weekly show's theme, are represented by "Mephisto and Kevin," which references two of the show's more unusual characters. Even erstwhile Clash frontman Joe Strummer appears, along with Flea, Benmont Tench and others, on the infectious "Rockin' World," a song bound to catch your ear in any context.

Entertainment Weekly (1/8/99, pp.64-65) - "...What constantly redeems the album is the dark humor and musical chops of creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Their parodies, from Hayes' double-entendre pimp-funk strut `Chocolate Salty Balls (P.S. I Love You)' to croaky renditions of Bad Company and Styx anthems, are funny, loving mockeries..." - Rating: B

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