Animal Crackers in My Soup: The Songs of Shirley Temple

Maria Muldaur, Music for Little People | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 18, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Music Little People
• ASIN: B000066RLV
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,075 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. You've Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby

2. Animal Crackers In My Soup

3. At The Codfish Ball

4. Hey! What Did The Blue Jay Say?

5. We Should Be Together

6. On The Good Ship Lollipop

7. I Love To Walk In The Rain

8. This Is A Happy Little Ditty

9. Early Bird

10. When I Grow Up

11. An Old Straw Hat

12. Goodnight, My Love

13. Lullaby To A Doll

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Never has there been a better time to climb aboard the Good Ship Lollipop. With folk-blues great Maria Muldaur at the helm, Shirley Temple's classics shed their girlie-poo preciousness and shimmy into a new-millennium attitude, speckled with spunk, finger-snapping rhythms, and jazzy sophistication. These 13 songs, all of whose '30-era lyrics prove watertight, send nostalgia walking the gangplank, and lower the life rafts for a new generation of car-seated crooners. Muldaur glides, gravel voiced, into long-lost favorites like "An Old Straw Hat," "Goodnight My Love," and "I Love to Walk in the Rain," but it's on a handful of duets that she shines brightest. "You've Gotta Eat Your Spinach, Baby" with Norton Buffalo serves up a cheeky give-and-go that even vegetable haters will gobble willingly, and "We Should Be Together" ("You're a cup of coffee / You're a peachy pie") with Buffalo and child star Carrie Lyn--who also performs the title track, "On the Good Ship Lollipop," "When I Grow Up," and "Lullaby to a Doll"--is parent-child snuggle music, pure and simple. (Get out your movie guide if you need to know which films these tunes come from, though, because the liner notes won't help you.) Temple fans might favor a more foo-foo flavor to these classics, but for now, forget the fluff. Muldaur's chocolate-bar landings prove every ounce as happy as her precocious predecessor's, and the lemonade stands and crackerjack bands still sweep you back to more innocent shores as effectively. --Tammy La Gorce

Product Description

Animal Crackers in My Soup: The Songs of Shirley Temple

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem: You'll Never Grow Old If You're Young at Heart, May 2, 2004

By 

Suzanne Simpson (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animal Crackers in My Soup: The Songs of Shirley Temple (Audio CD)

Because Maria Muldaur is so fabulous, I unabashedly bought "Animal Crackers in My Soup" for my (grown-up) self. It is a flat-out terrific album, brightly fun and touching. The renditions highlight how perceptive, witty, and, as Maria says in the liner notes, "hip" the songs are. Like the best reinterpretations of jazz classics, they both re-enliven the songs and pay tribute to the original performers. Maria surely would have been a film star in the 1930s (from screwballs to weepers), with her keen intelligence, independent spirit, energy, comedic talents, beauty, and sultriness. So, I guess we can't say that they don't make 'em like that anymore. She should have at least a special on TMC or AMC!

As in Shirley Temple's work, love shines through Maria's voice on these songs, providing the embrace, faith, and hopefulness that children--and all of us--need. One can truly feel that love. Maria has paid close attention to the child listener through, for example, her clear enunciation and the duets with and solos by little Carrie Lyn, which would encourage sing-along. (And dance-along and snap-along: You have to start swingin' when you hear this album!) The intelligence and care in the album are also apparent in the selection of all the artists. The band is "cherce," as Jimmy Durante would say. Carrie Lyn is a marvel--believe it or not, a child performer without a touch of the lamentable oversophistication and Broadway "projection" that predominate nowadays. And Norton Buffalo is a hoot. There is no "talking down" to children on this album.

You don't have to analyze the components, though, just enjoy them! I highly recommend the album for children (it will become for me a favorite gift for children), jazz lovers, wits, fans of old movies, anyone who needs a lift--well, anyone! Now, that's one way to discover your sparkling inner child. I can't wait to get Maria Muldaur's other albums for "young people." OK, swing it!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not Just for Little People!, January 19, 2004

By 

B. London (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animal Crackers in My Soup: The Songs of Shirley Temple (Audio CD)

Maria Muldaur is an American musical treasure, so don't be fooled into thinking her recordings for children are not also FABULOUS for us big grown up people. As is always the happy case, Muldaur brings aboard superior musicians and here assembles a tight swinging band featuring an especially talented player of all the reed instruments-Jim Rothermel. The sound is very much like John Kirby's Biggest Little Band of the 30's and 40's that often featured Claud Thornhill's piano and the light hot swing of Maxine Sullivan. And-as always, Maria shows exquisite taste in assemling songs from the great songsmiths of the 30's like Ted Koeler, Eddy Heyman, Mitchell Parrish, Richard Whiting and Harold Arlen. All the material is charmingly memorable in the delicious styles of Red Norvo's little swing band with Mildred Bailey or Teddy Wilson's sextet with clarinetist Edmond Hall. Goodnight my Love swings just like Benny Goodman's hit with Helen Ward, and when Muldaur sings with the young talented 8 year old girl you'd swear the Boswell Sisters were swinging singing again. Superior music for young and old!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful tribute to Shirley Temple's song catalog and wonderful for family listening., June 29, 2011

By 

Steven I. Ramm "Steve Ramm "Anything Phon... (Phila, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Animal Crackers in My Soup: The Songs of Shirley Temple (Audio CD)

Though I was familiar with - and have reviewed - Muldaur's other CDs for the wonderful Music For Little People (MFLP) label, this is one I didn't know about. Hence, this review is being posted much later than the others.

I'm a big "Maria" fan and also love old film musicals - so this was an ideal combination for me. I've recommended the other MFLP CDs because there are delightful to both adults and kids. This one is a borderline case - though I'm still giving it five stars. The reason is that Maria doesn't take lead on all the tracks. She's accompanied by Carrie Lyn (who appears to be about 12 years old at the time the CD was recorded in 2002 - and does not appear on any other CDs that I could find) approximating the original sound of Shirley Temple (at probably age seven or eight. This makes it much less interesting to adults without kids - unless you are already a HUGE Maria fan.

But for families - especially ones with little girls - you can't beat this for entertainment value. The sound - like all MFLP releases - is top notch and so is the band!

It's a four star as a package for adults and a five star as a kids' or family album.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"