The 25 Posts of Christmas: More Wishbook Memories

One year my grandfather decided to get all of the cousins a tape recorder for Christmas. They were the classic ones pictured here that had the top loading feature and the microphone right next to the buttons. In addition, we each got a cassette tape to play on it as well as blank tapes to make our own recordings. My tape was a Christmas compilation called, "I Like Christmas" that featured classics from Skeeter Davis, Spike Jones and a few others. The blank tapes got quite a lot of use as well. I used to record all of my favorite TV shows by placing the tape recorder right next to the speaker of the TV. This was way before the idea of VCRs even existed so that was the best way to record your shows! I used to make fake variety shows and tape them with me doing my best impressions of the hit stars of the day. The one I remember the most was Paul Lynde. I wish I could find some of those tapes. We also used them to record the birthday parade on the mornings of our birthdays. The local radio station would have this feature every morning and my mother would send in our names for our birthdays. They would play a Sousa march and the DJ would announce the names of the kids celebrating their birthdays. One year, I took a tape of my sister's birthday parade announcement from that particular year and recorded over it with my impression of Ralph Malph from Happy Days. My sister freaked out and I got into some serious trouble for that. I still have no idea how she found out. I mean, who listened to the birthday parade announcements? Obviously she did.

Tricks & Treats 09: Ron Howard Visits The Haunted Mansion

It's October 1st and that means the countdown to Halloween has begun!!!! We start this year's "Tricks and Treats" with a great record from the Disney vaults. One of the greatest rides ever in the Disneyworld/Disneyland spectrum is The Haunted Mansion. No matter how many new and improved rides come along, the Mansion is still the king and I could ride it a hundred times in a row if I could. Back in the day, Disney used to release records that coincided with their various rides and the Haunted Mansion was no exception. In fact, the Mansion boasts three records to its name: one is "The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion," an LP featuring a pre-Happy-Days Ronny Howard; then there is a shorter children's record titled "Walt Disney Presents the Haunted Mansion," one of Disney's many "See, Hear, Read" records narrated by Robie Lester, a popular narrator for many of Disney's childrens albums. The third Haunted Mansion story album is the B-side of "Trick or Treat," a Disneyland Record starring Donald Duck, his nephews, and Witch Hazel, with the original "Story and Song" recording edited down to fit completely on the B-side of this 12" LP. Today we are giving you the original "Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion" complete with the vocal talents of Ron Howard. Recorded in 1969 (a year after he stopped playing Andy Griffith's son Opie), "The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion" featured the young "Ronny" Howard as "Mike," a young teen out on a date with "Karen". The story is narrated by the one-and-only Thurl Ravenscroft, who is one of Disney's best-known vocal talents (and is also known for being the original voice of Tony the Tiger, and the singer of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," from Chuck Jones' classic cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas). The ride's main scenes are faithfully represented, often with the original sound effects, making this an album worth buying a turntable for. If you don't have the original album (or a turntable for that matter), fear not faithful readers! We here at The World of Wonder offer it to you in digital form as our first "Treat" of 2009! Enjoy!

The Story and Song from The Haunted Mansion

BONUS: Here's s cool link to a super cool web site called "Doombuggies". It gives you everything you would ever want to know about the Haunted Mansion and then some! Stop on by and tell them Dartman sent you!

I Feel Like I'm In Heaven

And so will you when you download today's sharity: the sheet music to the theme song from Joanie Loves Chachi! This is the first time I am posting sheet music on The World of Wonder and I picked a great song to start! Here it is. Enjoy!

Joanie Loves Chachi Sheet Music

September of Soundtracks: LOVE BROKERS!

OK, so a lot of people have written me and asked me about the reference I made a few posts back to Henry Winkler feeling up my friend at Toronto's FanExpo. I figured since I was going to tell the story, I might as well post a soundtrack to a Henry Winkler film. The soundtrack is "Night Shift" and it is one of Winkler's better films. It was directed by Ron Howard and featured and an up and coming comedic actor named Michael Keaton, as well a feature part played by Shelly Long. The film falls in my favorites list and in my opinion, Michael Keaton has yet to top his performance in it. The soundtrack is a quirky collection of songs from the 80s including Talk Talk by Talk Talk, Girl's Know How by Al Jarreau, Night Shift by Quarterflash and a beautiful ballad sung by Rod Stewart by the name of "That's What Friends Are For". Most people remember Dione Warwick's horrendous version that was the big hit, but I have always loved this version that went by without too much fanfare. They are all here for your enjoyment! Now, let's all sit down and I'll tell you the tale of how the Fonz grabbed a boob! I was at the Expo with two friends from Avenue Q, Rob and Maggie (who happen to be engaged to each other). We were waiting on line to meet Henry Winkler. As we were doing this, Henry, unlike all of the other celebs, was walking up and down the line saying hello to everyone and thanking them for their patience. A class act! As he passed by us, he looked at Maggie and said "How did you get to be so beautiful?" just like you would expect him to say it. When we got to the front and got to meet him, we told him we were with Avenue Q to which he replied, "I love that show. I really love that show" Then he started to sing "It Sucks To Be Me" and stated that his favorite thing in the show was the person that runs the second hand for the puppets. We told him that was what Maggie did and he hugged her and said "I love that I got to meet the second hand. Let's get a picture!" So, we posed for the picture. It was Me, Henry Winkler, Maggie and Rob all in a line. We thanked him and as we were walking away Maggie whispered to us "Henry Winkler just totally felt me up." We, of course, were hesitant to believe her. "Look at the picture!" she said. Sure enough, there was the proof. We were all smiling with our arms around each other and there, cupping Maggie's left breast, was the same hand that had started the jukebox back on Happy Days! Enjoy the soundtrack!

Night Shift OST

Fonzie Says "Honk"