Customer Reviews

From Your Golden Childhood: The Best of Little Golden Records, Vol. 1

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Remember Little Golden Records? Yellow 78's with a distinctive sound. Also on 45's and LPs but rarely on CD and totally out of print for years. The good people at Shout! Factory have releases some real treasures from the long-out-of-print Golden Records catalog, some never available for the last 60 years.

Volume One of YOUR GOLDEN CHILDHOOD features Shari Lewis, Mighty Mouse (Andy Kaufman's "Saturday Night Live" version), Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Jimmy Durante, Cliff "Jiminy Cricket" Edwards & more. 14 songs in all, many for the 1st time in 50 years.

Just a few of the precious gems aglow on this volume:
* The fantastic Jimmy Carroll version of "Carousel Waltz" never before on CD and a version unlike any other.
* A totally different version of "Give a Little Whistle" recorded for Golden by Cliff Edwards.
* A moving rendition of "Hi Lili, Hi-Lo" by Shari Lewis.

The Shout! Factory folks were gracious enough to consider my input on these releases, as well as Golden Records boosters Bill Smith and Don Hunerberg. I have to offer a mea culpa caveat to those of you who are more expert than me in some of the facts in the notes; that may by Roy Halee and not Tom Morrison singing for Mighty Mouse as listed and I'm not sure if those are the ball players in the chorus of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame or just the Sandpipers (even though files seemed to indicate thus). Because of time constraints, some little nits are present, but please if you will focus on the magnificent big picture of so many mini-masterpieces.

Audio riches to be sure. If the two initial volumes succeed, more will follow.

This CD collects 14 "Little Golden Records", which was a children's record label from 1948 to 1964. They were probably the best produced children's records of their era. The songs here are well selected and a lot of fun to listen to if you are a fan of children's music.

These are really fun. My only quibble is the snafu of the liner notes in Vol.1, omitting any mention of the Mighty Mouse Theme. (Same version Andy Kaufman used to use in his act by the way)

Were there more of these records? I would buy them all, really great release.