Chantmania

Did you hear about the two monks who became best friends?

They met by chants.

[RIMSHOT]

I use this (admittedly) corny joke to introduce this (also admittedly) corny concept for an album. Back in 1994 there was an unlikely hit record featuring a group of monks doing Gregorian chants. It was called "Chant" by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silas. Later the same year this album was released by the Benzedrine Monks of Santo Domonica (actually members of the group Big Daddy, featured here in an earlier entry). Unlike Big Daddy, this silly concept couldn't sustain an entire album. That's why there's such a short running time here. It's still fun though. Hope you like it!

(By the way, when I was trying to get more info about this album I was reminded that there was a VIDEO mockumentary released for Chantmania as well. I just got a copy of it off eBay. I'll let you guys know how it is when I get it!)

Here's the track list:

1. (Theme From) The Monkees
2. We Will Rock You
3. Losing My Religion
4. Smells Like Teen Spirit
5. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?
6. The Monks' Vow Of Silence

NOTE: This album is now available to purchase in mp3 format from Amazon.com. You can get it here!

The Three Stooges: Madcap Musical Nonsense at Your House

You know how I mentioned that "Howl Along with Huckleberry Hound" was one of the first albums I remember my brothers owning? Well, this was the other one. This one originally came out in 1959 and it features the Three Stooges: Larry, Moe, and (I'm sorry to say) Curly Joe. As opposed to their album "The Nonsense Songbook" where they simply sing songs as written, on this album they actually have adventures wherein they somehow end up singing their own versions of common songs (much like Dennis the Menace did on the album I featured here previously). It's a cute kids album, especially for people like me that grew up on it. Hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. We're Coming to Your House
2. The Concert
3. At the Baseball Game
4. Click Dart's Bandstand
5. Three Chipped Monks
6. Let's "Cut" a Record
7. Sing Along with Moe
8. At the Circus
9. The Toy Store
10. Goodbye, Auld Lang Syne!

UPDATE: I'm afraid I've been forced to remove my link for this, but you can buy the record from Amazon by following the link below!

...and you can find some of the cuts from this album on CD or mp3 by following this link below!

The Mighty Hercules (with bonus cut!)

Remember this cheesy cartoon from the early 60's? This is from a record based on it that originally came out in 1963 (and was re-released on CD in 2001). The odd thing is that even though there's pictures of the characters on the cover and the same people are used on the album itself, they don't use the same voices as the cartoon. Admittedly for characters like Newton the centaur that's a bit of an improvement, but it's still a strange thing to do. The best part about the show itself was the rousing theme song, and they don't even have the right version of that! However, I did add the real version of the theme song as a bonus track on the end. Hey, never let it be said that I don't take care of my peeps!

Here's the track list:

1. The Mighty Hercules Theme Song
2. Newton's Song
3. You Were Rich the Day You Were Born
4. You've Got to Be Strong
5. Tootle a Flute
6. Hercules (reprise)
7. You Can Do Anything You Want
8. The Kind of Man I Know You'll Be
9. A Bad, Bad Man
10. Newton's Song (reprise)
11. Hercules (finale)
12. The Mighty Hercules (real theme)

This album is now available to purchase in mp3 format from Amazon.com. You can get it here! (The exception to that is the actual theme song, which is available on this album here!)

The Best of Big Daddy

"While on a USO tour of Southeast Asia in 1959, Big Daddy was captured by Communist forces and held captive until the mid 80's at which time they were rescued by CIA forces and subsequently returned to the United States. While being held at Camp David for de-briefing, they were given sheet music of contemporary hit songs so that they could re-build their repertoire and get back to the only work they knew...making music. Of course, not having heard the evolution of Rock music during the quarter century they spent imprisoned in the jungles of Laos, they arranged and performed these songs the only way they knew how...in the classic styles of the 1950's."

This was the concept behind the group Big Daddy, as quoted from the liner notes of this out of print CD from 2000. These songs are taken from their two previous albums and two CD's, which I own as well. Unfortunately they're all out of print now. If you guys like this one, let me know and I'll see if I can make some of the others available. Give this one a try. I think you guys will really enjoy it.

By the way, you might notice something special about the last four cuts here. They were taken from Big Daddy's album "Sgt. Pepper's", where they re-recorded the entire Beatles album in 50's style. The song "A Day in the Life" actually takes on a whole new meaning here, and takes on a haunting effect towards the end.

Here's the track list:

1. Dancing in the Dark
2. Help Me Make It Through the Night
3. Super Freak
4. Little Red Corvette
5. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
6. Once in a Lifetime
7. Whip It
8. My Heart Will Go On
9. Eye of the Tiger
10. Every Breath You Take
11. Sukiyaki
12. Money for Nothing
13. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
14. With a Little Help from My Friends
15. When I'm Sixty-Four
16. A Day in the Life

Click here or here to download!

Micky Dolenz Puts You to Sleep

Hi again, Gang. First I'm bummed out again because Mondo Daddykin has once again decided to call it quits. He plans on starting up again when he's more confident with the file hosting environment. I hope it's soon. We miss you already, kimosabe.

However, I've decided to do my best to press on. Here's a neat out of print CD from 1991 featuring former Monkee Micky Dolenz. In it he's taken some pop and rock songs from the 60's and 70's and sings them like lullabies. On the surface you would think this is a parody album, but it's not. It's really very sweet and well-done. I think I'm going to put this one on tonight myself. After the hectic week I've had, I can use all the relaxation I can get!

Here's the track list:

1. Pillow Time
2. Dream A Little Dream
3. Beautiful Boy
4. Blackbird
5. Lullaby To Tim
6. Fool On The Hill
7. Good Night
8. St. Judy's Comet
9. The Moonbeam Song
10. Remember
11. Sugar Mountain
12. The Porpoise Song

This album is now available to purchase in mp3 format from Amazon.com. You can get it here!

Annette: A Musical Reunion with America's Girl Next Door

I've got some more records I want to make available here, but I'm having problems with them skipping. Anybody here have suggestions on how best to clean them? Until then, I've been looking through my CDs that are out of print to find things I think you guys might enjoy.

This was a 2 CD set originally released in 1993 and now out of print. This features songs from many a boy's crush in the 1950's and 60's, Annette Funicello. Included is her hits, songs from her movies (including "Back to the Beach"), and other songs from her 15(!) albums. Tragically, Ms. Funicello was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1987 and is still suffering with it today. This CD set is a fitting tribute to the happiness she has given to millions of people. I hope you like it.

Here's the track list:

Disc 1

1. Tall Paul
2. Don't Jump to Conclusions
3. It Took Dreams
4. Wild Willie
5. Lonely Guitar
6. First Name Initial
7. Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy
8. My Heart Became of Age
9. Amo Que Paso?
10. Train of Love
11. It's Really Love
12. Tell Me, Who's the Girl?
13. Strummin' Song
14. Hawaiiannette (Hawaiian Love Talk)
15. Pineapple Princess
16. Luau Cha-Cha-Cha
17. Song of the Islands
18. Italiannette
19. Please, Please Signore
20. Dream Boy
21. Mia Cara, Mia Amore
22. Lucky, Lucky, Lucky Me
23. O Dio Mio

Disc 2

1. Danceannette
2. The Rock-a-Cha
3. Rock-a-Polka
4. The Flapper Flip
5. The Rock and Roll Waltz
6. Mister Piano Man
7. I Can't Do the Sum
8. Just a Toy
9. The Parent Trap
10. Merlin Jones
11. The Monkey's Uncle (with the Beach Boys)
12. Walkin' and Talkin'
13. Beach Party Tonight
14. Blame It on the Bossa Nova
15. Jamaica Ska
16. Bikini Beach Party
17. Let's Twist Again
18. Surfer's Holiday
19. Stuffed Animal
20. Canzone D'Amore
21. Music! Music! Music!
22. How Will I Know My Love?
23. No Way to Go But Up
    
24. Annette (Featuring Frankie Avalon, Shelley Fabares, Paul Anka, and Tommy Sands)

Click here or here for Disc 1

and here or here for Disc 2!

Robin Hood Featuring Top Cat (and links to other HB Records)

Here's another record in the Hanna-Barbera collection. This one's a bit different than many of the others because Top Cat doesn't just tell the story of Robin Hood here. The story starts with TC and his gang of alley cats broke and starving as usual. Brain says they ought to do like Robin Hood does and take from the rich and give to the poor. Well, they reason, nobody's poorer than they are! They learn to shoot bows and arrows (sort of), but before they get much further they run into a couple of escaped bank robbers. It all turns into the old "pretend to rob a bank for the movie we're shooting only it's really an actual robbery" plot that it seems like every show did somewhere along the way. I won't tell you how it ends (as if you can't figure it out for yourself), but it's still fun. And these records love to throw some wacky songs in as well, so that's a bonus!

I admit I cheated on the cover illustration here. I used the HB Records cover when the version I have is actually the Peter Pan Records version. I believe the records themselves are the same, but the HB Records had MUCH better covers!

Since I typed it out for another one of my faithful readers, here's the track list:

1. Song: Top Cat
2. Story: Robin Hood (pt. 1)
3. Song: M-O-N-E-Y
4. Story: Robin Hood (pt. 2)
5. Song: Robin Hood
6. Story: Robin Hood (pt. 3)
7. Song: Dibble
8. Story: Robin Hood (pt. 4)
9. Story: Robin Hood (pt. 5)
10. Song: Buddies

Click here or here or here to download!

Also I had mentioned before that I was looking for copies of the other albums in this collection, and Dartman at "Dartman's World of Wonder" just recently put up the "Snagglepuss Tells the Story of the Wizard of Oz" here at

http://dartmansworldofwonder.blogspot.com/2006/07/heavans-to-emerald-city-wizards-and.html

Thanks, Dartman! Great blog you've got there. Keep it up!

One of the first ones I remember finding online was the "Monster Shindig with Super Snooper and Blabber Mouse" at

http://monster-shindig.blogspot.com/2006/03/joining-monster-shindig.html .

There's some great voicework by Paul Frees and June Foray on this one. Don't miss it!

Dennis the Menace Songs

This album is actually different than the one Mondo Daddykin loaded in a while back on his site. While this came out during the show's original run in 1960 you won't find any of the original show's cast here. Dennis is played here by a boy named Philip Fox who does kind of sound like Jay North. This is taken from a CD re-release from 1998 which is now out of print. In this album "Dennis mixes up his own words to 16 all-time favorite melodies" with these exceptions: Track 1 is the instrumental theme to the TV show, Track 15 is the vocal version of the theme (Betcha didn't know it had words, did you?), and Track 16 is a CD bonus track of an entirely different Dennis the Menace song sung by "Anne Lloyd and the Sandpipers with Bobby Neck as Dennis". That leaves 13 all-time favorite melodies which still ain't bad!

Here's the track list:

1. Mi Televizhun Song (Dennis the Menace Theme)
2. I'm Home!
3. My Mommy and Daddy
4. Margaret
5. Good Ol' Mr. Wilson
6. I HATE Liver
7. What Am I Gonna Do Today?
8. Is Someone in Trouble
9. Someday
10. I Hate Spelling
11. I Sure Love the Summertime!
12. Jeepers Dad
13. An Av'rage Day
14. I'm an Important Member of the Family
15. My Theme Song (vocal version)
16. Dennis the Menace Song (bonus track)

This album is now available to purchase in mp3 format from Amazon.com. You can find it here!

Daddy Dewdrop

Here's a bubblegum one-hit wonder for you. Daddy Dewdrop (Dick Monda) had a hit in 1971 with the song "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)", a song that was originally featured on the "Groovie Goolies" television show. However, before a Goolies album could be released, Monda put together a group of studio musicians to record his own version, which made it all the way to number 9. There's some other odd little bubblegum numbers here too. Hope you enjoy it!

Here's the track list:

1. Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)
2. 5-Card Stud
3. March of the White Corpuscles
4. Strike
5. John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith
6. Fox Huntin' (On the Week End)
7. Diggin' on Mrs. Jones
8. Abracadabra Alakazam
9. Johnny Do It Faster
10. Migraine Headaches

Click here or here to download!

Howl Along with Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear

Subtitled "The First of a Series of 478 Sing Along Albums", this is one of the first albums I remember my brothers owning. Since I was the youngest, I got the records they grew tired of. In fact, until I won this copy of it on eBay, I didn't even know what the cover looked like! As you can see from the picture, it's a pretty snazzy one. Almost like some sort of Huckleberry Hound cult or something! This originally came out in 1960, the year before I was born. My original copy was pretty well-scuffed, but this one's in nice shape. The cover says, "All voices by Sascha Burland with the 'Howlers' Choral and the 'Wailers' Orchestra. Written and directed by Sascha Burland." If Burland's doing Huck here, it sounds pretty good to my ears. His Yogi, however, sounds just like Quick Draw McGraw for some reason!

This is a sing along of popular public-domain songs sung more or less straight by a chorus. Huck and Yogi barely sing on it at all. They just talk between the songs (and Yogi doesn't even arrive until Side 2). There's also an orchestra leader that sounds a lot like Paw Rugg of Hillbilly Bears fame, and a kid named Orville that just says "Nee no nonny" when he talks. The big running gag here is when the chorus all have to turn the pages of their music at the same time, and they'll all miss a word while doing it. For example, in "You're a Grand Old Flag" they'll sing, "You're the emblem of the *FLIP* I love."

There's really too many songs to list here, but chances are if it didn't cost anything to use, it's here! Hope you like it!


Click here or here to download!

A Calendar of Happy Thoughts

I'm not sure what year this one came out, but I know my best friend had some of the songs on 45's. We especially enjoyed the song "Let Your Daddy Sleep on Sunday Morning" because his Dad was a preacher!

You may have heard some of these songs scattered around the Internet, particularly the song "The Bathroom" (which asks the musical question, "Do you have a bathroom problem in your house?") These are some fun songs and stories, and even though it says 30 children's songs on the album I only counted 27 tracks. Oh well. I couldn't get the back cover to come out very well, so here's what it says about the songs presented here. The ellipses (You know, the dot dot dot's) are theirs:

...30 original songs and stories...a "fun" adventure in learning and understanding. The music and lyrics of Selma Rich Brody are chock-full of happy and positive messages for every day...performed in a tuneful, entertaining and motivating manner. It's the nicest way to give your youngster a real head start...and a lifetime of memories, too!

I don't really understand why the word "fun" is in quotation marks. Perhaps this piece was written by Finger Quotin' Margo of "Apartment 3-G" fame. (Find out more about her and other wacky comic strip commentary at http://joshreads.com/ and tell them Tony at "Way Out Junk" sent you!)

Here's the track list:

1. Special Expression Song
2. The Milkmaid and Her Pail
3. The Honest Lumberjack
4. The Pet Song
5. When Mother Calls
6. Your Mouth Is a House
7. Let Your Daddy Sleep on Sunday Morning
8. The Greedy Dog
9. Be Neat
10. When You've Had a Bath
11. The Bathroom
12. You Can Do Most Anything
13. Kindness & Consideration
14. Do Things Right
15. The Donkey & Salt Story
16. Your House Is a Wonderful Place
17. Your Mother & Father Are People Too
18. Your Brother & Sisters
19. Actions Speak Louder Than Words
20. Make Each Meal As Happy As a Party
21. Don't Put Off for Tomorrow What You Should Do Today
22. Listening Shows Very Good Manners
23. The Mouse & the Crow
24. When Your Friends Visit You
25. When You Visit Your Friends
26. The Tortoise & the Hare
27. Do Things Right

Click here or here to download!

Father Guido Sarducci: Breakfast in Heaven

This is Father Guido Sarducci's second album, and I think it's one of my favorite "undiscovered" comedy albums. I've talked to people who remember Father Guido's first album ("Live at St. Douglas Convent") with its bits about the Fifteen Minute University and literally "paying for your sins" when you die, but few people know about this album, and it's a shame because it really is a good one. This is a performance that took place at the University of Notre Dame in 1986, and here's some of the topics covered:

The pros and cons of singing about beer on buses
The History, Folklore, and Myth of the country of Doo Dah
The missing commandments
And even a medley of Beatles' tunes!

But my favorite bit on this album by far is the one about the candles on birthday cakes. This alone is worth the price of admission (which for you is free, but you know what I mean).

Anyway, download this one. I think you'll like it.

Click here or here or here to download!

S.A.S.F.A.T.P.O.G.O.B.S.Q.A.L.T.

I have a confession to make. I was once a proud member of S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. That's the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America. We had a barbershop chorus in high school. I even sang with a local chorus group until other commitments kept me from continuing. I still love the music though. A well-placed D7 chord can give me goosebumps.

Bill Hanna (of Hanna-Barbera fame) was also a barbershopping fan, and that leads us to this record from 1966. "The Flintstones in: S.A.S.F.A.T.P.O.G.O.B.S.Q.A.L.T." which stands for "Stone Age Society For Aiding The Preservation Of Good Old Barber Shop Quartets...And Like That". The story is that the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes are sending their best barbershop group, the Neanderthal Notables, to a championship competition when their star bass, Honeytones Jones, has to get his tonsils out. Fred volunteers to take Jones' place, but he sings horribly. However, he finds out he can sing beautifully, but only when he's in the shower. Sound familiar? This plot bears some similarities to the episode "The Flintstones Canaries" where Barney has a similar problem. This is a lot of fun, and has a few barbershop songs spread throughout. It's a bit disappointing that they don't change any words in the songs to reflect the prehistoric setting, but it's still some awful purty singing.

Even though this album says it features the Flintstones, the only regular characters here are Fred and Barney. The odd thing is that their voices weren't done by Alan Reed and Mel Blanc. Fred was performed by Henry Corden, which sounds normal to our ears since he took over the part of Fred when Reed died in 1977. Barney was actually performed by Daws Butler, who ends up sounding a lot like Yogi Bear here, which makes sense since both Barney and Yogi were patterned after Ed Norton on "The Honeymooners". Come to think of it, I've never seen Yogi and Barney together at the same time. Hmmmm, makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Click here or here or here to download!

The Electric Company Times Two!

If you grew up in the early 70's you might remember "The Electric Company". Started in 1971 by the Children's Television Workshop, "The Electric Company" was designed to teach reading skills to 7-10 year olds by using skits, animation and songs. However, the show was so entertaining that it appealed to all ages. I was 10 when it started and even though I had no trouble reading I still watched it religiously. The case featured veteran performers Bill Cosby and Rita Moreno as well as an up-and-comer named Morgan Freeman. Earlier this year a box set of "The Best of the Electric Company came out and comes highly recommended by me.

This first album, "Songs from the Electric Company TV Show" was released by Disneyland Records in 1973. This is definitely NOT the original cast. I feel like they jazzed up the songs too much. It also didn't help that they messed up the first line in the theme song. (Instead of "We're gonna turn it on!" they sang "Get on!") Taken on its own it's not bad, but it doesn't hold a candle to the original.

Which brings us to our second album. All the original cast is on this one from 1974, along with Mel "Who's the dummy writing this show" Brooks and Victor "Pronounced Pronunciation" Borge. There is some overlap between the two, which makes comparing and contrasting fun, particularly on the song "Easy Reader". The guy on the "Songs from..." album can't come anywhere near the great Morgan Freeman's rendition, even if he is a "reading freak"!

Here's the track list for both albums:

Songs from the Electric Company TV Show (Disneyland Records)
1. Electric Company Theme
2. Sign Song
3. My Name Is Kathy
4. Old Double E
5. Punctuation
6. Easy Reader
7. Hard Hard Hard
8. An Un Song

Click here or here to download it!

The Electric Company (Original Cast)
1. Electric Company Theme
2. Giggles Goggles
3. Easy Reader
4. Silent E
5. Be Kind to the Letter S
6. Hard Hard Hard
7. Sign Song
8. A Mysterious Phone Call
9. D
10. Punctuation
11. Jennifer of the Jungle
12. The Clown Song
13. The Clam Song
14. Fight Song
15. Electric Company March
16. Your Rich Uncle Died

And click here or here to download it!

I've redone the pictures for this entry, but the ones included with the file are still the old blurry ones. Just right-click on each picture and do a "Save picture as..." and you're good to go!

Rerun Rock

Well, I've more or less got my Rapidshare problems taken care of. The last thing I tried uploading actually did work. It just went to the free section instead of to my Premium uploads. It's still not working well from my computer, but it's fine from my wife's laptop, so we'll go with that for now.

Anyway, our next share also comes from 1989 (like the Gumby album). In that year, a single came out of the Flintstones theme as if it was done by Bruce Springsteen (or "Springstone" as the case may be). From there somebody (I'm guessing Robert Aguayo because he is credited with producing and arranging the rest of these songs) thought it would be fun to do more TV theme songs seemingly performed by other famous people. Thus the concept of this album. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the combinations, which is where the concept slips a bit. It's still good for a few chuckles though. Somehow, Michael Jackson singing the theme from Rawhide seems even more appropriate now than it did back then!

Here's the list of titles and the performer that the song is done "in the style of" :

1. (The Ballad of) Gilligan's Island - Rap (After all, all rap is alike, right??)
2. The Patty Duke Theme (Cousins) - Bob Dylan
3. Casper the Friendly Ghost - Elvis Presley
4. The Yogi Bear Song - The Cars
5. George of the Jungle - Led Zeppelin
6. The Addams Family - Frank Sinatra
7. Rawhide - Michael Jackson
8. I Married Joan - Jimi Hendrix
9. The Brady Bunch - James Brown
10. Bedrock Rap-(Meet) The Flintstones - Bruce Springsteen

One interesting footnote: Elvis Presley is done by Jess Harnell, cartoon voice artist probably best known for playing Wakko on Animaniacs.

Click here or here or here to download!

Special Thanks and Preview of Coming Attractions!

First of all, I want to say a big Thank You to Ben at These Records are BenT! for linking over to here (and for the confidence booster starting out), and to Mondo Daddykin for the very complimentary recommendation on his site. I see these guys as an inspiration for what I want this blog to become, and their support (and yours) mean a lot to me. Plus hopefully this will be the metaphorical kick in the pants I need to get some new stuff here.

I was hoping to have something new to share up here yesterday, but Rapidshare chose that day to be ornery to me. Everything seems to be OK now, so as soon as it finishes uploading, I'll try to get a new share on here. Until then, here's some things you have to look forward to:

• A double jolt from the Electric Company
• A pack of Hounds of the Huckleberry variety
• Three Stooges for the price of one
• A horse in gym shorts

All that and much much more coming soon to a blog near you! (Well, this one actually.)

Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Rapidshare is still giving me problems. Does anybody here have any other suggestions as to where I can upload stuff?