The Adventures of Little Orley - Uncle Lumpy with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians

Here's a fun album of adventures with a boy named Little Orley featuring some people you might be familiar with. First of all, there's noted bandleader Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, but that's not really who I mean. You'll notice that these stories are told and sung by Uncle Lumpy. He's credited on the back of the album as Lump Brannum. Still not ring a bell? Maybe you'll remember him better in the role he played later: Mr. Green Jeans on Captain Kangaroo's show. There's no date on this, but I'm thinking he did this before the CK gig. Either way, these are imaginative little stories that I think you'll enjoy. I think I've got another Little Orley album too, and I'll try to dig it up to put on the blog later.

Here's the track list:

1. Little Orley's Big Concert
2. Little Orley - His Adventures with the Parade
3. Little Orley - His Adventures with the Cloud
4. Little Orley and the Happy Bird
5. Little Orley and the Little Engine
6. Little Orley and the Bubble Gum
7. Little Orley and the Haunted House
8. Little Orley - His Adventures as a Worm

NOTE: It looks like these stories (and the stories on the other record I was going to put on here) are now available on CD! It looks like Amazon was showing them as out of print, but you can actually buy them direct at littleorley.com! You should do it too. They're fun stories you can share with your kids!

Let's Go to the Zoo

This one comes from the same people that brought you "Let's All Go to the Circus". This has more fun little songs, only this ones about zoo animals. Note the catchy but somewhat odd song "The Porcupine is Pining for His Pork". Hope you enjoy this one!

Here's the track list:

1. Come to the Zoo with Me
2. Strolling Thru the Zoo
3. The King of the Jungle
4. Monkey Business
5. The Elephant Song
6. The Hippopotamus Song
7. The Crocodile Song
8. Singing Tra La La La
9. The Happy Seal
10. The Leopard Song
11. The Porcupine Is Pining for His Pork
12. Strolling Thru the Zoo (Reprise)

Click here to download!

Disco Duck - The Kid Stuff Repertory Company

I'm not quite sure how I ended up with all these albums from The Kid Stuff Repertory Company. I probably got them in a box of albums I bought on eBay. I certainly didn't seek them out specifically!

As you might figure, since this is a disco album, they should do OK on this one. They get low marks on "Disco Duck", however, because the guy doing the duck voice is horrible. Couldn't they have borrowed Irwin the Disco Duck? At least he's SOMEWHAT intelligible! "Enjoy Yourself" isn't too bad, but then they do a disco version of "John Henry". Yes, really! The rest of the album they stick with kids' songs, and they're all right. You pretty much know what you're getting into here, so enjoy!

Here's the track list:

1. Disco Duck
2. Enjoy Yourself
3. John Henry
4. Kemo Kimo
5. Disco Medley (Greetings, Polly Wolly Doodle, Bill Groggin's Goat, Shortnin' Bread, Nine Pound Hammer, Who Did, Down by the Station)

Click here to download!

Animal Song Parade

Until I started actively collecting children's records to use for this blog, I never really realized how many kids' albums were basically clearinghouses for different songs from different sources. That doesn't necessarily mean that the songs are bad; just that it's a lot more variety than you'd tend to get from a group like the Little Golden Singers. I'm betting this is another hodgepodge, but at least this one gives a lot more information than many of the others. It's nice to know that there were orchestras used in all of these songs! Hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. The Little White Duck - Bob Hannon with Orchestra
2. Fuzzy Wuzzy (Wus a Bear) - Burt Taylor with Orchestra
3. Frog Went a-Courtin' - Peter Piper, Forty-Niners Quartet with Orchestra
4. (How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window - Patty McGovern with Orchestra
5. Ducks on Parade - The Forty-Niners Quartet with Ray Carter Orchestra
6. The Teddy Bears' Picnic - Peter Piper, Forty-Niners Quartet with Orchestra
7. Peewee the Kiwi Bird - Bob Hannon with Orchestra
8. Snoopy the Pussycat - Patty McGovern with Orchestra
9. The Bulldog on the Bank - The Forty-Niners Quartet with Ray Carter Orchestra
10. What Kind of an Animal Are You? - Burt Taylor with Orchestra

Click here to download!

The Alley Cat: Nursery Rhymes with the Teen Dance Beat of Today - The Mod Moppets

For kids in the sixties that wanted to be cool and parents who wanted to keep them tied to the children's classics, here's an album that probably didn't make either group happy! And how about that cover? Seriously, this is some jazzed-up versions of the songs that kids have been listening to for years. I don't know the dances that well, but for anybody who does, does this do a pretty good job in fitting the songs with them?


Here's the track list:

1. Alley Cat Dance
2. The Frug - Old MacDonald
3. The Swim - Row Row Row Your Boat
4. The Jerk - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
5. Hokey Pokey
6. The Shake - Farmer in the Dell
7. The Monkey - On Top of Old Smokey
8. Mexican Hat Dance
9. Watusi - A Tisket, A Tasket
10. Cha-Cha - Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?

Click here to download!

King Friday XIII Celebrates in Misterogers' Neighborhood of Makebelieve

This album comes to us courtesy of Tim at The Neighborhood Archive. I know lots of people will be putting up stuff about Jason Voorhees or other scary stuff to coincide with it being Friday the 13th. Not me! Today we feature Mister Rogers (back at a time when he spelled his name as one word) and the adventures of Daniel Striped Tiger, X the Owl and the rest of the neighborhood out to celebrate King Friday XIII's birthday (which is on Friday the 13th naturally). Tim does a much better job of describing what's on this album than I could, so let me refer you to the details here. There are a few unavoidable skips in this album, but this is such a rare find I feel that it's worth putting up as is. Thanks again to Tim for donating the file for this album. Take a look at his great Mister Rogers site when you get a chance!

Here's the track list:

1. Misterogers' Invitation
2. I Like You As You Are
3. Then Your Heart Is Full of Love
4. Looking for a Friend
5. Meow Meow Beautiful
6. Today Is New
7. Creation Duet
8. Find a Star
9. You've Got to Learn Your Trade
10. Prosperous Interval of Time
11. Kingly Gifts
12. Three Rodents with Defective Eyesight
13. Propel Propel Propel Your Craft
14. Tomorrow
15. Goodnight God

Click here to download!

The Wizard of Oz - The Hanky Pank Players

It's always interesting to hear what happens when stories we know pretty well get shortened up to fit on a record. Plot points come at you thick and fast. For example, in the case of this version of "The Wizard of Oz" they barely meet the Wicked Witch of the West before Dorothy dumps a bucket of water on her! This is also unusual in that there's a combination of songs from the movie and original songs as well. The originals are OK, but it's hard to beat the classics. The performances on this aren't too bad either. Enjoy!

Includes the songs "Over the Rainbow", "We're Off to See the Wizard", "Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead", as well as original songs "Cyclone", "The Emerald City", "Thank You Song", and "Humbug".

Click here to download!

Time to Tell Time - James King and the Golden Players

Here's another great album full of songs and stories to help you tell time by talking to the big hand and the little hand. It's especially good if your name happens to be "Hurford". Enjoy!

Click here to download!

Tales of Ragged Ann - Lois Sherman

This is Lois Sherman, who according to the liner notes, "appears daily on WJW-TV, Cleveland, as Ragged Ann, one of the most popular children's shows on the air". I never saw the show, but I hope she didn't do the entire show in that position! Why does she look like she's about to get her head chopped off? According to her, the adventures that Ragged Ann have are due to children putting her in their dreams. Way to blame the kids, R.A.! Anyway, this is certainly an unusual collection of stories. Anybody reading this remember seeing her on TV?

Here's the track list:

1. Ragged Ann and the Three Bears


2. Little Red Ragged Ann


3. Ragged Ann and the Seven Dwarfs


4. Irving the Mouse

Click here or here to download!

Scouting Breaks the Song Barrier - The Goodtimers

February is National Scouting Month, so in honor of that, here's an album of songs made for scouts for sing. Along with the traditional songs like "Kum Ba Yah" and "Down in the Valley" there's a couple of new ones too. My older brothers were scouts, but I never went that far. I was always too uncoordinated to do stuff like that (plus my brothers never seemed that crazy about it either). Hope you all enjoy this, and Happy National Scouting Month!

Here's the track list:

1. The Ecology Song
2. Three Jolly Fishermen
3. Down in the Valley
4. Paw Paw Patch
5. Kum Ba Yah
6. Uncle Sam He Saw the Moon
7. Michael Row the Boat Ashore
8. This Land Is Your Land
9. If You're Happy
10. When the Saints Go Marching In

Click here to download!