Singles Collection Episode 8: Micky Dolenz vrs. The Vampire! (re-post)

Seeing as how I'm drumming for Micky Dolenz this Saturday night in Bangor, Maine, I felt that I would re-post this special Micky Dolenz edition of the singles collection. This time out it's Micky singing Harry Nilson's "Daybreak" from the 1973 film, "Son of Dracula". Apparently, this was the only original song used in the film. This single is the promo edition which features a different mix than the released version! I have always been a huge fan of this song and Micky sounds amazing on it. Enjoy!

Daybreak MP3

For those of you who are interested in coming this Saturday night, you can check out more about it here.

When Children's Heros Go Disco Part 5

Here's a Super 8 film for "Mickey Mouse Disco". It was released in 1980 and was occasionally shown on television during the early days of the Disney Channel (back when you had to pay for it). Shortly after that it disappeared into obscurity and has yet to be released on DVD.

When Children's Heros Go Disco Part 4

After the huge success that Sesame Street saw with its disco records, the Disney company jumped on the band wagon in 1979 with their own brand of children's disco. The result: Mickey Mouse Disco. As with "Sesame Street Fever", the album included disco-fied versions of Disney classics as well as new songs with a disco beat. Though it was late to the party, the album was fueled by a television ad campaign and as a result, went double platinum! I loved this album! In fact, when I was home from school for an extended sick leave due to chicken pox, I would crank this puppy up on the living room stereo, break out all of my stuffed animals and host my own disco every day! I even had bottles of apple juice that were my "beers" that I would drink "at the disco". (I was kind of a dork) Anyway, here is that album that I still own to this day. Enjoy!

Mickey Mouse Disco

When Children's Heros Go Disco Part 3

Well, after the release of "Sesame Street Fever" and "Sesame Street Disco", we fast forward about 24 years and the world gets to see a remix album made from these records! What's that, you say? A remix album from Sesame Street? Yes, it's true. It happened like this: back when the album was a hit, the record's executive producer, Arthur Shimkin commissioned Larry Levan to do remixes of "C is for Cookie", but they remained unreleased until 2003, when a strange twist of fate occurred. Ninja Tune records was looking to license the track ‘Pinball Number Count’ for the first ‘Now, Listen’ mix CD (these were mix CDs that were released in the 90s). The Pinball song had never been released commercially and was the holy grail for Sesame Street fans and DJs alike. However, the song was not allowed to appear on the album due to worries within the Henson corporation about content on some of the rap tracks on the CD. They thought that it was an unsuitable setting for their material. Instead, Ninja Tune took it upon themselves to make a separate mix containing all Sesame Street songs. It was during a scouring of the Sesame Street archives at their NY offices that they found the unreleased mixes of "C is for Cookie" done all those years ago. As a result, a 12" single was put together with the Pinball song and several different remixes of the Cookie song as well. Here is that find for you now! Here is "Sold Steel presents Sesame Street". Enjoy!

Solid Steel presents Sesame Street

When Children's Heros Go Disco Part 2

Following up on last week's post we have another disco record featuring children's television stars. This time around, it's the sequel to "Sesame Street Fever" entitled, simply, "Sesame Street Disco". Since "Sesame Street Fever" was such a hit, the powers that be decided to release this follow up album the next year. Sesame Disco! is a 1979 Sesame Street album, a follow-up to the previous year's Sesame Street Fever. The big difference here is that most of the songs on the album were written especially for this release, whereas the first disco album was more classic Sesame Street songs put to a disco beat. As with the first album. "Sesame Street Disco" was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children, but it lost to the soundtrack album of The Muppet Movie. Here is that second disco album brought to you by the letters D-A-R-T-M-A-N. Enjoy!

Sesame Street Disco

When Children's Heros Go Disco Part 1

My son is heavily into Sesame Street. As is the norm, his favorite is Elmo but he does have a fondness for Bert and Ernie, Big Bird and Grover. It pleases me immensely that all of these Sesame Street records that I have collected over the years can actually have a purpose. I play them for him regularly and he even has his own little i-pod with a giant collection of the albums on it. Yesterday we took a listen to a rare gem, "Sesame Street Fever". It was, disco-y but it was still cool since it was the Muppets. I mean, when Henson was alive, the Muppets could do no wrong. (Since his death, they have gone wrong numerous times but that's another post). Anyway, it made me think that there was a rash of disco-related cash ins when the dance fever craze became a sensation. Over the next few days we'll take a look at how that sensation affected the children's market. Today, obviously, we are focusing on Sesame Street Fever. This album came out in 1978 and features disco interpretations of familiar Sesame Street hits. The album's title and cover is an obvious and quite frankly, a hilarious send up of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. And speaking of Saturday Night Fever, the Bee Gees' own Robin Gibb appears as a guest vocalist and can also be heard in conversation with Cookie Monster during the introduction to "C is for Cookie". Believe it or not but this album reached #75 on Billboard's album chart and was certified Gold by the RIAA. This album was even nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children, but lost to another Henson production; the first cast album from The Muppet Show. As with all disco stuff, once the novelty wears off, you are pretty much done with it. Thankfully, this album is so short that the novelty wears off about the same time the record ends. Here for you now is Sesame Street Fever. Enjoy!

Sesame Street Fever

Faster, Funnier and Wilder

Last year I posted the soundtrack to Clint Eastwood's smash hit film, Every Which Way But Loose. The film, which many people advised Clint not to make because it would ruin his image, was such a huge success that it spawned a sequel entitled, "Any Which Way You Can". I had the pleasure of seeing this film in the theater with my parents and as much as I loved the movie, I couldn't help but love the guy that sat behind us even more. For some reason, whenever there was a fight scene, this guy thought he was in the movie as an extra in the crowd. He was constantly shouting out, "Get him, Philo! Come on! Hit him! Hit him hard!" While some people were obviously annoyed by this display, my father and I found it quite amusing and looked forward to more fight scenes where this young man could display his shouting prowess. An interesting bit of trivia about this film is that , Clyde, Philo's pet orangutan, looks a little bit different in this film than he did in the first. That's because the first Clyde had grown too big and was considered too dangerous to return to film work. So, they hired another orangutan to play the part. (On a sad note, AWWYC's Clyde died two weeks after filming was completed from a brain hemorrhage.) The soundtrack to this film is just as good as the movie and makes a great companion to the first film's soundtrack. Featuring great songs by Glen Campbell, Sondra Locke (still Clint's girl at the time), Fats Domino, Gene Watson, Johnny Duncan and two of my personal favorite songs: "Cow Patty" by Jim Stafford and the classic head scratching duet of Ray Charles and Clint Eastwood, "Bar Room Buddies". Here is that great soundtrack for you now. Enjoy!

Any Which Way You Can OST

Classic Television Episode of the Month: The Partridge Family

Check out this cool episode from the first season! Be on the lookout for the musical performance where David Cassidy's hair switches from long and parted in the middle to cut without bangs and back again!