Customer Reviews

The Mighty Hercules (1963 Television Cartoon)

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This CD is welcome for fanatics of early 60's kiddie ersatz, but apart from the art work and some track titles has very little to offer that fans of the Mighty Hercules cartoon show from Trans-Lux will remember. Those seeking some of the lushly orchestrated music used as underscoring should look to an out-of-print Intrada CD called Creature From The Black Lagoon, devoted to the music of Hans J. Salter. The horn-laden music underscoring the scenes in which Hercules put on his magic ring and held it up to the lightning, and the heroics that followed, were all lifted from the score of the 1955 movie The Black Shield of Falworth, co-written by Salter, a suite from which -- including the "Hercules" music -- is included on the "Creature From The Black Lagoon" CD from Intrada.

This is not the powerful and well orchestrated music of the 60's cartoon I watched on Sunday mornings. Who was allowed to put this hoowey out?

Original soundtrack from the Mighty Hercules cartoon? Not even close...what a disappointment! Fans of the popular children's cartoon will feel an urge to remove (destroy) this product as soon as they hear the opening track. If you're looking for the sweeping, powerful voice of Johnny Nash, or the full orchestration that practically defined this classic, look elsewhere. What you'll find here is a milquetoast, watered-down 40's genre mishmash that even Disney would discard. If you're a Lawrence Welk fan, then this is for you; otherwise, skip this one. What a shame!

Can only blame myself. The audio clips and buyer reviews were all there but I leaped first. "Cast Recording"? Noooo way. This is some group re-singing the songs from the original show, but completely void of the familiar, if hokey and shrill, voices and sound effects of the cartoon. The artwork that shipped with this (seems I had to supply my own CD case) seems genuine enough. I recall that Golden Records did a lot of these cheap, brightly coloured plastic 45 RPM "homages" to TV shows back in the early 60's. I recall it because the feeling of disappointment when I played this CD was completely familiar. LISTEN TO THE AUDIO CLIPS *FIRST* and decide. It will help you avoid trying to summon the mighty Hercules to dispatch the goons who put this together. O-lympiaaaaaahhhh!

No, this is NOT the soundtrack, nor does it contain any of the original cast voices. The actual package does not make any such claim. This is actually a "studio cast" or "second cast" album made by Golden Records in 1963.

It was common practice, for one reason or another, for children's records companies like Golden to use non-soundtrack and non-original-cast versions. Sometimes it came down to money. An album selling for anywhere from 99 cents to $1.00 does not always have the budget to access the original cast (which involves studio time, talent and musician fees and sometime travel and expenses). Sometimes the soundtrack is not cleared for recordings, so it would be expensive to re-pay all the necessary fees (1951's Disney's Alice in Wonderland was never a soundtrack album until the 1990's for these reasons).

But that's no consolation if you're looking for an album to bring you back to the childhood memories of THE MIGHTY HERCULES. Despite amazon's erroneous "soundtrack" listing, it does not sound at all like the series. Instead, it has the Jim Timmens modest-budget sound that dominated Golden Records of the early 60's. However, longtime Famous Studios composer Winston Sharples DID co-write the songs (including the infamous theme). There are very few Winston Sharples records. It also features New York session singers of the period, particularly Rose Marie Jun, who did countless commercial jingles as well as song demos for some of Broadway's biggest shows. She also co-starred with Streisand in "Pins and Needles."

So, if you do recall the Golden Records sound of your childhood, you like the cover art, you want a rare musical score by Winston Sharples which appears nowhere else, or you want to get anything connected with this cartoon, which had little merchandise as I recall, this CD is for you.

This album does feature the theme sung by the Golden Singers, and does include extra lyrics. If you want the Johnny Nash soundtrack theme, it's on "Toon Tunes:Action-Packed Anthems" on Rhino or "Television's Greatest Hits, Vol.4: Black & White Classics" on Tee Vee Toons.

This is indeed the re-release of a vinyl childrens classic put out in 1963 by Golden Records.Baby boomers will recapture their childhood with this one, as it will take you back to the days of camping out with cereal and snacks in front of a huge black and white console television, (most of us had one!).Of course this release would benefit from additional tracks including memorable underscores,but then it might detract from their intent that this is a pure re-release. I'm sure you will enjoy the memorable theme song most of all, --"with the strength of ten ordinary men", so why didn't eleven villians rush him?

I really enjoyed this album of "The Mighty Hercules" as it shows the variety of music used in the cartoon. I only wish that the series was available, too. Maybe one day soon... A great gift idea!