Oh my dahling, oh my dahling
Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.
02/07/61 : Huckleberry Hound - Original TV Soundtrack
It wasn't at all clear whether we'd have an album to listen to this week, so imagine my surprise when THIS popped up. I remember Huckleberry Hound from my youth - he was a smart-arse dog from Hanna Barbera along the same lines as Yogi Bear or Top Cat, but that's all I can remember. It's fair to say I'm not expecting this to be a top notch album though...
Well, I had to search for it but found a copy on YouTube - and I'm glad that I did because it's even more bizarre than I was expecting! I thought it would be the theme tune, incidental music and some songs but instead it's just the soundtrack to one episode of Huckleberry Hound which includes two tales of the hound himself, one of Yogi Bear and one of Pixie & Dixie & Mr Jinks (who I also vaguely remember). Without the visuals, the whole thing feels a bit disconnected but I can see it would have appealed to some children at the time (although kids these days just wouldn't understand) - but surely not enough for it to chart?!? Well - surely it did, I guess...
We're at #12 in the charts this week on their second week of a two week run, which is mad enough but is nothing compared with the nine week run that it had earlier in the year with it peaking at #10 - 1961 gets weirder the longer it goes on. The top five this week were South Pacific, Elvis, George, Barber/Bilk and more Elvis and we have one new entry for Tony Newley (#17) and we've got no unmet albums left on the chart this week so who knows where we'll be next week!
Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the album but my memory was jogged about The Huckleberry Hound show. It was initially shown from '58-'61 in the US (it must have been a good ten plus years later that I was watching it) and it was the first animated series to be given an Emmy. Huckelberry's trademark was singing "My Darling Clementine" and Yogi Bear and Pixie & Dixie & Mr Jinks were shown as segments within the show, with Yogi Bear being so popular that he got his own series - to be fair, he's a level above the others. I was also reminded that Mr Jinks's catchphrase was "I hate those meeces to pieces" - I could hear it in my head as I read it!
"Customers also listened to" - well, we'll never know because it's not on Amazon but let's possibly go for "no similar recommendations" because I'm not sure how many other albums are actually similar to this. 1961 has thrown up some very strange items, but I'll be surprised if we come across anything stranger than this.
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