“A Charlie Brown Christmas”  Charles Schulz  (Charlie Brown Records)  The 1966 Emmy and Peapody Award-winning, Primetime CBS-TV special that became an annual holiday ritual for kids of all ages.  Repelled by the commercialism he sees around him, Charlie Brown tries to find the true meaning of Christmas.

The soundtrack by jazz composer Vince Guaraldi has become as well-known as the story itself.  In particular, the instrumental “Linus and Lucy”  has come to be regarded as the signature musical theme of the Peanuts specials. Additionally “Christmas Time is Here” has become a popular Christmas tune. A soundtrack album for the special was released by Fantasy Records and remains a perennial best-seller. (While the soundtrack contains some music that does not appear in the TV special, it also fails to include two musical themes which appear in the special. Both of those missing themes are, however, available on another album by the Vince Guaraldi Trio entitled Charlie Brown’s Holiday Hits.)

(25 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)

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Captain Kangaroo’s Songs and Dances  Bob Keeshan with Orchestra and Chorus  Columbia Records  Everyone I hung out with in kindergarden watched the Captain and Mr. Green Jeans and the puppets.  Of course there were only three channels.

(18 votes, average: 3.78 out of 5)

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Shrimpenstein was on KHJ channel 9 in LA from 1966 to 1968. This is the opening theme sung by Dr. Von Schtick (Gene Moss in a bad Boris Karloff imitation and the Tijuana Bats.

The hosts were Gene Moss (Dr. Von Schtick) and Jim Thurman (voices). Shrimpenstein was a miniature Frankenstein monster (a ventriloquist dummy who was “created” when jellybeans were thrown into the Monster Machine) Moss and Thurman wrote the Roger Ramjet cartoons and did advertising campaigns, mostly for radio. Moss later did voice-overs for LA’s channel 2 news and Disney/Touchstone pictures previews.  Thurman also wrote and did voices for Sesame Street.

(34 votes, average: 4.32 out of 5)

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The Adventures of Babar the Elephant  Philips France  As I imagine many of my generation do, I remember Babar well from those first oversized books I read and reread as a young boy.  Like Bambi, it begins with his mother getting shot and killed by hunters.  Pretty heavy.  I should go back and read it again.

(22 votes, average: 3.55 out of 5)

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ULTRA MAN

(38 votes, average: 4.45 out of 5)

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Pinky and Perky’s “Beat Party”  Columbia/EMI Records

(42 votes, average: 4.14 out of 5)

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67 Melody Lane Ken Griffin At The Wurlitzer Organ  18 Selections From The Ken Griffin TV Film Series “67 Melody Lane”  Columbia Records, 1950s  “What I find funny about this cover is that the star himself is the small BW figure shown on the TV set, not the guy in the large color pic.  The album itself is (musically) unlistenable.” — lp cover lover, Nicholas West

(4 votes, average: 3.25 out of 5)

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“Monster Shindig”  Super-Snooper and Blabber Mouse with The Gruesomes (of the Flintstones), Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Wolf Man.  Songs:  “The Monster Shindig” and “The Monster Jerk”  Hanna-Barbera Original T.V. Stars.    This brings back fond memories of a childhood spent in front of the TV on Saturday Mornings and coloring books, board games, comics, puzzles, lunch boxes, notebooks and records.

(24 votes, average: 3.92 out of 5)

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“Judo Boy”  Polydor Records.

(22 votes, average: 3.64 out of 5)

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“My Name is Roosevelt Franklin”  Featuring the voices of Matt Robinson and Rosalind Cash.  Sesame Street Records.  (You can download this at Way Out Junk)

(33 votes, average: 3.88 out of 5)

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