Smurfing Sing Song

This actually came out in 1980 before the cartoon in the U.S. Of course the Smurfs were popular long before that due to the comic strip drawn by Pierre "Peyo" Culliford in Belgium in 1958. And whether you love the Smurfs or hate them, these songs are undeniably catchy.

Some bits of trivia:

• In college I took a course in Beginning Tap Dancing. For one of my class routines I used the song "Smurf Baby".
• My wife came into the room, heard this album playing and started dancing to it. She asked me what it was, and I told her it was the Smurfs. She said "Oh.", stopped dancing, and walked out of the room!
• Stay tuned for the Youtube link at the end!
  

Here's the track list:

1. Smurfing Land
2. Smurf Hop
3. When the Smurfs
4. Little Smurf Boat
5. Come to the Party
6. Smurf Baby
7. You're a Pink Toothbrush
8. Smurfin' Cowboy
9. Merry Go Round
10. Silly Little Song
11. Summertime
12. Smurf Lullaby

Click here or here to download!



This is an authorized (but somewhat disturbing) commercial for UNICEF featuring the Smurfs. The deal at the end reads, "War. Don't let it devastate the world of children."

The ABC Children's Chorus: Songs for Children...By Children

Here's an odd little record featuring songs for children by children like "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window", "Little White Duck", and "These Boots Were Made for Walkin'". HUH?? This whole album seems to come from two different directions. On the back of the album they mention that these twelve kids ranging in age from 9 to 14 sing just like they would if "they joined voices with the kids around the block". Then it mentions how the individual youngsters have appeared on Broadway, television, and TV commercials! Regardless, this is a fun album that I hope you'll enjoy. (And where else will you hear twelve kids singing to the wordless Herb Alpert song "Tijuana Taxi"?)

Here's the track list:

1. Dominique
2. Happiness Is
3. How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?
4. I Whistle a Happy Tune
5. Tijuana Taxi
6. Chim Chim Cheree
7. Batman Theme
8. Little White Duck
9. It's Superman
10. Tears and Roses
11. These Boots Are Made for Walkin'
12. On Top of Spaghetti

Click here to download!

Space Songs (with Bonus Cut!)

Here's a number of cute songs regarding space, physics, and astronomy sung by Tom Glazer (of "On Top of Spaghetti" fame) and Dottie Evans. I'd actually heard one of these songs before, "Why Does the Sun Shine" because it was redone by the group They Might Be Giants. I've included their rendition of the song as a bonus cut here. Enjoy!

Here's the track list:

1. Zoom a Little Zoom
2. What Is the Milky Way
3. Constellation Jig
4. Beep Beep (Here Comes the Satellite)
5. Why Does the Sun Shine
6. What Is a Shooting Star
7. Longitude and Latitude
8. It's a Scientific Fact
9. Ballad of Sir Isaac Newton
10. Friction
11. Why Are Stars of Different Colors
12. Why Do Stars Twinkle
13. What Is Gravity
14. Planet Minuet
15. Why Go Up There
16. Why Does the Sun Shine - They Might Be Giants

Click here or here to download!

Dr. Seuss Presents...Fox in Socks & Green Eggs and Ham

I think this album has been redone with celebrities reading the stories, but this is the one I grew up with. The stories here are read by Marvin Miller, and while you may not recognize the name I think the voice will sound familiar to you. He did narration for a number of movies and cartoons, as well as being the voice of Robby the Robot in the movie "Forbidden Planet". Miller does a super job of "Fox in Socks", first doing a regular version of the story, then a fast version. Boy howdy, does he tear through it! (And the album makes sure to mention that "there were no recording tricks or gimmicks used in this recording.") He does good with the classic "Green Eggs and Ham" too. I'm not sure which Dr. Seuss book has the story "The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga", but Miller does great on that one as well.

I was reading the back cover to find interesting facts to include here, and found this interesting tidbit about this recording of "Green Eggs and Ham": "The story of 'Sam' is accompanied by two American jazzmen of international fame -- drummer Shelly Manne and bassist Chuck Berghofer -- who improvised the interesting musical line children and adults will find hypnotizing." I have to admit it was pretty cool!

Hope you enjoy this!

Here's the track list:

1. Fox in Socks
2. Fox in Socks (fast version)
3. Green Eggs and Ham
4. The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga

Click here or here to download!

Mickey Mouse and His Friends

I'm going to be backing off a bit from the Halloween stuff for a while, because I don't have too many left right now, and if I keep putting them on, I won't even make it to the beginning of October let alone the end of it. I'm in the process of looking for more Halloween type stuff that isn't already available elsewhere, and will try to add some in when I've got more to offer.

Meanwhile, here's a neat little album from 1968. I know that some of these songs came out earlier, because I had some of these on a 45 when I was a kid. I was sad to find that they left one out from that old record I had. It had Donald Duck trying to sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" while Chip and Dale were giving him grief. It was especially fun because it had four or five instances of Donald making that quacking noise he does when he gets mad. I'll look around to see if I can find that record, and if I do (and I can clean it up enough), I'll add it to this blog entry.

There are two small skips on Track 7 (Laugh Laugh Laugh/Goofy's Jokes and Riddles) but the cut's 10 minutes long already and the jokes really aren't that good. This was the best joke on there:

Goofy: This liniment makes my arm smart.
Some Kid: Why don't you put some on your head?
Kids laugh and Goofy goes "A-hyuh hyuh hyuh hyuh!"

I'd also like to point out that despite what you see on the cover, Winnie the Pooh is nowhere to be found on this record. I guess this is when Winnie was Disney's version of Elmo: Put him on all our merchandise and it'll sell better!

Anyway, there's some fun stuff on here and I hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. Happy Mouse
2. Donald Duck Song
3. Quack! Quack! Quack! Donald Duck
4. Chip 'N Dale Sing: Chip 'N Dale, Polly Wolly Doodle, Daisy Mae
5. Mickey's Big Show: Donald Duck Recites Mary Had a Little Lamb, Little Boy Blue, Clara Cluck Sings Opera
6. Mousekedance
7. Laugh, Laugh, Laugh; Goofy's Jokes and Riddles
8. Pussy Cat Polka
9. Mickey Mouse Mambo
10. Mickey Mouse March

Click here or here to download!

Mister Ed the Talking Horse - Straight from the Horse's Mouth

Well, Golden Records kind of tricked me on this one. Looking at the cover, you would think this record would be hosted by Alan Young as Wilbur Post and Allan "Rocky" Lane as Mister Ed. But it turns out there's no Wilbur Post in it at all, and it sounds to me like Mister Ed is being voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft here. If it's not Thurl, it sounds like the same guy that I thought was Thurl on "Songs to Tickle Your Funny Bone" that I posted earlier. Thurl or No Thurl: YOU decide!

Anyway, this is a collection of songs and facts by this fake Mister Ed. It's still cute though, and I hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. Mister Ed Theme
2. Straight From the Horse's Mouth
3. Birds of a Feather
4. "How" Song
5. There's a Million Kinds of Animals
6. There's a Hat for Every Occasion
7. The Historic Force, the Horse
8. It Takes Five Senses
9. Sounds Like a Sound
10. Why?
11. The Sea
12. The Weather Song
13. Out in Outer Space

Click here or here to download!

Telezonia (My first embedded video!)

If you've got a half-hour to spare, take a look at this. I don't think I can come up with anything scarier than this little film from 1974. Enjoy! (If you have problems with it stopping and starting, hit the pause button (the button on the lower left) and give it a couple of minutes to cache part of it. Hit it again and let it play!

Freddy's Greatest Hits

OK, here's another odd Halloween album for you from 1987.

Admittedly, Freddy isn't actually singing on any of these, but that is Robert Englund himself throwing in the comments in the songs (and as a bonus he's easier to understand than Irwin the Disco Duck). Half of these songs make fun 90s style Halloween haunted house type music, but the best ones here are the cover songs. I can see the Freddy connection on "In the Midnight Hour" and "All I Have to Do Is Dream". It gets a bit more tenuous on "Do the Freddy", a former dance hit for Freddie and the Dreamers. And where "Wooly Bully" comes from is anybody's guess! Anyway, enjoy this bit of Halloween cheesiness!

Here's the track list:

1. Do the Freddy
2. Dance or Else
   
3. In the Midnight Hour
4. Don't Sleep
5. All I Have to Do Is Dream
   
6. Obsession
7. Wooly Bully
   
8. Down in the Boiler Room
9. Elm Street Dreams

Click here or here to download!

Disco Duck Dance Party

Hey Gang! It's Irwin the Disco Duck and the Wibble Wabble Singers and Orchestra bringing you those great disco tunes you know and love! Actually, I was disappointed to find that Irwin only sings on the first song. However, he does introduce all the other songs in that wonderful fake Donald Duck voice of his. If you didn't know what the songs were, you'd be hard pressed to figure out what the heck he was saying. To me, "Silly Love Songs" sounds like "Suey Buzzsaw", and "Kung Fu Fighting" sounds like "You're Too Fatty"! What song titles can YOU come up with??

Here's the track list:

1. Disco Duck
2. A Fifth of Beethoven
3. Love Will Keep Us Together
4. Silly Love Songs
5. That's the Way I Like It
6. Fly Robin Fly
7. December 1963 (Oh What a Night)
8. Shame Shame Shame
9. Kung Fu Fighting
10. The Hustle

Click here or here to download!

The Sesame Street Monsters!

O.K., here's a couple of things I need to tell you guys. First, I won't have enough scary stuff to last through to Halloween, especially starting this early, so I'm going to be sprinkling Halloweeny junk amongst the other kinds of albums I put on here. Second, as you can see from this offering (and could surmise from the other stuff I tend to put on here), even my scary stuff won't be THAT scary!

Now on to today's offering. Sesame Street is known for its wide variety of monsters, and we have a pretty fair offering of them here, with the majority being carried off by Grover, Cookie Monster, and Herry Monster. And for you old-schoolers like me, you'll be glad to know: No Elmo!!

Here's a couple of trivia tidbits for you regarding this album. The orangy-reddish monster on the cover with his tongue sticking out is Frazzle. He just makes odd growling and snarling noises, but he still gets his own song here (along with his back-up group, the Frazzletones). Also the song "I Want a Monster to Be My Friend" ended up being a bit controversial. Parents were apparently uncomfortable with the stanza:

If I make friends with a friendly monster
I'd let him bounce me on his knee.
I'd let him do whatever he wants to
Especially if he's bigger than me.

I guess they thought it was saying it was OK for people bigger than you to do whatever they want to you. Regardless, the skit with this song hasn't been played in years, and the song (if I'm not mistaken) has not been used in any other compilations. Sounds kind of goofy to me, especially in the context of the song.

Anyhoo, here it is. Hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. The Lovable Monsters of Sesame Street
2. I, Grover
3. Five Monsters in My Family
4. I Can't Help It
5. I Want a Monster to Be My Friend
6. Frazzle
7. The End of Side 1
8. We'll Do It Together
9. Fur
10. Cookie's Rhyming Song
11. Monster Lullaby
12. Games Monsters Play
13. Be Kind to Your Neighborhood Monsters

Click here or here to download!

Zombies from the Beyond

I wanted my first official Halloween themed album here to be something special...unusual...one might even say...way out! I think I've accomplished it with this little beauty. I've actually done a number of plays and musicals through my local community theatre, and I have to say that I'd have a blast (so to speak) trying to do this show. The basic plot involves the invasion of Earth (starting with a Milwaukee Army base) in the 1950's by that "zaftig vixen", Queen Zombina and her Zombettes. Their aim is to conquer and enslave all men in order to repopulate their planet by using Zombina's secret weapon, her hypnotic singing voice. Throw in a brave scientist, an Army general and his lovely daughter, a Russian spy, and a tap-dancing delivery boy and you've got this really funny show that was performed Off-Broadway in 1996. And you gotta love a show that's scored for piano keyboard, percussion, and accordion!

Finally (with the closest I plan to come to making a political statement here), imagine the song "The American Way" as if it's being sung by George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice. It kind of puts a whole other spin on it, doesn't it??

Zombina Naraba Blimpo!

Here's the track list:

1. Prologue/The Sky's The Limit
2. A Flying Saucer
3. The Rocket-Roll
4. Second Planet On The Right
5. Blast-Off Baby
6. Atomic Feet
7. The Saucer Descends
8. Big Wig
9. Rocket-Roll (Reprise)
10. In The Stars
11. Beauty Shop Opening
12. Secret Weapon
13. Zombies From The Beyond
14. Dateline: Milwaukee
15. Second Planet (Reprise)
16. The American Way
17. I Am A Zombie
18. Zombina's Broad-cast
19. The Last Man On Earth
20. Zombina Destroys Milwaukee
21. Breaking The Sound Barrier
22. Keep Watching The Skies

Click here or here to download!

The Official Adventures of the Phantom & Mandrake the Magician

I'm trying to get caught up from my one week hiatus, so here's another record for you! This one comes from 1967, and I guess I can claim a bit of a Halloween connection here since the Phantom is referred to as "The Ghost Who Walks" and Mandrake (like Trumpy) can do magic things.

My first impression was that these were originally radio shows, but the occasional guitar licks thrown in are definitely 60s flavored. Another interesting thing is two comic strips are reproduced on the back cover, and the Mandrake one shows a date of 2-20. So these stories may have been adapted from stories in the actual comic strips. If any of you are Phantom or Mandrake experts, maybe you can confirm that. Now I hate to disappoint you guys, but the Phantom and Mandrake don't appear together anywhere in these stories, despite what the cover might imply. Each character had his own story to play with here. The common thread here is that both characters were created by Lee Falk.

The narrator on this album is Jackson Beck, and if you don't know the name, you'll definitely know his voice. He did everything from narrating Superman cartoons to voicing Bluto in the Popeye cartoons to being the announcer on the Little Caesar's Pizza commercials!

Enjoy the stories, and if anybody ever pulls a gun on you, do what Mandrake does and tell him, "That's not a gun, it's a can of worms."

Here's the track list (such as it is):

1. The Phantom in "The Astronaut and the Pirates"


2. Mandrake the Magician in "The Return of the Cobra"

Click here or here to download!

Songs That Tickle Your Funny Bone

I'll admit that I've cheated a bit on some of these kid's records. Most of these I never had growing up. (I still think they're pretty neat though.) However, this is one that I did have and I remember it pretty well. I was eager to put this on, but my record had a big crack in it. Fortunately I found another copy recently at Goodwill, so here it is!

This is probably the only kids record that sings about beer and cigarettes: a girl drinks a glass of beer (among other things) in "I Had But Fifty Cents", and the song "Big Rock Candy Mountain" mentions "The buzzin' of the bees and the cigarette trees". I assume that's the original words to the song, but they'd certainly change it now. (I don't indulge in beer or cigarettes, so hearing it didn't hurt me any!) Also, in the song "Cindy" when the guy sings about wishing he was an apple he sounds a little too excited wanting Cindy to take a BITE of him!

The last thing I wanted to mention here is that to my uneducated ears it sounds like Thurl Ravenscroft (of Tony the Tiger fame) is singing on some of these songs as well. See if you agree.

Here it is. Hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. I Am a Little School Girl
2. I Had But Fifty Cents
3. Cindy
4. The Piper Band
5. There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea
6. 1000 Legged Worm
7. Ebenezer Fry
8. Boom Boom Ain't It Great to Be Crazy
9. Peanut Sat on a Railroad Track
10. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
11. Seven Sneezes
12. Icka Backa Soda Cracker
13. I Know an Old Lady
14. Funiculi Funicula
15. On Top of Spaghetti
16. Ooey Gooey
17. I Love You
18. Be Kind to Your Web-Footed Friends
19. Big Rock Candy Mountain
20. Clementine

Click here or here to download!

UPDATE: An album with the very same versions of several of these songs (along with many others) is now available in CD and mp3 formats from Amazon.com! You can get the CD here and the mp3 version here.

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color

I'm sure a lot of you are too young to remember this, but it used to be a big deal if a TV show was broadcast in color. In fact, if you catch reruns of some early television shows they'll even make a special point of mentioning this. The announcer will say something like, "The Big Valley...IN COLOR!" I guess it's the same deal now when shows are broadcast in HD or Widescreen.

Anyway, "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" was the first (and only) show I remember that even made a point of mentioning it in the show's title! This album from 1963 features songs from a number of the episodes featured on the show performed by Annette Funicello, Jiminy Cricket, Hayley Mills, and others. If an artist isn't listed next to the song there's not a credit for them on the record. And as a little pre-Halloween treat we also have that great theme song from "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh". Everybody now, "Scare-CROOOOOOWWWW!"


Here's the track list:

1. The Wonderful World of Color - The Wellingtons
2. The Ballad of Davy Crockett - Fess Parker
3. Mister Piano Man - Annette
4. Pollyanna Song - Hayley Mills
5. Casey Jr.
6. Sammy the Way-Out Seal
7. From All of Us to All of You - Jiminy Cricket
   
8. Bella Bella Florence - Annette
9. Farewell - Fess Parker
10. America the Beautiful - Hayley Mills
11. Hector, the Stowaway Pup
12. Scarecrow - The Wellingtons
13. The Wonderful World of Color - The Wellingtons

Click here or here or here to download!

My Name Is Roosevelt Franklin

A couple of months ago, I received a comment asking if I had this album. At the time, I didn't. But I do now, so here it is!

Roosevelt Franklin was a character used more in the early years of Sesame Street. Probably the character (and his supporting cast) was dropped because he was voiced by Matt Robinson, the original actor to play Gordon on the show. I kept thinking that the character of Roosevelt Franklin lasted longer, but the show rotated out segments, so I may have just seen older skits that I hadn't seen previously. Looking at the credits to the album I see that the songs were also written by Robinson (with some help on the music by Joe Raposo), so he had quite a lot of time and energy devoted to the character.

Anyway, here's some songs about numbers, letters, days of the week, months of the year, and being proud of what you are, from Mobity Mosely, Baby Ray, A.B. Cito, Mary Frances and her brother Roosevelt Franklin!

Here's the track list:

1. Roosevelt Franklin Counts
2. Days of the Week
3. Mobity Mosely's Months
4. Keep on Trying
5. The Safety Boy Blues
6. Just Because
7. The Skin I'm In
8. A Bear Eats Bear Food
9. Halfies
10. Me and You
11. Old King Midas
12. Roosevelt Franklin's Alphabet

NOTE: This album is now a part of the 3-CD set "Sesame Street Old School, Volume 2," along with "Grover Sings the Blues" and "The Count Counts"! And you can buy it from the link below:

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: TV Theme & Soundbites

Here's something cool for you Power Rangers fans that you probably haven't run into. This is a series of sound bites from the Power Rangers characters circa 1994. That means you'll hear the theme song, as well as quotes from the Rangers, Bulk and Skull, Lord Zedd, Zordon, Alpha, and my favorite, Rita Repulsa! I think this was originally made for radio stations, but it would be ideal to use for mix tapes or even for sounds on your computer. (I bet you'd make a lot fewer mistakes if your sound effect for Critical Stop was Alpha going "Ay-Yi-Yi-Yi-Yi!")

Rather than type the entire track list, click on the back label here to read all the stuff on this:


Click here or here or here to download!