William Shatner is known first and foremost as Captain Kirk, the central character from the classic Star Trek TV series from the '60s. In the ’80s, he was known for the character T.J. Hooker in the series of the same name. In recent times however, most people know him as the Priceline Negotiator.

Apart from his most ardent admirers, most people do not know that in 1968, Shatner recorded an album containing a collection of spoken word interpretations of popular songs famous by then-current artists and recitations of poetry pitched halfway between middlebrow art and trippy trendiness. With his overheated, hysteric delivery supported by syrupy strings and studio trickery, it has become a cult-attraction over the years, and with good reason.

While listening to the album The Transformed Man it's unclear if Shatner is merely having a good time and goofing around, or if he's embarrassingly dead serious in creating, what he hoped to be, the start of his musical career. Most of the album turns out to be a bit too tedious for the average listener, but a pair of tracks have become classics; "Theme From Cyrano/Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Spleen/Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

Shatner's liner notes from inside the CD booklet were originally penned when the album came out and sound as if he was legitimately proud of his accomplishment. Shatner's vocal talents would be put to use again more than 30 years later. '90’s alternative artist, Ben Folds (of Ben Folds Five) used Shatner's vocals to great effect on the hilarious ode to love gone bad, "In Love", from his 1998 side project, Fear of Pop Volume 1.

Like the legendary comedian Andy Kaufman, the attraction of The Transformed Man is that you cannot tell if Shatner is play-acting or painfully serious. The result is a must-hear, (unintentional?) comedy classic.