Just out of curiosity...Anybody ever hear...

[Sogturtle]

...of the "Little Golden Records "??? They were aimed at children way back yonder and were pressed on yellow vinyl as teeny 78 rpm records (later regular black 45s). My older brother had a couple of them as a little kid. They originally sold for a whopping 25 cents!! (multiply that by 4-6 times for a modern equivalent price).

I'm not yet sure what year they started but Warners was lured into lending them their characters (as was Disney and a number of publishers and later Hanna-Barbera!). Mel Blanc went and voiced these odd musical excursions. The few I have so far feature Mitch Miller leading the orchestra with the (ancient) vocal group The Sandpipers at times suffocating poor Mel. On at least one of them, voice artist Dave Barry (Warner's Bogart impersonator) is even on board. Curiously the speeds of the characters voices are at times way out of whack, even when adjusting the speed of my turntable. I'm NOT recommending them, but they are interesting.

Thus far the most interesting one of them is a vocal recording of nothing less than "MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG" (a certain cartoon studio's theme ;) ) featuring brief vocals by all the stars (though again at wrong speeds). Iffffff the voices could be corrected easily... [The flip-side is an achingly bad recording of "I Taut I Taw A Puddy Tat", makes all the Mel Blanc Capitol records sound even better!!]

[Sogturtle]

...then four pictures is worth at least a buck and quarter!! ;)

http://ebay1.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_EBAY_2377d4c927098f3f9d50316ece5f29c5/i-1.JPG

http://ebay0.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_EBAY_9e3b25c890a14f8469f5743640592731/i-1.JPG

http://ebay0.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_EBAY_618123ee4c51066f3f37337bc3cb484b/i-1.JPG

http://ebay1.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_EBAY_7d9b5f485e81c40af4e546f9d4c7fac5/i-1.JPG

[J Lee]

Tim --

My friend 20 years ago had two of those records. The one I remember had Arthur Q. Bryan doing a song about how he was going hunting to catch wabbits. The most interesting thing was the copyright date on the record was 1959, which if that was the year it was actually recorded, would have made it one of the last things Bryan did before his death.

[Sogturtle]

Originally posted by J Lee
Tim --

My friend 20 years ago had two of those records. The one I remember had Arthur Q. Bryan doing a song about how he was going hunting to catch wabbits. The most interesting thing was the copyright date on the record was 1959, which if that was the year it was actually recorded, would have made it one of the last things Bryan did before his death.

Hi John~

Thanks! Interesting!! I haven't ever seen or heard the Elmer one, I'll have to keep an eye out for that. It SEEMS that the Little Golden Records started a while after the last of the Blanc Capitol recordings. The LGRs I have don't seem to have a visible copyright or publishing date.

[Bobby B]

Originally posted by Sogturtle

...of the "Little Golden Records "??? They were aimed at children way back yonder and were pressed on yellow vinyl as teeny 78 rpm records (later regular black 45s). My older brother had a couple of them as a little kid. They originally sold for a whopping 25 cents!! (multiply that by 4-6 times for a modern equivalent price).

The few I have so far feature Mitch Miller leading the orchestra with the (ancient) vocal group The Sandpipers at times suffocating poor Mel. Curiously the speeds of the characters voices are at times way out of whack, even when adjusting the speed of my turntable. I'm NOT recommending them, but they are interesting.


The Popeye record is the same: Mitch Miller, the Sandpipers, and a sped-up Jack Mercer. If I put a little "drag" on the turntable with my thumb, I can get it to sound right.