Shadow Dancing and Other Disco Favorites - The Kid Stuff Repertory Company

If you didn't get your fill of the Kid Stuff Repertory Players going disco from the last album, here's another one for you. You may notice from looking at the titles that they were so cheap they couldn't even afford to buy the extra Oogie in "Boogie Oogie Oogie"! Of course these two albums were so short they probably could have combined both of them into one, but they can sell more records that way. (And yes, these albums were so short that *I* probably could have combined them, but I was able to get two entries out of them this way!)

Here's the track list:

1. Boogie Oogie
2. Jack & Jill
3. See You When I Get There
4. Shadow Dancing
5. More Than a Woman
6. Easy to Love

Click here or here to download!

Night Fever and More Songs from "Saturday Night Fever" - The Kid Stuff Repertory Company

Here's some songs from "Saturday Night Fever" presented by those guys from the Kid Stuff Repertory Company. It's not too bad for a bunch of studio guys I guess, but I don't think these are the same people who do the children's stories!

Here's the track list:

1. Boogie Shoes
2. Stayin' Alive
3. Open Sesame
4. You Should Be Dancin'
5. Nite Fever
6. A Fifth of Beethoven

Click here or here to download!

'Twas the Night Before Christmas, The Little Fir Tree, and The Night the Animals Talked

I figured this would be a good one for the day before Christmas. This isn't the actual poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" but a dramatization of it. This also has the story of the little fir tree who wanted to see the world, as well as the story of the Nativity from the animals' point of view. It says on the liner notes that "The Night the Animals Talked" is a "new and very beautiful story", but I could have sworn I'd heard this story before. Could this have been the first presentation of it?

Anyway, this album features stories performed by voices that will probably sound quite familiar to you (even if the names aren't household words) : Peter Fernandez, Jack Grimes, Jackson Beck and others done in "Stereo Motion", designed to "bring your child into the story". I hope you all enjoy this, and have a very Merry Christmas!

Here's the track list:

1. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas
2. The Little Fir Tree
3. The Night the Animals Talked

Click here or here to download!

Christmas on the Moon - Tim Dinkins

Wow. I don't know what to say about this, other than it makes Frank di Silvestro sound like Lennon & McCartney by comparison! Almost all of these songs are written by Mrs. Nellie Bond who, according to the liner notes, Dinkins met while performing on the Squeaking Deacon Show. They wanted to do an album of all new Christmas songs, and this is what they came up with.

The songs are all sung by Tim Dinkins with a couple of exceptions. One singer, referred to as the "Mystery Guest", sings "The Wise Ole Owl". The liner notes say that they're certain "he'll not be a mystery anymore once you've heard him". I hate to break it to them, but he's still a mystery to me. The second one is a little girl named Susan Kay (who they heard singing on a radio show on station K.I.E.V. (probably performing something Ukranian)). She sings a song called "I Won't Let You Lick My Candy Bar". Thank goodness Tim didn't sing this one as well. That would have been creepy. And speaking of creepy, Tim does his best adowable wittle kid impersonation for the song "A Little Boy's Letter to Santa". Apparently Tim wanted to give me the jibblies for Christmas. *SHUDDER*

I think this might have been shared elsewhere, but I scored a sealed copy of this album so I felt like I should share this clean copy of it. This is just mind-numbingly bizarre, but it's definitely interesting!

Here's the track list (All songs sung by Tim Dinkins unless listed otherwise) :

1. Santa's Rocket
2. The Empty Chair
3. Two Little Stockings
4. I Won't Let You Lick My Candy Bar - Susan Kay
5. Just a Little Birdie in a Coo Coo Clock
6. Merry Christmas
7. The Wise Ole Owl - Mystery Guest
8. Ole Pop Reindeer
9. Christmas Message
10. Christmas Comes to Everyone
11. A Little Boy's Letter to Santa
12. Tinkle Toes

Click here or here to download!

The Cowboys Sing Holiday Halftime

I hope somebody can give me more information on this album. The title, as you can see, is called "The Cowboys Sing Holiday Halftime". That's because it features the Dallas Cowboys football team singing Christmas songs. As I did more research, I found that there are other Christmas albums available with other football teams singing Christmas songs. The covers look exactly the same except for the change in title. What I'm wondering is, did they actually get each team to sing, record, and release their own album, or did they just get a huge group of football players to record one album and release it with the different names? Another interesting thing is that in the song "Let It Snow" there's a solo by Lance Rentzel, who I believe played for the Cowboys when this album was released. If these songs were all done with one big group of guys, did they pick a member of each team to sing the solo in that song and put it on the appropriate team's album? Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, no matter what team you like!

Here's the track list:

1. Deck the Halls
2. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
3. Winter Wonderland
4. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
5. A Tropical Winter
6. Frosty the Snowman
7. Let It Snow
8. Jingle Bells
9. Auld Lang Syne

Click here or here to download!

Heidi the Pocketbook Doll - Adventures in Fairy Land

One way I'm sort of fudging on putting other records in with my Christmas ones is by saying that this album involves a toy that many little girls probably got for Christmas. Does that count?

This is an odd little album that involves a doll named Heidi visiting a lot of different fairy tale characters, and even though these are all characters that kids have grown to know, the stories still seem to revolve around the fast-talking Heidi and the Jeep she drives. In fact, for extra giggles, every time she mentions her Jeep, say "Sold separately" afterwards (like they always to on the commercials). You'll say it a lot!

The back of the album shows pictures of some of the other accessories you can get for Heidi to help make her life complete. Somehow, captioning the bathroom set with the sentence "Oodles of boudoir glamour for little girls!" just sort of creeps me out.

Anyway, enjoy these delightful adventures of Heidi the Pocketbook Doll and her Jeep (sold separately).

Click here or here to download!

UPDATE: If you want a literal dose of Heidi the Pocketbook Doll and Christmas, than you can get a copy of Heidi's "The Night Before Christmas" album here at Ernie (Not Bert)!

The Year Without a Santa Claus - Boris Karloff, Narrator

Here's Boris Karloff narrating one of your favorite Christmas stories that was later turned into a cool animated special and a not nearly so good live-action remake! No, not the Grinch. (We've already got Zero Mostel doing that one.) This is the story of "The Year Without a Santa Claus" which, I must admit, I didn't realize was a story before the animated version came out. You may be disappointed to find out that, even though the basic story is the same, the stop-motion animated special we know and love added quite a bit to the story. There's no Heat Miser or Snow Miser here, no Jingle or Jangle the Elf, no Mother Nature, not even Mrs. Claus. The only characters I think the two have in common are Santa and the little boy named Ignatius Thistlewhite. This also features some other Christmas songs by a number of different artists, but the best part is hearing Karloff's dulcet tones telling us another Christmas story.

The bottom of the cover states that this is "Presented for the holiday pleasure of young and old by the E.F. MacDonald Incentive Company, 1968". I don't know if that means it was a special giveaway or what. I'd never heard of this album myself until a few months ago. I was looking around online for more info, when I found that Max at "Drunken Severed Head" had featured this album on his blog last year. He has some great background information about the story and the album and, with his kind permission, he's allowed me to link you up to it here. His link to the album no longer works though, so I in turn gave him permission to link over here to me! Isn't the Internet swell? Thanks, Max!

Here's the track list:

1. The Year Without a Santa Claus - Boris Karloff
2. The Christmas Waltz - The Lettermen
3. Old Toy Trains - Glen Campbell
4. Don't Forget to Feed the Reindeer - Peggy Lee
5. The Little Drummer Boy - Al Martino
6. I Sing Noel - Sandler and Young
7. Jingle Bells - Roger Wagner Chorale

NOTE: This has now been released on CD (with different songs included). You can get it by clicking the link below!

A Christmas Album for the Whole Family - Music & Lyrics by Frank di Silvestro

Hi! Sorry about the delay in getting something new on here. (Again.) I'm afraid I don't have enough Christmas albums to get me through the month, even starting now. So I'll sprinkle a few Christmasy things along with some other stuff.

This is sort of an unusual album. I bought it (still sealed) at Goodwill for a quarter. That cover is just all over the map, isn't it? The songs on this album are all composed by Frank Di Silvestro, and sung by two young ladies and a girl who solo on the different songs. The music itself sounds all synthesized. And the songs...well, the songs just don't sound quite right to me. It's not the performances; they're all fine. I think it's Frank's writing. Sometimes there's a wonky attempt at a rhyme. Often a line will have three or four extra syllables so it doesn't quite scan right. Give it a listen and see what you think.

All three singers list a number of generic credits (performing in commercials and/or soaps), but Meg Bussert actually has a pretty decent resume. She's performed on Broadway in "Camelot" with Richard Harris, among other things. And she's now a full-time Professor at NYU, teaching Acting and Theatre Studies. I would certainly call her the best one on this album, even managing to pull off different sounding vocals on "I'm Little Miss Christmas". Meanwhile, the most interesting thing I've found that Frank Di Silvestro has done is write a book called "Boy Jesus and His Dog".

Anywho, I've got a few more Christmas albums coming soon in the mix, so enjoy this!

Here's the track list:

1. When Mrs. Claus Plays Piano - Denyse St. George
2. Silver Bell, the Heavenly Reindeer - Meg Bussert
3. Toy Heaven - Kristy Graves
4. The Rockefeller Center Tree - Meg Bussert
5. I'm Little Miss Christmas - Meg Bussert
6. I Love Christmas in New York - Meg Bussert
7. Ice Dancing - Meg Bussert
8. Christmas Carousel - Meg Bussert
9. Mrs. Claus Is Special Too - Meg Bussert
10. On Christmas I'll See Lots of Snow - Meg Bussert
11. Blitzen & the Caribou Fell in Love - Denyse St. George
12. The Christmas Rose - Kristy Graves
13. We Are Children Who Love to Sing - Kristy Graves
14. Sam the Snowman & Flo the Snowwoman - Meg Bussert
15. I Dreamed I was in Christmasland - Denyse St. George

Click here or here to download!

BONUS: Here's a clip of Meg Bussert as Queen Guinevere in a revival of Camelot:

Be a Train - Selma Rich Brody

Selma Rich Brody strikes again! Here's a fun album that's all about pretending you're a train, and the different adventures you can have. On the back of the album cover (and included with this download) is a train hat you can cut out and wear, if you need a bit more motivation (or loco-motivation if you will). Anyway, hope you enjoy this!

Here's the track list:

1. Rollo the Railroad Train
2. Train School
3. Mountain Train
4. I'm a Train
5. Chugga Chugga Choo Choo
6. Little Train That Caught a Cold
7. Mail Train
8. Happy Train Song
9. I Got a Train for My Birthday
10. Rollo the Railroad Train

Click here or here to download!

OGF Wisdom for December

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Here's your Prof. Otis G. Firefly wisdom for December, right on time (because I'm putting it in in August)! Enjoy!!

This concludes the monthly words of wisdom from "Prof. Otis G. Firefly's Phantasmagoric Almanac". I hope you all enjoyed it! I'll try to think of something else for a running gag for next year.

By Henry Gibson

This is another case of a comedian making an album that gets re-released after they get popular years later. Gibson, in case you don't recall, hit it big on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", best known for the funny poems he would recite. He does a lot of that here too, but I think here he seems more like a charming (if slightly odd) young country boy. It's still a pretty interesting album to listen to though. Hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. How to Write a Poem
2. The Alligator
3. Why I Like Soap
4. The Newspaper
5. How to Skin a Polecat
6. How Now, Calpurnia
7. The Feather
8. Here Today--Gone Tomorrow
9. A Little Bit About Myself
10. How to Take Care of the Plum Tree
11. Happiness Can Be Yours for Little or No Money
12. Reflections of New York: Broadway/I Fell Down the Subway
13. The Coyote
14. Two Functional Poems: A Birthday/The Wedding
15. Education Is Important
16. What Freedom Means to Me in 25 Words or Less
17. Why I Like Poetry

Click here or here or here to download!

Popeye Song Folio - Captain Paul and the Seafaring Band

I like this one a lot, even though it's a Popeye album without Popeye on it! This album from 1959 apparently features songs from old Popeye cartoons, as performed by Captain Paul and the Seafaring Band. Was Captain Paul a children's host that showed Popeye cartoons on his show? I don't know myself, but one of you guys might be able to answer that. I kind of wish they would have sprung for the expense of an actual cover, instead of simply reprinting what I assume is a Popeye Sunday strip from the year before. I think (like "Yours Truly" says on the back cover) that one of my favorites is the song "I Wanna Be a Life Guard", but there's a lot of fun stuff on here (even if Popeye isn't singing it).

Here's the track list:

1. I'm Popeye the Sailor Man


2. The Looney Goon


3. Olive Oyl's Family Reunion


4. I Wants What I Wants When I Wants It


5. The Land of Popeye


6. I'm Sindbad the Sailor


7. Sing a Song of Popeye


8. I Wanna Be a Life Guard


9. Hamburger Mine


10. Popeye on Parade


11. Strike Me Pink Do I See Red


12. I'll Be Seein' Ya in the Movies

Click here or here or here to download!

BONUS: And now, straight from the Internet Archive, here's the Popeye cartoon that features the song "I Wanna Be A Life Guard" called, oddly enough, "I Wanna Be a Life Guard"

"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" and Happiness Songs

This is a fun album of happy-type songs. (And why not, it's from Happy Time Records.) The thing I found so unusual about this album is that the front cover is exactly like you see above, just a cute picture of this little boy with nothing to identify what the record inside was and what songs were on it. In fact, the title "'You're a Good Man Charlie Brown' and Happiness Songs" was the only identification of the contents on the record label itself. (The individual songs weren't listed.) I went online to see if I could get more information about the actual album. Imagine my surprise when I saw a picture of this record that's somebody's selling on Amazon.com:



This album lists most (but not all) of the songs on mine. And take a look in the bottom left corner. That's right, it's that same little boy. And you can tell it's from the same picture as mine because if you look at the right on my cover, you can see part of the little girl's hair next to him. Why was the cover redone? I have no idea, except for the fact that that picture of the boy makes me laugh for some reason. (Maybe because it looks like he's in the middle of yelling, "Play ball!!")

As for the songs themselves, this sounds like another patchwork job of songs from numerous sources. I like this version of "Sidewalks of New York" sung by kids that are really belting it out. I also have this exact same version of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" on another album (that just has songs from that show) that I'll probably dig up eventually. Anyway, take a listen. I think you'll enjoy this one!

Here's the track list:

1. You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown
2. Happy to Be Me
3. Hail Hail the Gang's All Here
4. Wishing Pond
5. The Candyland Merry Go Round
6. Big Rock Candy Mountain
7. The Sidewalks of New York
8. London Bridge
9. All Around the Mulberry Bush
10. One Two Buckle My Shoe
11. Nick Nack Paddy Whack
12. Pat-a-Cake
13. The Happy Polka

Click here or here to download!

Heeere's Amy! - Alison Arngrim as Amy Carter

This being Election Day in the US I had to throw one more political oriented album on here. This is Alison Arngrim (probably best known for playing Nellie Oleson on "Little House on the Prairie") portraying then First Daughter Amy Carter. It's pretty crazy, and I hope you like it, and don't forget to vote!!

Heeere's the track list:

1. Amy's Answering Service
2. Roots
3. Y'all C'mon 'a My White House
4. Amy Carter Superstar!
5. Medi-Kids
6. High Finance
7. Pickin' an' Strummin'
8. 18 1/2
9. Mammy Knows Best
10. Y'all C'mon 'a My White House II
11. Dear Diary
12. Cookies
13. Birds & Bees
14. Amy's Prayer

Click heeere or heeere to download!

OGF Wisdom for November

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Here's your Prof. Otis G. Firefly wisdom for November, right on time (because I'm putting it in in August)! Enjoy!!

At the Organ Grinder Vol. 2

Hey Gang! Sorry for taking a while to get something new on here, but school and work have been playing havoc with what little free time I have. Here's something odd to throw in here though. I don't know if Organ Grinder Pizza was a chain or not, but one of their primary features was their huge pipe organ. This album features some of the music played on that instrument. It's a pretty eclectic mix here (YMCA??), and I hope you like it!

Organ Grinder Pizza closed in 1996, but this site has some great pictures of the restaurant and their organ.

Here's the track list:

1. Chattanooga Choo Choo - Jonas Nordwall
2. Makin' Whoopee - Jonas Nordwall
3. The Hustle - Jonas Nordwall
4. May - Don Simmons
5. Pennsylvania 6-5000 - Don Simmons
6. You/Who? (Medley of 20's Hits) - Paul Quarino
7. Hands of Time - Paul Quarino
8. After the Lovin' - Paul Quarino
9. YMCA - Paul Quarino
10. Baby, Oh Where Can You Be? - Don Coxon
11. La Paloma Blanca - Russ Chilson

Click here or here to download!

BONUS: Here's a commercial for Organ Grinder Pizza!

OGF Zodiac for Oct. 17 - Dec. 31: Pistachio the Nut

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Here's where I fall in the Prof. Otis G. Firefly zodiac: under the dubious symbol of Pistachio the Nut! That seems strangely appropriate somehow...!

That concludes the zodiac portion of "Prof. Otis G. Firefly's Phantasmagoric Almanac". I hope you all enjoyed it!

OGF Zodiac for Oct. 16: Oleo the Butterfat-Fly

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Remember how I promised all of you born on October 16th a special surprise yesterday? Well, here it is. You've got your own zodiac symbol to yourself just like the October 15th kids! Isn't that lovely?

OGF Zodiac for Oct. 15: Polici the Insurance Salesman

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This sign of the Otis G. Firefly Zodiac is only for those born on October 15th. Is there anybody here born on that day? (If you were actually born on tomorrow's date, there's a special surprise for you. What is it? Well, you'll find out on your birthday!)

OGF Wisdom for October

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Here's your Prof. Otis G. Firefly wisdom for October, right on time (because I'm putting it in in August)! Enjoy!!