In 1984, the movie Nightmare on Elm Street premiered and a new horror icon was born in Freddy Krueger. However, three years (and two sequels later), Freddy had already gone from being a frightening monster that killed you in your dreams to sort of a funny, smart-alecky cool guy (that, admittedly, still killed you in your dreams). Freddy seemed to be everywhere. Before you knew it, toys were even available with Freddy’s face on them. Here’s one of the more unusual products that came from the Freddy Krueger marketing blitz: an album called Freddy’s Greatest Hits.
Now, at first glance, you might think this would be just another compilation of horror-themed hits that came out every Halloween, featuring familiar songs like the umpteenth recording of “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett, all “endorsed” by Freddy Krueger himself. That is where you would be wrong. What we have is an album featuring something called the Elm Street Group, doing some ’80s pop-type songs about Freddy’s exploits. The fun part here, though, is classic songs that feature Freddy Krueger himself, and those are the songs we’ll be featuring here for your Halloweening pleasure.
First we have “In the Midnight Hour.” Not a lot of participation from Freddy on this one, probably because he sounds like he doesn’t know whether to say “you and me” or “you and I.” (more…)
With the moon being in the news recently, it seemed like a good time to talk about this fun album, which talks about the great adventure we’ll have when we land on the moon. Here are a few songs from the album.
The song that starts out the festivities is “With a Great Big Noise Like Thunder,” which talks about how loud the rocket will be when it zooms into space. But don’t worry, no matter how fast it goes, cameras will catch everything. There’s some narration after the song that I was going to cut out, but I decided not to because it’s kind of charming to hear somebody talk about landing on the moon in future tense. I also like how he keeps referring to the satellite in the rocket as a “man-made moon.”
In “Meet Space Pilot Jones,” we learn that our astronaut is extremely smart and is between 5’ 2” and 5’ 10” tall. I don’t remember a specific height requirement once we got the real guys into space, but it would make a lot of sense. We also find that his space suit makes him look like a barrel. Not the look you want to pull off if you run into some foxy space ladies! (more…)
You know how I mentioned last week that you can’t stage a live rock concert with people in animal costumes? Well, it turns out that you can, as long as you’re dressed like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In 1990, after their first movie was so successful, it was decided to stage concerts with the characters. This album (which was a premium from Pizza Hut) is the soundtrack to that show. Stay tuned for a special surprise at the end of this post.
The first song here takes its title from the name of the concert tour, Coming Out of Their Shells. This sounds like some sort of acoustic Bon Jovi reject. And, while I don’t know if he was involved with this, the lead singer sounds to me like “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart.
Next we have “Pizza Power,” a song that was so identified with the Heroes in a Half Shell that it was used in the arcade game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.
Now for the song that most kids probably skipped: April O’Neil’s “April Ballad.” It was probably put in the show in case the kids needed a bathroom break or something from the concession stand. I’ve decided to do the same favor for you. Don’t worry, she’ll probably still be singing when you get back. (more…)
Here’s another example of singing groups in the Squeaky Rodent Department: Shirley, Squirrely & Melvin. Their album Live has an interesting history (at least according to Wikipedia): In 1980 Excelsior Records released Chipmunk Punk, a new album featuring the Chipmunks put together by David Seville’s son, Ross Bagdasarian Jr. The album turned out to be an unexpected success, so Bagdasarian recorded a follow-up, Urban Chipmunk — for RCA Records. This left Excelsior holding the bag, so they supposedly took outtakes from Urban Chipmunk and an earlier Shirley & Squirrely album and came up with Live. I don’t know if I believe that story, but it’s on Wikipedia, so it must be true!
The first song we’ll feature here is the Sam & Dave/Blues Brothers classic “Soul Man.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard a song pushed so hard when it’s sung. Apparently, Squirrely thinks “soul” translates to “Sing like you’re constipated.”
Next, SS&M reveal their country side with “The Gambler,” an odd pick since Alvin, Simon, and Theodore covered the same song on Urban Chipmunk, although they changed a few words — “soda” instead of “whiskey,” and instead of bumming a cigarette, the gambler “asked for a Twinkie, and offered me a bite.” I guess SS&M get extra points for performing the song as written. Their version also features special guest star Denny Richards. (Never heard of him. Have you?)
This being Way Out Wednesday, you knew I’d eventually have to wander into teenybopper territory, but I promise I won’t go for the usual suspects.
Friends is a TV tie-in album by Johnny Whitaker, best known for playing Jody on the sitcom Family Affair (1966-’71). After doing guest shots on other shows and a couple of Disney movies, including 1972’s Napoleon and Samantha with Jodie Foster, he landed the role of Johnny (how convenient!) on Sid and Marty Krofft’s Saturday-morning children’s show Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973-’75). I guess he became a preteen heartthrob, because here he is posing on the Friends album cover almost topless! Anyway, on to the songs …
The first track is one of the themes to Sigmund. If you have any recollection of the show, you can — and will — sing along to this one.
Next we have “Alley Oop.” No, wait, I’m sorry — we just have a song that starts off sounding an awful lot like it. “Monster Rock” is a pretty silly song, made even sillier by having Sigmund sound like Boris Karloff with a touch of helium in his voice.
Of course for any album of this type, you’ve got to have tender love ballads. I picked the following one because I kind of like it, even though the background singers seem to be doing most of the work here.
Last week, we talked about ’60s icons the Beatles. Now let’s talk about an icon from the ’70s. That’s right — I mean Arthur Fonzarelli, better known as Fonzie from TV’s Happy Days. Here’s a (most likely unauthorized) tribute album to the Fonz from 1976, performed by a girl group called the Heyettes.
Since this was an election year, they had to put in an obligatory “Fonzie for President” song, even though Fonzie wouldn’t have been old enough to be President. Unless, of course, you figure him being in his late teens/early twenties around the time the show takes place. Then, by 1976, he would be 15-20 years older and old enough to run. But who wants to be ruled by an old Fonzie?
Here’s “The Fonz Song,” which goes on and on about what a wonderful guy Fonzie is and features a guy that almost, but not quite, sounds entirely unlike the Fonz himself.
Well, since we’re in a Beatles state of mind here at Popdose, I wanted to find something relevant to the topic, and here it is. Sorta. This is a group called the Fabulous Beats, whose act was strangely reminiscent of a certain Fab Four. To take it even further, the songs on this album were originally country songs. That’s right, you have country songs sung by guys who are trying their best to sing and play like the Beatles. Folks, I can’t make this stuff up!
The first song featured is called “Let Me Be the One.” My research shows that it was originally sung by Hank Locklin. I don’t know the guy or the song, but I had to include it because it follows the first rule of Beatles imitators: find a spot in a song to sing “yeah yeah yeah” and repeat as necessary.
Next we have the Patsy Cline classic “Walkin’ After Midnight,” complete with jangly guitars and two part harmonies. The crazy thing here is that, as Beatles, they don’t sound much like the originals. However they could have possibly made a career from being Everly Brothers impressionists. I guess there wasn’t as much call for that, though.
Here’s a patriotic selection for you called American Pie – A Musical History of Our Country, brought to you by the Peter Pan Children’s Chorus. (Yeah, I know I should have presented this around July 4th, but better late than never, right?)
Anyway, they couldn’t have an album called American Pie and not have the song “American Pie,” could they? Here it is, not sung by the Peter Pan Children’s Chorus, but by a kinda-sorta Don McLean soundalike singing the first half of the classic song (or Side One, if you had the 45 of it). They do score extra points for singing the song as written, though, even if it’s not a terribly good rendition.
We now move on to the story of America, actually featuring the Peter Pan Children’s Chorus and some lady we don’t know that takes over the proceedings. I’ve skipped ahead a bit to the narration and build up to the song “Goin’ West.” It’s nice to know they mention one of my ancestors. No, not George Washington or Benjamin Franklin, but Mr. Nobody In Particular! At least they don’t romanticize the time in the narration, talking about things like “burying their dead in unmarked graves so the Indians wouldn’t find them.” I may be showing my ignorance of American History here, but were Indians known as grave robbers? They finally get on with the song, talking about how much hope they had that things would go well. If I remember my history (through educational games), they all die of dysentery before they get to the end, don’t they?
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.
In 1984, the movie Nightmare on Elm Street premiered and a new horror icon was born in Freddy Krueger. However, three years (and two sequels later), Freddy had already gone from being a frightening monster that killed you in your dreams to sort of a funny, smart-alecky cool guy (that, admittedly, still killed you in your dreams). Freddy seemed to be everywhere. Before you knew it, toys were even available with Freddy’s face on them. Here’s one of the more unusual products that came from the Freddy Krueger marketing blitz: an album called Freddy’s Greatest Hits.
With the moon being in the news recently, it seemed like a good time to talk about this fun album, which talks about the great adventure we’ll have when we land on the moon. Here are a few songs from the album.
You know how I mentioned 
Here’s another example of singing groups in the Squeaky Rodent Department: Shirley, Squirrely & Melvin. Their album Live has an interesting history (at least according to Wikipedia): In 1980 Excelsior Records released 
This being Way Out Wednesday, you knew I’d eventually have to wander into teenybopper territory, but I promise I won’t go for the usual suspects.
Last week, we talked about ’60s icons the Beatles. Now let’s talk about an icon from the ’70s. That’s right — I mean Arthur Fonzarelli, better known as Fonzie from TV’s Happy Days. Here’s a (most likely unauthorized) tribute album to the Fonz from 1976, performed by a girl group called the Heyettes.
Well, since we’re in a Beatles state of mind here at Popdose, I wanted to find something relevant to the topic, and here it is. Sorta. This is a group called the Fabulous Beats, whose act was strangely reminiscent of a certain Fab Four. To take it even further, the songs on this album were originally country songs. That’s right, you have country songs sung by guys who are trying their best to sing and play like the Beatles. Folks, I can’t make this stuff up!
Here’s a patriotic selection for you called American Pie – A Musical History of Our Country, brought to you by the Peter Pan Children’s Chorus. (Yeah, I know I should have presented this around July 4th, but better late than never, right?)
With the Batman: Arkham Asylum game coming out this week (for 
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.