{"id":6619,"date":"2013-10-22T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T07:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=6619"},"modified":"2020-09-27T23:06:30","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T06:06:30","slug":"filmation-tribute-groovie-goolies-fat-albert-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/filmation-tribute-groovie-goolies-fat-albert-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"Filmation Tribute: “Groovie Goolies” & “Fat Albert Halloween”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, to celebrate the life of Filmation founder Lou Scheimer<\/a> – as well as the coming Halloween holiday – we present two classic vinyl albums from record bins of yore: the Groovie Goolies pop album and the Fat Albert Halloween Special soundtrack LP.<\/p>\n

\n

GROOVIE GOOLIES<\/strong>
\nSongs from the Original TV Soundtrack
\nRCA Victor Records LSP-4420 (1970) Stereo<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/center><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Songs by Sherry Gaden, Linda Martin. Album Executive Producer: Norm Prescott. Produced by Richard Delvy for Ricky Sheldon Productions. Associate Producers: Ed Fournier, Dick Monda. Arrangers: Richard Delvy, Ed Fournier, Dick Monda. Engineers: Richard Delvy, Don Sciarrotta. Recorded at Quantum Recording Studios, Torrance, California. TV Series Producers: Norm Prescott, Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland. Record Running Time: 28 minutes.<\/p>\n

Vocals: Dick Monda, Bob Markland, Dave Mani, Ed Fournier, Chris Sciarrotta.<\/p>\n

Songs: \u201cSave Your Good Lovin\u2019 For Me,\u201d \u201cBumble Goolie,\u201d \u201cWe Go So Good Together,\u201d \u201cFrankie,\u201d \u201cGoolie Get-Together (Theme),\u201d \u201cFirst Annual Semi-Formal Combination Celebration Meet-the-Monster Population Party,\u201d \u201cSpend Some Time Together,\u201d \u201cCling, Clang,\u201d \u201cGoolie Garden,\u201d \u201cOne, Two, Three.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/center><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Even though they shared a show with Archie Comics\u2019 Sabrina The Teenage Witch<\/em>, the Groovie Goolies<\/em> were Filmation creations. It was unusual for Filmation at the time, since most of their shows were adapted from other properties. The Goolies enjoyed a nice long run, on and off, through the \u201870s, later headlining a syndicated umbrella series presenting several Filmation reruns. <\/p>\n

Hoping to strike bubblegum pop gold again, in The Archies vein, the Groovie Goolies were also a pop group with songs in each TV episode and this very entertaining RCA Victor album. RCA had also released two albums of Filmation Hardy Boys songs. Both the Hardys and the Goolies had live counterparts that could perform live in concert, which The Archies could not (Hanna-Barbera had planned for Josie and the Pussycats<\/em> to also perform live). <\/p>\n

The live Goolie counterparts are prominently featured on the cover. I would imagine these are the same characters that made a brief live-action appearance in the 1972 ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies<\/em>. This film is still fodder for lively discourse among animation buffs for the sequence in which the animated Goolies enter a mirror and become live-action\u2014but more notably for its infamously limited rendering of Warner Brothers characters.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s get back to the positives. This is one of the finest of the \u201860s\/\u201970s cartoon-pop albums with outstanding range and skillful stereophonic separation. Clearly engineers Richard Delvy, Ed Fournier, Dick Monda were close to the material and wanted a high quality recording.<\/p>\n

Monda, by the way, also recorded the oddball novelty hit \u201cChick-A-Boom\u201d under the name \u201cDaddy Dewdrop.\u201d Written by Janis Lee Guinn and Linda Martin, \u201cChick-A-Boom\u201d was written for the Groovie Goolies show, yet it is a surprisingly risqu\u00e9 tune. It does not appear on this RCA Goolies LP, but did show up years later on Ted Knight\u2019s Hi, Guys novelty album, produced by Filmation for Ranwood Records\u2014 a label co-founded by Lawrence Welk (\u201cThank-ya-boyz-im\u201d). <\/p>\n

Linda Martin co-wrote all the songs on this album with Sherry Gaden, who had some experience with goofy ghoul material already, having written the theme to 1968\u2019s The Green Slime. There are three categories: Goolie-specific songs (like \u201cGoolie Garden\u201d), puppy love bubblegum (including the beautifully vocalized \u201cWe Go So Good Together\u201d) and one generic novelty number (\u201cCling, Clang,\u201d which is similar to Phil Harris\u2019 \u201cThe Thing\u201d).<\/p>\n

I would have liked this album to have twelve songs instead of ten (like The Archies<\/em> and The Hardy Boys<\/em> LPs), but perhaps it was decided to hold songs like \u201cFrightening Frankie, Dangerous Drac and Weirdo Wolfie\u201d and \u201cKings and Queens\u201d for a second album that might have been released had the band caught on. But the lightning only struck twice (and even more than that) only on Horrible Hall.<\/p>\n

GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN<\/strong>
\n\u201cGoolie Get-Together (Theme)\u201d
\nI can\u2019t explain why, but I thought it was neat when, as each Groovie Goolies show faded up, the picture was still for a few seconds before \u201cEverybody shout!\u201d began and Drac\u2019s feet started playing on the bottom keyboard. But this is the full-length, stereo version of the theme, recorded for the album. You\u2019ll immediately notice how markedly different it is from the soundtrack \u2014 and much longer.<\/p>\n