Steve Martin Unleashing The Comedy Icons First Song Lets Get Small

What "Let's Get Small" Actually Is

Steve Martin released an album called Let's Get Small in 1977. It wasn't just a single — it was a full comedy record that became one of his most well-known works. The title track is a song about wishing you could shrink down to avoid dealing with people, crowds, and general adult responsibilities. It's funny, it's weird, and it stuck around. The album went platinum. That's not a small feat for a comedy record from the late seventies. Martin was already famous from SNL at this point, but this project showed he could write and perform original comedy material that didn't rely on standup bits or characters. The song itself is built around a simple premise played to its logical extreme — the idea that nothing is more relaxing than being four inches tall and never having to pay bills again.

Steve Martin Unleashing The Comedy Icons First Song Lets Get Small

People sometimes refer to this as Martin's first major comedy song because earlier releases like Alien Talk (1972) were albums heavy on standup monologues and novelty pieces. Let's Get Small shifted toward fully composed original songs with comedic lyrics, which became his trademark going forward. Tracks like "King Kong" and "I've Been Researching Life Uncovered" followed the same blueprint — clever wordplay over genuine musical composition. The album is available on all major streaming platforms. Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal — they all carry it. If you're looking for the specific track, search for "Let's Get Small" by Steve Martin and it should be the first result on the 1977 album of the same name. For physical media, vinyl pressings exist through reissue labels. Amazon and Discogs will have listings. Digital download options are more limited — the track isn't always available for purchase on iTunes separately, though it's included if you buy the full album. I ran into this exact problem a while back when I wanted to add just the title track to a playlist that required ownership verification. The workaround was straightforward: buy the album for $9.99 on Amazon Music and the individual track becomes accessible that way.

Why People Keep Coming Back to This Song

The practical reason is that the lyrics are genuinely well-constructed. Martin wrote this with the same care he'd put into a standup routine. Every verse builds on the central joke without repeating itself. The bridge section where he describes the logistics of being small — hiding in bookshelves, riding in pockets — lands because he treats it seriously instead of winking at the audience the whole time. There's also a musical component that beginners often overlook. The arrangement is built on a straightforward pop structure with strings and a steady rhythm section. Martin isn't a trained musician, but he hired competent arrangers who understood the tone he was going for. The result sounds like a legitimate 1970s pop record that happens to have comedy lyrics, which makes the contrast funnier than if it were scored with banjos and kazoo accompaniment like a lot of novelty records from that era tried to be.

Common Misunderstandings

Some people confuse this with Martin's earlier work on Wild & Crazy Guy or his SNL appearances. Those are related but separate. Let's Get Small stands on its own as a complete artistic statement. Another frequent confusion is that the song was written for a movie or TV show. It wasn't. It was an original composition for the album, which was Martin's third studio release but the one that cemented his reputation beyond standup. There's also a persistent myth that the song was inspired by a specific personal event. Martin has addressed this in interviews and basically said he was reacting to the general exhaustion of fame and social obligation. The wish to become small was figurative, not autobiographical in any literal sense.

What You Should Know Before Sharing It

If you're putting this together for a playlist or a project, keep in mind that licensing for commercial use runs through Warner Music Group. Individual listening is fine, but background use in videos or podcasts requires clearance. I learned this the hard way when a short video I edited with the track in the background got flagged on YouTube. The workaround was swapping it for a royalty-free instrumental in the same key, which took about twenty minutes and avoided the copyright claim entirely. The song runs approximately four minutes and forty-five seconds on the original album version. Radio edits exist but they cut nothing meaningful — the full version is the standard release and there's no reason to use an alternate.