With the Batman: Arkham Asylum game coming out this week (for PS3, Xbox360 and PCs), I thought I’d throw out another Batman-related album for you. When the Batman TV show came out it seemed like you couldn’t swing a dead bat without hitting some sort of Caped Crusader tie-in, and record albums were no exception. Some were pretty good. Some, not so much. I’ll let you judge where this one falls.
This first song is the Bat Boys’ version of the Batman theme song. This really isn’t too bad, with a nice swinging organ solo.
I hope you liked the previous song because, despite the name Batman and all the sound effects on the album cover, absolutely nothing else on this album is remotely Batman related! There’s not even any name checking in the song titles. What the songs I picked from this album do have in common, though, is that they’re jazzed-up versions of classical tunes. The first, “Uppercut Blues,” borrows heavily from “Flight of the Bumblebee” (which was actually the Green Hornet’s theme song). The titles of these songs seem to be pretty random. You can maybe imagine people punching each other while listening to this song, but there’s nothing bluesy about the song at all!
If you were a child of the ’80s, you or somebody you knew probably owned a Cabbage Patch Kids doll. They were so popular that stores were inundated with customers wanting them at Christmas. (For those of you too young to remember, imagine the frenzy of the Tickle Me Elmo and the Nintendo Wii Christmases put together.) The album Cabbage Patch Dreams attempts to put together a storyline for these characters.
In the first song, a stork introduces the concept of the Cabbage Patch Kids, which somehow involve magic cabbages and bunny bee crystals. Don’t ask me to explain that. I don’t get it either.
You can’t have an adventure without a villain, and in this case we get three of them: Lavender McDade (your typical scary little old lady), Beau Weasel (a weasel), and Cabbage Jack, a rabbit who’s upset that his favorite food is being turned into babies and flirts precariously close to sounding like an African-American stereotype.
Zoom was a children’s show on PBS (or whatever they called PBS back then) from 1972 to ‘78. The big draw of the show was that it was for kids, by kids: you could write a story or play or any sort of interesting idea and send it in, and there was a chance the cast would perform it on TV. They also sang a lot on the show; Come On and Zoom is a collection of some of those songs.
Of course we have to start things off with the show’s peppy theme song. I may be wrong here, but I seem to remember somebody taking Zoom’s producers to task for the line “We’re gonna teach you to fly high,” citing it as a drug reference. I think they may have changed the lyric in later years, but here’s the original version:
Zoom was good at featuring songs that got stuck in your head, and “Piccolomini” was no exception: interspersed with some tongue twisters is the cast singing the word “piccolomini” over and over. It’s a bit annoying but very catchy (but why they’re singing about an Italian nobleman’s family in the 13th century is beyond me).
Here’s another album to go with the Superman and Batman ones I talked about earlier. Although they aren’t credited, these songs are most likely performed by the Merriettes again. This album features the entire Justice League. Unlike the Superman and Batman albums, this actually has songs and stories on it, but since we’re all about the music here, let’s take a listen to the songs.
We’ll start things off with the Justice League’s song. The line-up here is Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, Metamorpho, and Plastic Man. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that this particular incarnation of the Justice League never existed. In fact, I don’t think Plastic Man was ever in the League until a few years ago. I really like this song’s swinging organ accompaniment. Listen for the Justice League roll call: Wonder Woman sounds like a guy speaking in falsetto and Batman sounds like an old Jewish man!
This album also features a song about each of the individual heroes (except for Batman and Superman who, as you know, had their own records). Here’s the song about the Flash. Many of these songs seemed to work from a checklist: give the hero’s true identity, explain his power, and mention something special about him. The first verse is about how fast the Flash is; the second verse covers his real name (Barry Allen), that he works for the police, and that he keeps his Flash costume in a ring on his finger. What else do you need to know?
Here’s a wonderful record of songs featuring Batman and some of his DC Comics cast of characters, sung by a group called the Merriettes. Like the Children’s Treasury of Superman Musical Stories, each character gets two songs.
This first track has an intro reminiscent of the Batman TV show’s theme, which I would assume was the reason for the album in the first place. I did find one thing odd, though: on the show, I thought the Caped Crusader was always referred to as Batman, but on this record he’s always called the Batman. I know he’s called that occasionally, but I didn’t think it was happening yet in the ’60s.
Here’s the second song featuring (the) Batman. It’s a sprightly little tune, even though they sing about “When someone tries to plot a holdup or a killin’.” Yeah, I know they just used the word to have something to rhyme with “villain,” but that’s still a bit more intense than I’d expect on a children’s record!
The next song features Robin the Boy Wonder. (At least they don’t call him “the Robin.”) In this one they sing about all the amazing things Robin can do. Heck, if he’s “an acrobat, a pugilist, mechanic, wizard, and scientist,” what does he need Batman for? I do like the jazzy little instrumental break in the middle, though.
It’s Tony from Way Out Junk, and I’ve got another crazy one for you. Remember the high-pitched singing rodent craze started by Alvin and the Chipmunks and then all the rip-off groups that appeared afterward? This album is from the second renaissance of the Chipmunks, and features the Happy Hamsters. What’s their back story? Who knows? I don’t even know what their names are, or if they’ve got a human father figure or anything. Admittedly this is the Happy Hamsters’ second album, but I don’t think continuity is their strong suit here. Anyway, on to the songs!
Well, since this album is called The Happy Hamsters Go Ghostbustin’, you have to expect the song “Ghostbusters.” The singing isn’t that bad, all things considered. The problem is all the jabbering they do during the instrumental parts. It’s just a little bit here, but it gets worse, trust me!
Next, as a salute (?) to Michael Jackson, here’s “Thriller.” Again, the singing’s all right, and there’s not too much chatter this time. Extra points for including the Vincent Price part of the song as well. Of course, it does lose the effect hearing it done by three helium-filled voices.
This week’s Way Out Wednesday is dedicated to Popdose’s own D.W. Dunphy who left this comment on my very first post back in January: “When are we getting those Kid Stuff Pac-Man songs?” Well, today’s the day! This album is Pac-Man’s Amazing Adventures and it’s produced by Kid Stuff Records, whose records one site describes as sounding like “children’s music made in a condemned elementary school boiler room, under the influence of extremely heavy psychedelics.” Considering the subject of my previous entry, E.T. I Love You and Other Extraterrestrial Songs, was also from Kid Stuff, it’s hard to argue that point!
The story is wacky enough, but I’m highlighting the really oddball songs here. First we have the “Pac-Man Theme.” Remember that fun little ditty that used to play right before you started your game? How can you make that song sound annoying? How’s about making it sound like it’s playing on an old warped record? (more…)
Here’s a fun album from 1966 featuring songs sung about — and sometimes sung by — Superman and his DC Comics universe of characters. The original album features two songs each for Superman, gal pal Lois Lane, cub reporter Jimmy Olsen, extraterrestrial menace Mr. Mxyptlk, Superboy, and Superboy’s dog, Krypto. Here’s a few tracks to whet your appetite.
The first one is about “Superman,” so of course it has to talk about all the wonderful things he does in a wonderfully jazzy way.
Then there’s Lois Lane’s song “Busy Busy Busy,” where she sings about how she’s always hunting down the next big story. It sounds like a pretty good female-empowerment-type song until she says the biggest headline she’s after is becoming Superman’s wife!
Since they did a song for Lois, they had to do a song for Jimmy Olsen too. This one isn’t sung by Jimmy, but by Lucy Lane, who either had an unrequited crush on Jimmy or was his girlfriend. I don’t remember which.
Okay, this one’s just downright freaky. It’s supposed to be songs inspired by the movie E.T. However, you won’t hear any songs remotely like this in the movie itself!
The first song we encounter is the “E.T. Overture.” I thought they would have at least included a few bars from the movie theme, but no. This is more of an overture for the songs on the record, with some weird kid saying stuff like “Where did you come from? Another world?” in a dreamy, annoying voice.
Next we have the tender ballad “E.T., I Love You.” I still can’t figure out who’s supposedly singing these songs. Is it Elliott? Gertie? Some kid in the background they were saving for the sequel?
Now the tempo picks up with the song with “So Near and So Far,” a sort of Tiffany/Debbie Gibson lite kind of song. I’m not really sure what this has to do with E.T., though: “Were there really purple creatures? Did they look just like my teachers?” Huh? And is that the sound of a toilet flushing later in the song? Gotta love the robotic-sounding chorus! (more…)
Summer’s coming very soon, so I thought I put in this sweet treat for you. In 1964 there debuted a series of drink mixes called Funny Face. They had cool mascots like Goofy Grape, Loudmouth Lime, Rootin’ Tootin’ Raspberry, and more. They were even sugar free! How could a great idea like this go wrong? Well, the reason they were sugar free was that they were sweetened with cyclamates, which were eventually banned by the FDA because they caused cancer in rats. The drinks came back, sweetened with saccharine (which wasn’t declared a bad thing yet), but I don’t think they ever recovered, and so we’re left with Kool Aid. A freakin’ pitcher with a face drawn on it. He didn’t even have stubby arms and legs back then! Man, what were we thinking? I think we were coerced by Kool Aid spokespeople like Bugs Bunny and the Monkees.
Anyway, this record was a premium from Funny Face. It features all the Funny Face characters at the time singing songs about themselves. Let’s drink it in, shall we? (more…)
With the Batman: Arkham Asylum game coming out this week (for PS3, Xbox360 and PCs), I thought I’d throw out another Batman-related album for you. When the Batman TV show came out it seemed like you couldn’t swing a dead bat without hitting some sort of Caped Crusader tie-in, and record albums were no exception. Some were pretty good. Some, not so much. I’ll let you judge where this one falls.
If you were a child of the ’80s, you or somebody you knew probably owned a Cabbage Patch Kids doll. They were so popular that stores were inundated with customers wanting them at Christmas. (For those of you too young to remember, imagine the frenzy of the Tickle Me Elmo and the Nintendo Wii Christmases put together.) The album Cabbage Patch Dreams attempts to put together a storyline for these characters.
Zoom was a children’s show on PBS (or whatever they called PBS back then) from 1972 to ‘78. The big draw of the show was that it was for kids, by kids: you could write a story or play or any sort of interesting idea and send it in, and there was a chance the cast would perform it on TV. They also sang a lot on the show; Come On and Zoom is a collection of some of those songs.
Here’s another album to go with the 
This first track has an intro reminiscent of the Batman TV show’s theme, which I would assume was the reason for the album in the first place. I did find one thing odd, though: on the show, I thought the Caped Crusader was always referred to as Batman, but on this record he’s always called the Batman. I know he’s called that 
It’s Tony from 
This week’s Way Out Wednesday is dedicated to Popdose’s own D.W. Dunphy who left this comment on my very first post back in January: “When are we getting those Kid Stuff Pac-Man songs?” Well, today’s the day! This album is Pac-Man’s Amazing Adventures and it’s produced by Kid Stuff Records, whose records one site describes as sounding like “children’s music made in a condemned elementary school boiler room, under the influence of extremely heavy psychedelics.” Considering the subject of my previous entry, E.T. I Love You and Other Extraterrestrial Songs, was also from Kid Stuff, it’s hard to argue that point!
Here’s a fun album from 1966 featuring songs sung about — and sometimes sung by — 
Okay, this one’s just downright freaky. It’s supposed to be songs inspired by the movie E.T. However, you won’t hear any songs remotely like this in the movie itself!
Summer’s coming very soon, so I thought I put in this sweet treat for you. In 1964 there debuted a series of drink mixes called Funny Face. They had cool mascots like Goofy Grape, Loudmouth Lime, Rootin’ Tootin’ Raspberry, and more. They were even sugar free! How could a great idea like this go wrong? Well, the reason they were sugar free was that they were sweetened with cyclamates, which were eventually banned by the FDA because they caused cancer in rats. The drinks came back, sweetened with saccharine (which wasn’t declared a bad thing yet), but I don’t think they ever recovered, and so we’re left with Kool Aid. A freakin’ pitcher with a face drawn on it. He didn’t even have stubby arms and legs back then! Man, what were we thinking? I think we were coerced by Kool Aid spokespeople like Bugs Bunny and the Monkees.