Wednesday, February 01, 2006

i am silly



Like Bit-O-Honey to teeth, there are some things in your childhood bag of goodies that stick to the pop culture capsule of your mind. Whether it’s a song, a show, the taste of a certain pizzeria pizza that you can’t get anymore… there are just some things that are destined to remain only in the back recesses of your brain. For yours truly, Mr. Miller, that bit o’ popcereal* stickiness was The Silly Record.


I’m not quite sure who it was in my family that first brought home that side tickling disc of 331/3 vinyl silliness; all I know is that from then on we had it on near permanent loan-out from the local library. The head librarian only allowed one renewal per loan, so we’d have to wait for her to put in back in the record bin before we’d be able to snag it for the third go-around. Don’t know why we never bothered to try and find a copy at the Big N around the bend. Mr. Miller was just a wee one at that time, so I didn’t know consumerism from the Apollo 11. I was just in it for the ride.

In case you’ve never had the pleasure, The Silly Record was the vinyl companion to The Silly Book, written by comedy writer and performer Stuart “Stoo” Hample. Now, Mr. Miller never heard of this The Silly Book until he started researching The Silly Record a few years back. And then, coincidences of all coincidence, he found a copy sitting on a dusty shelf at an antique store in Cold Spring just a couple summers ago. Man, was Mr. Miller one happy cat!

In case you’ve never had the pleasure, The Silly Book was published in 1961. As the Candlewick Press recounts its history: “first-time writer Stuart Hample worked on a manuscript with legendary children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom. Legend has it that at their initial meeting, Stuart Hample said to the editor, ‘You wouldn't be silly enough to publish anything I'd write.’ Ursula Nordstrom returned with the dare, ‘You couldn't write anything silly enough that I'd publish.’ Never one to balk at a challenge, Stuart ("Stoo") Hample surpassed all expectations with THE SILLY BOOK, and the rest is history.”

Following the success of his best selling book (and a best selling Boodleheimer doll – check out the LP cover to see what a Boodleheimer is) Hample teamed up with veteran composer George Kleinsinger and rookie voice-over artist and TV writer Frank Buxton (voice of the Batfink cartoon) to put together an audio version of his silly stories and songs. The rest is popcereal legend.


Mr. Miller, along with his brothers and sister and Mom and Pop, would sit around and listen to this wonderful record, reciting every line with great enthusiasm. It wasn’t long before catch phrases from the LP began creeping into our daily dialogue. “Cheese please, Louise,” “Me too. Me three. Me four. You four what? I four-got,” and of course “You are silly, we are silly, all of us are silly willy. All of us but cousin Milly.”

Ever since I got on the Internet some ten years ago, yours truly Mr. Miller has been searching for a copy of this much admired LP. Copies are very rare, and I’ve only heard of people finding one here and there for sale. I’ve never seen one myself, but I’m still looking. Luckily, though, I was able to score a recording of the LP. On the Kididdles website there used to be a message board where fans of kid’s music would discuss their favs from long past and present. One member (I’d love to give him credit, but have since forgotten his name) owned the LP when he was a kid, and made a cassette recording of it when he went off to college. Since then his mother had – as mothers do when their kids leave the nest – tossed out all the junk in his room. All he had left of his prized memory was a muffled recording of his scratchy record album. And he kindly offered a CD copy of it, free of charge, to anyone who wanted to hear the beloved album once again. Naturally, Mr. Miller here jumped at the chance like a gapped-tooth boy at a candy apple on a stick.

Take a listen and tell me you don’t let out a giggle… “not even a little bittle?”

http://rapidshare.de/files/12394360/sillylp.rar.html

UPDATE!!
Scratch that last link, kiddies. It's a dead one. Try the lovely folks over at Forbidden Ctypts Music:

http://www.forbiddencryptsmusic.com/sillylp/

* popcereal is defined by this website and its curator to be that certain bit of socially transmitted trivial behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought beloved by the generation of the Saturday morning cartoon

25 comments:

spacesick said...

Oh wow, this is wonderful. Thanks for the interesting record and backstory.

I'll have to give it a full listen later on.

BenT said...

great new blog that I can relate to, being just two years behind you.

I found you thru a link at weirdomusic.com

I'm looking forward to more music posts, and any Halloween stories.

Anonymous said...

DEAR MILLER-TYPE PERSON:

IT IS I, STOO HAMPLE, HIS OWN PERSONAL SILLY SELF, REOPORTING IN AFTER HAVING STUMBLED SERENDIPITOUSLY UPON YOUR SITE THIS AYEM WHILE SEEKING WAYS TO AVOID THE DEPRESSINGLY SILLY NEWS IN THE SUNDAY NEW WORK TIMES. ZOWIE KAPOWIE! IT MAKES MY PLUPPY HEART GO PITTYPAT WHEN I COME ACROSS SILLY RECORD PASSION. AS A MATTER OF FACT, BECAUSE OF YOUR ARTICLE & THOSE ON KIDIDDLES PLUS NEW ONES ON MY AMAZON PROFILE, I'M GONNA SEE IF I CAN FIGURE OUT A WAY TO CONVINCE A RECORD COMPANY TO REISSUE THE SR IN CD FORM. MEANWHILE, I HEREBY AWARD YOU THE "BOODLE" FOR MAKING ME FEEL LESS SILLY FOR HAVING CREATED ALL THIS NUTTINESS. STAY SILLY!

Anonymous said...

DEAR MILLER-TYPE PERSON:

IT IS I, STOO HAMPLE, HIS OWN PERSONAL SILLY SELF, REOPORTING IN AFTER HAVING STUMBLED SERENDIPITOUSLY UPON YOUR SITE THIS AYEM WHILE SEEKING WAYS TO AVOID THE DEPRESSINGLY SILLY NEWS IN THE SUNDAY NEW WORK TIMES. ZOWIE KAPOWIE! IT MAKES MY PLUPPY HEART GO PITTYPAT WHEN I COME ACROSS SILLY RECORD PASSION. AS A MATTER OF FACT, BECAUSE OF YOUR ARTICLE & THOSE ON KIDIDDLES PLUS NEW ONES ON MY AMAZON PROFILE, I'M GONNA SEE IF I CAN FIGURE OUT A WAY TO CONVINCE A RECORD COMPANY TO REISSUE THE SR IN CD FORM. MEANWHILE, I HEREBY AWARD YOU THE "BOODLE" FOR MAKING ME FEEL LESS SILLY FOR HAVING CREATED ALL THIS NUTTINESS. STAY SILLY!

PopCereal said...

Mr. Hample, what a terrificly silly honor it is to have you visit PopCereal! Your work has brought silliness to zillions, maybe even a million-two-trillion. Please drop me a line. I'd love to discuss everyhting Silly with you.
Mr. Miller

Anonymous said...

Not only would I like to have a copy of the Silly Record, but my children (ages 5, 7, and 9) would as well. I never had the silly book when I was young. My wife rolled her eyes a bit when I brought it home after it was recently reissued. Well, after my kids read it to HER she was quickly won over. I'd buy a copy of the CD in a minute!

Oh, and of course I would buy a copy for my cousin (who originally gave me her copy,) my sister's kids, my brother and probably my neices and nephews on my wife's side as well. It would truly make it easier to buy the perfect gift, at least for one year....

Moonie Goonie!

Anonymous said...

I am 14 years old and my dad has had the silly record(and loved it!)since he was a kid. We have a record player at home so my dad, brothers, and I would listen to it when we were little. Everyone loves it! Sadly, our record player doesn't work anymore, and even if it did, my dad would love to find a place to download the songs onto a cd or the computer. Is this album on tape or cd or anything? I would appreciate anyone's input. Thank you!

PopCereal said...

Sarah -

If you look above to some of the comments you'll find that Stoo Hample -- the man who created the Silly Record (and Book) -- says that he hopes to put out a CD of the record one day. For now, though, you can download a (scratchy but highly listenable) copy at the rapidshare link at the bottem of the Silly Record post.

Thanks so much for stopping by, and hope you enjoy!

Mr. Miller

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear the people still remember this album. This is my favorite childhood album of all time. Last night, my brother and I listening to it yet again. It will always make us laugh. His kids are now fans of the album as well. We converted the LP to digital, took out some of the scratches and pops, but will NEVER part with the original LP. Stoo Hample and Frank Buxton are two very important people to this family!!

PopCereal said...

Dear Mr. Anonymous,

Thanks for stopping by. It's the neatest thing to find out that there are others in the world who went bananas over this LP.

You said you put your LP to digital -- any chance that your copy is of better quality than this recording (by the way, this was a copy of a cassette tape of a copy of an old scratchy LP that I found on a website called kiddoodles). I'd sure like a better copy, if there is one, to share.

Mr. Miller

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but I clicked on "anonymous" accidently the first time. My copy is in really good shape. My brother digitially removed most of the crackle and pops ( the LP is full of them) The only down side is there are a few skips in the recording, but nothing to bad. I just got the CD from my brother last night, after we listened to the whole silly record, along with his kids. I remember as a kid I would get so mad at the "silly nothing" section of the record. Also I would get scared at the reference to "moon goons" along with the music that was fantastic, but at times a bit scary. I have so much love in my heart for this album that I would be happy to email a copy to you. I can send it as a MP3 or a WAV file. I hope Mr Hample is O.K. with that.

PopCereal said...

Thank you Kerry! I'll check it out and make it available real soon.

Mr. Miller

Anonymous said...

Is it true? Does someone have a copy of the Silly Record to share and revisit our childhoods with?
I'd love to hear any of this record. Please share any info on how to get an earful. :)
Thanks
Anastasia

Anonymous said...

Mr Miller,

I was so psyched that you had put the MP3 of the silly record on Rapidshare. The link is, however, not working any longer--- is there somwhere else i can find a copy of this wonderful record??? That is, to tide me over till i can buy a copy of the promised CD.

PopCereal said...

Dear Mr. dlconte,
Thanks a gallon for checking out the site. I'm glad you dug it. Try downloading it here:

http://www.forbiddencryptsmusic.com/sillylp/

And remember, keep it silly!
Yours,
Mr. Miller

Unknown said...

Oh, bless you, bless you!!! I've been hoping to find any mention of The Silly Record for years and now you're promising a CD! I'll buy at least a dozen copies. You'll be bringing great joy to lots of people.
Disappointingly, the forbiddencrypt link is defuntco, so please hurry!

And what a treat to hear from Stoo Hample himself. Fate is speaking.

Anonymous said...

Neither of the links is active? Is there anywhere we can download the Silly Record? Thanks!

Anonymous said...

http://www.netsato.com/2007/10/30/the-silly-record-stoo-hample/

has a MP3 download of the record in it's entirety!!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, the link didn't fit on the last post... try:


http://www.netsato.com/

or

http://www.netsato.com/2007/10/30/
the-silly-record-stoo-hample/

Anonymous said...

It's 2008 - And there are too many of us who still love this LP so much that we owe it to Stoo to keep the movement afoot. So send your emails to drrhino@rhino.com to persuade this company to release The Silly Record on CD/mp3 . . .I know I have!

Anonymous said...

I've looked for ages for this - at the beginning with only a vague memory of the "silly nothings" and how terribly mad I was that I could NEVER see one!
I just downloaded the recording from http://www.netsato.com/2007/10/30/the-silly-record-stoo-hample/ and nearly cried with delight!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

coleogyne said...

I am so glad I googled "boodlehiemer" on a lark and found this site! I also have been looking for this record for years; my sister and I listened to it as kids for hours. When she had kids she wanted a copy to pass on the fun, but we've never been able to find it. Thanks for the memories!

Anonymous said...

I'm 52 years old and I still have the original album. My uncle bought it for me for Christmas when I was around 6. Most of the tunes still bubble up from time to time, usually "I am silly, you are silly, all of us are silly-willy," and "chicken face said bow-wow", the silly recipes - "feed to teddy bear" and finally the silly goodnight song. Since then, I've introduced my cousin, her son, my nephew and own 2 children to the record and have transferred it to a CD for personal use. I now have a 1 year old grandchild who's going to look for silly somethings some day.

Unknown said...

I am 53 y old and have been singing the silly songs with my younger sister and brother for decades! Sometimes nothing feels better than to sing "I want to see my mommy a minute...to sing her a little song, to sing her a little, ling her a sittle, sit her a lingle long. I know that my mommy will like it, because it's a very short long..."
Stu, I would buy the CD in two seconds!

Anonymous said...

I just found an original 1962 copy of this Record at a thrift store, in really good condition. I don't see any scratches and the cover is not torn or damaged. Would this be something I should hold on to?

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