EXCITING NEWS!!! (as in "WRITING IN ALL CAPS" EXCITING!!)

Hey Gang! Believe it or not, I'm still around. I've been working on getting stuff together, when I saw that Blogger is now offering the option of Scheduling Posts. That means I can make a blog entry for July 4th now and schedule it to not appear before then.

So I got to thinking. What would be a good way to see if scheduling posts on Blogger really works? This is what I came up with. Starting Monday March 24th I will have a new album post to this blog every day this week! The nice thing about this is that I can work on and post a lot of stuff at once and spread it out to appear over a longer period of time. Can I keep up this frantic pace? Are you kidding? But I can guarantee (if the Scheduled Posts function works on Blogger) that there will be one new album each day from March 24th through March 30th. I've even got enough to go 2-3 albums a week for the next couple of weeks after that. This is my way of saying Thank You to all of you who have stuck around with me through some lean times on the blog. (And thanks to faithful readers John, Jon, and Bob for contributing albums that you'll be seeing soon!)

So phone the kids and wake the neighbors (or the other way around if that works better for you)...

WAY OUT JUNK NEW ALBUM WEEK STARTS MONDAY MARCH 24TH!!

OGF Wisdom for March

And here's your Prof. Otis G. Firefly wisdom for March!

Click the pic to blow it up real good.



Yeah, I know these may be a poor substitute for all the records I was putting on before, but I wanted to have SOMETHING on here to make up for school taking up most of my free time. I've got one album almost ready to put up here, so I'll try to get it on here by the weekend. (And if all goes well, I may even get a second album on here by then too!)

Thank you all (or at least all of you that are left) for your patience!

OGF Zodiac for Feb. 30 - Mar. 17: Chunkus the Jar of Peanut Butter

Here's your next sign in the Otis G. Firefly zodiac: Chunkus!

Click the pic to make it bigger!

The Amazing Adventures of Little Batman

What if you filmed the Batman TV show with a cast of little kids?

If you did it well, it would look a little something like this....



Here's Part 2 where the action really starts picking up, including a tribute to a famous scene from the Batman movie:



And Part 3 with a special guest appearance!



Hope you liked it! WAH WAH WAH!!!

More TV Storytime with Tom and Jerry

Here are six stories of Tom and Jerry as narrated by Bret Morrison. It's a bit odd to put together a record of two cartoon characters who don't even talk, but it's still a neat old record (even if they do throw in a squeaky voice every so often). One thing I like about this one is the record cover. What's up with Tom's eyes? It looks like he's been hypnotized or something. I also love that TV the kids are using in the photograph. This record's not dated, but going by that TV it looks like this was done in the late 50s or early 60s. Anybody got an idea on this?


Here's the track list:

1. Tom and Jerry and the Fire Engine
2. Tom and Jerry and the Rocketship to the Moon
3. Tom and Jerry in the Wild West
4. Tom and Jerry Down on the Farm
5. Tom and Jerry Meet Santa Claus
6. Tom and Jerry Find Aladdin's Lamp

Click here or here to download!

OGF Wisdom for February

Click on the pic to make it bigger...

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT- - PLEASE READ BEFORE DOWNLOADING!!

Hey Gang!

I didn't mean for that to sound so ominous, but I just wanted to get your attention. I'm in the process of reorganizing and changing up some of my links. This will mean that some of the links will give you an error message when you attempt to download them. I know it's happening; you don't have to tell me about it. If that happens to you, try one of the other links on that entry. If, however, NONE of the links work for a specific entry, please do let me know that so I can get it fixed. You can either email me at the address in my profile or simply leave me a message here. It'll probably take me a while to get to them all, but I will do the best I can. Also I don't want my messing with old links to take time I could spend putting new albums up here for you.

Thanks for reading this. I hope it alleviates any problems that might come up.

Tony
Way Out Junkmeister

The Unicorn - The Peter Pan Pop Singers and Orchestra

This one’s a bit odd. (I know that’s a shock coming from me!) It was made in the U.S., but I don’t think it was made FOR the U.S. I mean, it’s got a number of hits from around 1968-69, but then it has stuff like “Waltzing Matilda” and “Molly Malone”. Were these songs all popular around the same time somewhere? Another fun thing is that the Peter Pan Pop Singers tend to sing all the songs in a sort of pop/march tempo. It’s works OK for some of the songs, but on others (like "The Mighty Quinn") it sounds a bit off.

Finally, I’d like to point out the very nice cover on this album. It’s not signed, but I know that George Peed did a number of Peter Pan’s album covers. I think it might be him, but I don’t know for sure. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one!

Here’s the track list:

1. The Unicorn

2. Half a Sixpence

3. Molly Malone

4. 76 Trombones

5. Up Up and Away

6. Simon Says

7. Waltzing Matilda

8. Green Tambourine

9. The Mighty Quinn

10. Tip Toe Thru the Tulips

Click here or here to download!

OGF Zodiac for Jan. 15 - Feb. 29: Splices the Square Knot

(Click pic to make big)

Here's the next in the Otis G. Firefly Zodiac. Enjoy!

How Much Is That Doggie in the Window and More Songs About Your Favorite Dogs

This album is different from my other "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" album. This one has a lot of fun songs each about a different breed of dog "mostly written by Cy Coben" (which I assume means he wrote all the songs on this album except for "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window"). I had a reader looking for this album under a different title. I need to go through my email and see if I can find him. If you're that person, let me know!

Anyway, hope you like this!!

Here's the track list:

1. How Much Is That Doggie in the Window
2. Overture and Introduction
3. Chihuahua (Cha Cha Cha)
4. Great Dane
5. Cocker Spaniel
6. The Terriers
7. German Shepherd
8. I'm a Dachshund
9. The Hunting Dog (Retriever, Setter, Springer)
10. St. Bernard
11. Just Plain Dog
12. Pekinese
13. Dalmatian
14. Boxer
15. Collie
16. Les Poodles
17. Boston Bull (Now How Come There Is No Dog Day?)
18. Take a Bow-Wow-Wow

UPDATE: This album is now available (under the title "Dog Songs") in mp3 format from Amazon.com! You can get it here.

OGF Zodiac for January 1-January 14: Boarus the Warthog

(Click pic to embiggen!)

Sorry I got this information to you late, Boaruses, especially considering when it says your lucky part of the year is!

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this!

To read more about Prof. Firefly, read my original entry about the book here.

OGF Wisdom for January

(Click on the picture to make it bigger.)

Here's the first entry about January. I probably won't say much about these. Not because I don't like them, but because I don't think I can compete! Enjoy!

To learn more about Prof. Firefly, see my original entry here.

Otis G. Firefly's Phantasmagoric Almanac and Calendar

I was one of those kids who read a lot when I was in school, mostly comic books and silly stuff. One of the things I enjoyed the most was ordering books from the Scholastic Book Club. I'd always get the latest Dynamite magazine (and later Bananas magazine) and whatever other interesting stuff struck my fancy. This unusual book became one of my favorites. I was doing some cleaning and came across it again, so I thought I'd share some of it with you. Prof. Firefly has his own crazy zodiac and information and words of wisdom about each month. I'll put this info up (more or less) when it comes up during the year. This may help you understand where some of my bizarre sense of humor comes from! Look for the first entry shortly!

Annie's Christmas

Sorry to get this out so late. I figure that some people may still do part of their Christmas celebrating this weekend, so I'll slide this holiday album out to you. This features the same cast as "Keeping Fit with Annie", but also includes the character of Miss Hannigan. (She was never in the comic strip, was she?) A couple of crooks plan on stealing money from the orphanage, but Annie, Sandy, and the gang all come to the rescue.

I've actually got a couple more Christmas albums coming my way. Depending on how late I get them, I'll either get them up here as soon as I can put them together or I'll wait until next year to get them up here. I hope everybody had (or will continue to have) a wonderful Christmas!

Click here or here to download!

Merry Christmas from Me and Bob Hope!

Hey, here's the last cut from "Hope for the Holidays" celebrating Christmas. And look, I put it in on exactly December 25th (at least, that's what future generations will think! SHHHHH!!!)


Click here or here to download!

The Small One: A Christmas Musical for Young Voices

Here's another Christmas album for you. This is a musical version of the story "The Small One", as sung by the Jay Stream Singers of Carol Stream, Illinois. The basic story is that a little boy is forced to sell his troublesome donkey (who is also his friend). He has no luck until he finally gets to sell it to Mary and Joseph. The donkey carries Mary who is great with child, as they say. And of course, this is the same Mary who gives birth to Baby Jesus. (Oops, should I have thrown a Spoiler Alert in here??)

Anyway, as pleasant as this album was, it was all about the pictures for me. First of all, somebody wrote "Discard" in big letters using black marker on the front cover and there was a big sticker in the top right corner that I couldn't get off. This was my first experience using Microsoft Paint to get rid of the incriminating evidence. I think I did OK for a rookie, don't you?

Secondly, take a look at the back cover here:



See this young guy in the ruffledy shirt?



I saw that and joked to myself, "Hey, it looks like they got 'Dukes of Hazzard' star John Schneider to perform on their album!"

Then I glanced down at the credits:



Yep, that's really him! I think he performed the voice of David's father and later sang the Auctioneer's Song. (In fact, I seem to think for some reason I might have heard him sing that song somewhere else. At a telethon perhaps?) This album was copyrighted 1977 and "Dukes of Hazzard" started on TV in January 1979, so this may have been one of the last performances Schneider did before he started working on the show.

OK, enough talk. Enjoy the album! (By the way, the story and songs were intermixed so the track breaks are somewhat arbitrary.)

Here's the track list:

1. Introduction
2. Destiny
3. That's the Way It Is with Friends
4. I'll Whistle
5. The Auctioneer's Song
6. Would You Like to Buy a Donkey?
7. That's the Way It Is with Friends (Reprise)
8. Miracles

Click here or here to download!

The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood

This is kind of an odd one. It was the soundtrack to a television Christmas special shown on ABC on Nov. 28, 1965. It takes the classic Little Red Riding Hood story and puts a Yuletide slant on it. And check out this cast list: British actor Cyril Ritchard (at that time known as the definitive Captain Hook from the musical "Peter Pan") as Lone T. Wolf; Liza Minnelli as Red Riding Hood; Sinatra-esque singer Vic Damone as the Woodsman; and the Animals (yes, as in "Eric Burdon and the") as the Wolf Pack. If you like Liza and Cyril, they have most of the songs here and, as would be expected, do a nice job on them. Unfortunately the Animals only have one song here, but it's a fun one nevertheless. I don't know how much the special focused on the Christmas connection, but only three of the songs here reference it. So while I'd call this one only tangentially related to Christmas, I'm counting it anyway!

Hey, I just found out that this special was recently released to DVD, and you can get a copy of it here!

Here is the track list:

1. Overture - Orchestra
2. We Wish the World a Happy Yule - Cyril Ritchard and the Creatures of the Forest
3. My Red Riding Hood - Liza Minnelli
4. Snubbed - Cyril Ritchard
5. Woodman's Serenade/Granny's Gulch/Along the Way - Vic Damone and Liza Minnelli
6. I'm Naive - Liza Minnelli
7. Red Riding Hood Improvisation (Ballet) - Orchestra
8. I'm Naive (Reprise) - Cyril Ritchard
9. We're Gonna Howl Tonight - The Animals
10. Ding-a-Ling Ding-a-Ling - Liza Minnelli and Cyril Ritchard
11. Poor Mouse (Ballet) - Orchestra
12. Granny/Along the Way (Reprise) - Liza Minnelli, Cyril Ritchard, and Vic Damone
13. We Wish the World a Happy Yule - Cast

Click here or here to download!

The Little Drummer Boy - The Ambassador Chorale and Players

Hi! Here's a Christmas album for you. Hopefully nobody has put this one up yet. Except for the title track, all the rest of the songs here are original. This one's a mixture of some silly songs and some rather serious ones as well. Anyway, here it is and I hope you like it!

Here's the track list:

1. The Little Drummer Boy
2. The Twenty-Fifth of December
3. Christmas on the Farm
4. A Little Girl's Flute Song
   
5. Grandfather Clock
6. The Chimney and the Fireplace
7. Christmas Lullaby
8. The Jolly Gent Who Jingles
9. A Doodle-Oodle Christmas Song
10. A Shepherd Boy's Carol
11. The Angels Merry Christmas
12. Christmas Rush

Click here or here to download!

(NOTE: Links have been fixed. The original link wasn't playing "Little Drummer Boy" as the first track.)

Feeling Good with Annie

I'm getting behind on posting albums again, and I apologize for that. Work and school are still keeping me pretty busy.

Here's a crazy one that came out not long after the movie "Annie". In it Annie and the gang learn about exercising from door-to-door exercise guru Professor Fitness. Things get strange though when they try to invite him to a special charity ball in the city, and he says he can't go because the police want to arrest him! Anyway, things get straightened out (Did you have any doubt?) and the Professor (and the No Flab Revue) leads everybody in learning a new dance called"The Annie" (which is basically move your feet however you want to and say "I'm special". Not very helpful, is it?). The album includes disco instrumental versions of "Easy Street", "Maybe", and "Tomorrow" played during the story. This one's pretty crazy, but that's what you get for taking exercise tips from a kid with no eyeballs!

Click here or here to download!

Happy Thanksgiving from me and Bob Hope!

Another cut from "Hope for the Holidays", this one in honor of Thanksgiving. Hear Bob Hope make jokes about Pilgrims, Indians, Bing Crosby, Jack Benny, Liberace, newspaper columnist Drew Pearson, and Republicans!

Happy Turkey Day everybody! (And don't worry. I've got another album to share coming up soon!)


Click here or here to download!