Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas! As my Christmas gift to you, I offer up an hour of great music from cartoons, inspired by animation, covered by other artists or material recorded by our favorite cartoon voice actors.
A few months ago I was offered the chance to create a broadcast radio pilot – and I took the opportunity to concoct a “test” hour of cartoon musical tracks I love. I had put stuff like this on mix tapes back in the day – and today this kind of stuff is all over my iPod. It’s a mash up of material ranging from Raymond Scott, Carl Stalling and Scott Bradley, Paul Whiteman, What No Mickey Mouse?, It’s a Hap-Hap-Happy Day, The Pink Panther Theme, Eep Oop Ork Ahh Ahh and I Love To Singa… all this and much more.
Where can you hear this? On Christmas Day – this Wednesday December 25th – at 1pm Pacific (that’s 4pm Eastern) on LA’s public supported KPFK 90.7FM (A Pacifica Station). It can also be heard online at www.kpfk.org – and will be available for download (free) afterward at their archive.
You can also listen to it if you CLICK HERE.
If you like it and would like to see/hear this broadcast/podcast continue all I ask is that you let the General Manager of KPFK know – via email: gm@kpfk.org or pd@kpfk.org – or on a message via our new Cartoons In Stereo Facebook page. This is not a Kickstarter campaign, nor is any money being solicited – it’s just something I want to do and I have a broadcaster willing to give it a try.
To give you a small idea of the kind of music I’m spinning, here are a few embeds…
The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down
A vintage Paramount Music Roll playing the “Looney Tunes” theme – and sing along with the words on the roll itself!
“What! No Mickey Mouse?”
Popular 1930s Bandleader Ben Bernie had a hit with this.
“Melody Time” opening theme
I love this introductory tune; a Disney song you never hear beyond the opening of the film. Written by George Weiss and Bennie Benjamin, Buddy Clark sings a longer cover version which I play in my show. Here’s the original movie version:
Practising The Piano (1935)
I’ll play anything recorded by Mae Questel, anything! I love her voice.
Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye (1949)
…and that goes double for anything recorded by Mel Blanc!
Join me on Christmas Day – this Wednesday December 25th – at 1pm Pacific (4pm Eastern) at KPFK 90.7FM. And tell your friends!
Jerry Beck is a writer, animation producer, college professor and author of more than 15 books on animation history. He is a former studio exec with Nickelodeon Movies and Disney, and has written for The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. He has curated cartoons for DVD and Blu-ray compilations and has lent his expertise to dozens of bonus documentaries and audio commentaries on such. Beck is currently on the faculty of CalArts in Valencia, UCLA in Westwood and Woodbury University in Burbank – teaching animation history. More about Jerry Beck [
Merry Christmas Jerry.
Great tunes, Jerry! Enjoy a terrific holiday season!
Can’t wait to see what else you’re gonna play on the show, Jerry! If the show gets picked up–and if you ever get to this point–it would be cool to hear the Johnny Douglas, Dean Elliott, and Shuki Levy underscores from the late 70s and 80s. The shows that those scores were composed for may not have been worth watching, but the music was always incredible!
See ya…or should I say ‘hear ya’ on Wednesday!!
Hey Jerry, don’t forget this tune I dug up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xthn6syCvf8
Have to catch it afterward, but looking forward to it!
Jerry, among my favorite cartoon theme songs are the Little Golden Records of BARKER BILL, LITTLE LULU, LITTLE AUDREY SAYS, and I’M POPEYE THE SAILOR MAN! I suspect that that last one was recorded on April 9, 1951–“4-9-51” appears in the inner margin of my copy of the original release! IMO, Jack Mercer never did a better recording of the song than THIS arrangemnent–and nobody else ever did, either! (Thank goodness I also have it on a quality-vinyl lp for top sound!)
Probably the rarest disc of this type that I have is the first record that your heroine, Mae Questel, recorded! She did it for Victor on February 13, 1933, assisted by Dick Robertson singing her theme song. This record has special white labels with a picture of Betty Boop and content lettering drawn by the Fleischer Studios! I found it in 1967 in a New York City record store where the dealer specialized in 78s. It’s in absolutely mint condition–and the guy charged me only three dollars for it! :-D!
I’d like to hear some tracks from that hard to find and out-of-print Sammy Timberg CD “Boop Oop a Doin'” where they take original music from the Max Fleischer cartoons and re-record it in digital stereo.
Love the Mel Blanc. More Mel.
I’m all for more Dean Elliott too. Have his famous Zounds! What Sounds! and would love to find some of his others. Whether at UPA, Chuck Jones, De Patie-Freleng, or Ruby-Spears, his scores were/are truly distinctive. He even did one score (only one as far as I know) for Hanna-Barbera; a late 60’s anti-smoking film called “A Time For Decision,” made for the American Cancer Society.
Great stuff, Jerry!