Generally noted because of the singing voice of “Charlie’s Angel” Cheryl Ladd, this well-produced ’70’s cartoon pop LP shines with top talent and appealing tunes.
JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS
From the Hanna-Barbera TV Show
Capitol Records ST-665 (12” 33 1/3 RPM / Stereo)
CD Reissue: Rhino Handmade RHM2-7783 (2001)
Released December 15, 1970. TV Series Executive Producers: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera. Capitol Records Executive Producer: Mauri Lathower. Album Producers: Danny Janssen, Bobby Young. Arranger/Conductors: Al Capps, Mike Stewart. Vocal Arrangements: Sue Steward. A La La Production. Engineers: Ron Malo, Howard Gale. Recorded at Independent Recorders, Studio City, CA. Running Time: 31 minutes.
Singing Voices: Cathy Dougher (Josie); Patrice Holloway (Valerie); Cheryl Ladd (Melody, under the name of Cherie Moore).
Original Songs: “Every Beat Of My Heart,” “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” by Danny Janssen, Bobby Hart; “Stop, Look And Listen,” “Roadrunner” by Danny Janssen, Sue Steward; “Lie, Lie, Lie” by Danny Janssen, A Roberts; “Hand Clapping Song” by Danny Janssen, J. Kirkland.
Covers of Existing Songs: “I’ll Be There” by Berry Gordy, Jr., Hutch, Davis; “La, La, La (If I Had You)” by Danny Janssen; “(They Long to Be) Close to You” by Burt Bacharach, Hal David; “It Don’t Matter To Me” by David Gates.
Additional Songs on Rhino Handmade Reissue
From TV Show: “Stop, Look and Listen” (Single Version), “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby” (Single Version), “Inside, Outside, Upside Down,” “Josie,” “Voodoo,” “Lie Lie Lie” (Alternate Mix), “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby” (Alternate Mix #1), “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby” (Alternate Mix #2), “Josie and the Pussycats” (Hidden Track / Written by Hoyt Curtin, Joe Barbera, Bill Hanna).
Other Songs: “Every Beat of My Heart” (Single Version), “It’s Alright With Me,” “A Letter to Mama,” “With Every Beat of My Heart,” “If That Isn’t Love,” “I Wanna Make You Happy,” “It’s Gotta Be Him,” “Together,” “Dreammaker,” “Time to Love.”
Hanna-Barbera and CBS surely hoped to not only equal the success of Filmation and Don Kirshner’s The Archies — who by 1969 enjoyed astronomical TV ratings and several hit songs, including the #1 hit of the year, “Sugar, Sugar”—they aimed even higher.
There was plenty of potential to top Archie and his pals. First and foremost, the animated band couldn’t tour. Ron Dante (who would also sing for H-B’s Chan Clan band) was, at the time, forbidden to reveal he was the lead singer. The Archies’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was merely a clip of the animated show rather than a live appearance.
Filmation’s attempts to remedy the situation was to produced The Hardy Boys as an animated show with a live band that was actually visible in the show; and their Groovie Goolies had live counterparts that could appear in person.
Hanna-Barbera could also add their particular brand of comedy/adventure. The similarities between their Josie and the Pussycats and The Monkees series is obvious, right down to chase/romps accompanied by a song or two. But as an H-B show, Josie was a mixture of Archie-type characters with Jonny Quest-style adventures. Unlike Filmation’s Archie, H-B’s Josie stories took them out of their home base and expanded it to a worldwide setting (if only the ill-fated movie version had taken this approach!).
The series also boasted a uniquely H-B voice cast, particular Janet Waldo and Casey Kasem, with Don Messick as the obligatory pet and villain stalwarts like John Stephenson and Vic Perrin.
Behind the music, there was Danny Janssen, already well-versed in bubblegum/franchise pop with Bobby Sherman and The Partridge Family. These songs were not afterthoughts (as Saturday morning pop seemed to become as the’70s progressed) but well-crafted songs with tight backing from top musicians.
The Capitol LP did not include several of the familiar songs from the TV show, including the theme song (adapted by Hoyt Curtin, Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera from a piece of incidental music from The Jetsons). The trio also offered their musical take on some popular tunes of the day, including Bread’s “It Don’t Matter to Me,” which provides an interesting connection: it was written by Bread’s lead singer David Gates, who also penned the theme to H-B’s animated feature, Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear. In addition to the LP, Capitol released two Josie singles for radio play and four singles available only through mail order with box tops from Kellogg’s cereals.
The four singers were chosen from hundreds, and would have toured had all the grand plans come to fruition. Cathy Dougher was a classically trained theatrical musical and opera vocalist. Cherie Moore was, according to the album notes, “an accomplished actress and dancer” who as a singer “appeared as the ‘warm-up act’ for Jack Benny at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.”
Of course, Moore became an international star when she took the place of Farrah Fawcett on Charlie’s Angels and relaunched her singing career based on the higher profile that series afforded her. But the one singer who not only most firmly gave the trio its vocal sound, but deserved greater stardom was the amazing Patrice Holloway, most notable at the time for having written the hit “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” for Blood, Sweat and Tears.
Album back cover (click to enlarge)
The most in-your-face character of the Josie gang—TV and comic book–was of course, the always-irritated Alexandra, who was rich in money but also in story potential. Between her envious schemes to win Alan from Josie, take over the band and sass the villains, Ms. Cabot was the kind of flawed character that packs an edge.
Sherry Alberoni was already a young veteran of television, having been a Mouseketeer and frequent guest star on the aforementioned Monkees and scores of other baby boomer favorites. “Alexandra was one of my very favorite characters because she was ‘spunky with attitude,” she told me.
Sherry Alberoni
In 2011, Stu Shostak captured this chemistry when Sherry joined Janet Waldo, Barbara Pariot, Jackie Joseph and Jerry Dexter for a rare Josie and the Pussycats reunion you can hear by downloading the May 25, 2011 show (#231) at stusshow.com.
Perhaps, in a parallel universe, the Capitol records by Josie and the Pussycats topped the charts. The Archies music phenomenon was never equaled, however. One of the reasons may have been that those in the music and radio business were not eager to promote another cartoon group. There was resistance when The Archies’ records were circulated—it was the public that truly embraced the records.
The critical backlash against The Monkees was already well documented (and has been rendered ineffective by virtue of the fifty-year endurance of the so-called “prefab four”). There was also quite a bit of competition from other TV groups vying their piece of the bubblegum pie, the most successful being The Partridge Family. One does have to wonder if one or two of these records might have found greater success if they were marketed as a “serious” pop group rather than one from a cartoon show. No matter, those of us who love the show and the songs will always have it for our own.
GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN #1
“Every Beat of My Heart”
This song was never on the TV series, but it was to be the breakout hit single. A fine bubblegum tune with a great hook and lots of potential, it may have been shown on a later episode had the record become a hit and the series retained its original format.
GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN #2
“Inside, Outside, Upside Down”
Any regular viewer of Josie and the Pussycats will know this song even before the vocal begins as it was used on the show often. It was not released as a single for radio play, but it was one of the Kellogg’s records available by mail.
GREG EHRBAR is a freelance writer/producer for television, advertising, books, theme parks and stage. Greg has worked on content for such studios as Disney, Warner and Universal, with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His numerous books include Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (with Tim Hollis). Visit 
Wowsers! Josie and the Pussycats (and its sequel Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space) was one of my faves when I was a kid I’m surprised that future Charlie’s Angel Cheryl Ladd (who took over for Farrah Fawcett during the series run of Charlie’s Angels) was the singing voice of Melody Lane (and my older brother said she was the speaking voice of Melody!) Lets not forget the late Kasey Kasem who was the voice of Alexandra Cabot’s cowardly brother Alexander. Funny that this was the only Archie Comics. series that wasn’t picked up by Filmation like Archie and his Gang and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. It had a “Scooby Doo” kind of feel with a group of “Musical Meddling Kids” trying to solve mysteries while on tour. Reminded me of two other series that Hanna Barbera did that had a type of a “Josie and the Pussycats kind of feel” called Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids and JabberJaw (which was inspired by the Jaws craze in the mid 1970’s).
Regarding Archie Comics, were there any plans of doing an animated project with Katey Keene?
Could be, since they seem to be more aggressive in finding new project. Anything is possible.
“You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby” was easily my favorite Pussycats song.
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera also did some songwriting (for Josie, I think, and other shows) under the pseudonyms Denby Williams (from William Denby Hanna) and Joe Roland (from Joseph Roland Barbera.) I’ve read, but can’t prove, that they also wrote songs, possibly in partnership with Hoyt Curtin, under the name of Nelson Brock.
Something I’ve always wondered is, in the theme song one of the lyrics goes “Everywhere the action’s at, we’re involved with this and that.”
But almost all covers or remakes I hear, even ones produced by WB or Cartoon Network, they swap those two lines to “We’re involved with this and that, everywhere the action’s at.” No one seems to know why that is.
The lyrics are inverted in the long version of the theme song, which may have ended up being the one that was filed as the “official” documentation to the song publishing company. With permission, of course, they could sing it either way.
Cheryl Ladd shortened her name from Stoppelmoor to Moore, then used Ladd after marrying David Ladd (former child actor and son of Alan Ladd).
When Melody spoke, I recognized Jackie Joseph’s voice, being familiar with her from “The Doris Day Show.” (She was also in the original “Little Shop of Horrors.”)
Dan DeCarlo created Josie (named after his wife), and Melody may have been inspired by the lead character in “My Friend Irma” – Dan drew the comic-book version of that radio show.
Patrice Holloway didn’t write “You Make Me So Very Happy” directly for Blood, Sweat, and Tears. She co-wrote it with and for her older sister, Motown star Brenda Holloway (the other writers are Motown founder Berry Gordy Jr. & the song’s producer, Frank Wilson). “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” was Holloway’s final release on Motown’s Tamla label in 1967; Blood, Sweat & Tears’ cover version became a larger hit (Holloway’s version peaked at #39 US pop) two years later.
Patrice herself recorded for Motown as a teenager in the mid-1960s, but the label couldn’t find material that worked for her like they could for Brenda and she was dropped from the company.
Has anyone ever found a good copy of ‘Clock On The Wall?’
No. Still looking. It would be great if this was available on apple iTunes and similar platforms. It was a mistake not to release this gem
“Clock On The Wall” and “I Think I Love You Too Much” were the two songs that have never appeared outside of the TV cartoon soundtrack. The former was written by Danny Janssen with Austin Roberts, who later became a hit recording artist for Chelsea Records. The latter is another Danny Janssen-Sue Sheridan song like most of the great ones from that soundtrack: “Roadrunner”, “Voodoo”, “It’s All Right With Me”, “Stop, Look And Listen”, “Inside, Outside, Upside-Down”. None of these songs featured Kathleen Dougherty (aka Cathy Dougher) on lead vocals. According to songwriter and vocal arranger Sue Sheridan (known as Sue Steward at the time), Kathleen felt that she was stronger in the background. The lead voices either belong to Patrice Holloway or Cheryl Ladd.
Of course those are my two favorites. Still trying (in vain) to find these. iTunes, do your thing!
In episode 10 ” Strangemoon over Miami ” does anyone know the name of the partial song they play at the begining and end where they are performing at the Fair. Never have seen this song named or even acknowledged of it’s existence. I thought it was one of the best songs in the series. Does anybody have any Info?
“Inside, Outside, Upside Down” has been stuck in my noggin for only 50 years or so now. If ever a cartoon song sounded like it had “massive hit potential” written all over it, that’s the one.
Although not a hit, this 1966 recording by Patrice Holloway (Val) is one of my all-time favourite records. Awesome voice, brilliant record, and now very rare and expensive.
https://youtu.be/hI2uDMei_Ow