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“Deteriorata” is a famous parody of San Francisco radio and television personality Les Crane’s spoken word recording of Desiderata. It was written by Tony Hendra and recorded by National Lampoon as part of their National Lampoon Radio Dinner album of 1972. The parody earned a great deal of cultural significance and popularity as a frequent presentation on the Dr. Demento radio show. Les Crane himself admitted to preferring this version over his Grammy-winning recording of the original poem. Voiceover talent Norman Rose read the “poem” and then-little known Melissa Manchester was a background singer on the chorus section of the song. Christopher Guest wrote the music. The word deteriorata is a portmanteau of “Desiderata” and deteriorate. Read on...