'Button-Down Mind' Changed Modern Comedy In 1960, Bob Newhart stood before one of the first live nightclub audiences he'd ever faced. That performance resulted in the beloved comedy album, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart," which the Library of Congress selected for its National Recording Registry.

'Button-Down Mind' Changed Modern Comedy

'Button-Down Mind' Changed Modern Comedy

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Bob Newhart was an accountant when he summoned the courage to perform what would become The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart. Courtesty Monarch Entertainment hide caption

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Courtesty Monarch Entertainment

Bob Newhart was an accountant when he summoned the courage to perform what would become The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.

Courtesty Monarch Entertainment

Conan O'Brien called Newhart "the opposite of a sweat act" — an old vaudeville term to describe someone who's running around begging for the audience to laugh. Newhart's timing and material is so good, O'Brien said, "you have to go to him." Timothy White hide caption

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Timothy White

Conan O'Brien called Newhart "the opposite of a sweat act" — an old vaudeville term to describe someone who's running around begging for the audience to laugh. Newhart's timing and material is so good, O'Brien said, "you have to go to him."

Timothy White

In 1960, Stan Cornyn was with Warner Brother Records when the company got a call from a distributor, urging executives to listen to a recording of Bob Newhart, then an unknown, doing stand-up. Jen Weinberg hide caption

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Jen Weinberg

In 1960, Stan Cornyn was with Warner Brother Records when the company got a call from a distributor, urging executives to listen to a recording of Bob Newhart, then an unknown, doing stand-up.

Jen Weinberg

Stan Cornyn remembers how The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart saved Warner Brothers Records.

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Bob Newhart's debut album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, was the first comedy album ever to hit No. 1. It saved the struggling Warner Brothers Records and changed the face of modern comedy.

Newhart and comedian and late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien offer insight on this landmark recording. They discuss how the recording came to be, memorable moments on the album and why it holds up today.