Thursday, November 16, 2006

Shari Lewis: Hi Kids!


Well, kids, let's soldier on and hope for the best...

This album from 1959 or 1960 (depending on whether you believe the album cover or the record itself) features famed ventriloquist Shari Lewis and her puppets Lamb Chop, Charley Horse, Hush Puppy, and Wing Ding singing a number of fun songs. Now the disadvantage of having a ventriloquist do an album is that without the visual of the puppets you start to notice similarities in the voices. The advantage, of course, is that you can have everybody singing at the same time! One good thing here is that Lewis really does have a nice singing voice. She can really swing through some of these songs! One bad thing is the rather un-PC "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm". Anyway, this is a neat album, and I hope it stays here long enough for you to enjoy it!

Oh yeah, quick trivia tidbit: Did you know that Shari Lewis (along with her husband) actually wrote the Classic Star Trek episode "The Lights of Zetar"?

Here's the track list:
  1. Swingin' on a Star
  2. All God's Chillun Got Rhythm
  3. Get on Board Little Children
  4. Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella
  5. Tiki Tiki Timbo
  6. Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee
  7. What Do You Do When You Say You're Doin' Nothin'?
  8. Aren't You Glad You're You?
  9. Hi Lili Hi Lo
  10. Go Fly a Kite!
  11. Back in Your Own Backyard
  12. Let's Sing Our Favorite Song
This album is now available to purchase from Amazon.com. You can get the CD here or the mp3 version here!

2 comments:

Craig D said...

Oh, amn! Shari was a BIG DEAL for me as a 4 year old. She was a stone fox who seemed to care about entertaining children.

When I first heard that there was a comedian named "JERRY Lewis" I figured he was a cheap-jack rip-off of Shari.

Hope I can get back to my high-speed connection before somethings happens to this file.

Thanks for reactivating the ol' memory circuits!

Anonymous said...

Amazing. I had this record. I've been missing Wing Ding all these years. Thank you so much.