A couple weeks back, I blogged about how much my daughter and I were enjoying the old Betty Boop cartoons on Archive.org, which feature the likes of Cab Calloway and fantastic incidental and theme music by Sammy Timberg, who also wrote music fo Popeye, Superman, and other Max Fleischer cartoons.
A commenter mentioned that Timberg's daughter Pat Timberg had recorded and released a CD of Sammy Timberg's Max Fleischer classics called "Boop-Oop-a-Dooin'," and Pat was kind enough to send me a review copy. We've been playing it around the house for a couple weeks now and again, the kid and I have been totally rockin' out. I love hearing some of my favorite Popeye songs, like "Clean Shaven Man" as well as Flesicher classics like "An Elephant Never Forgets" and, of course, Betty Boop's flirty, silly little songs.
The vocals, provided by Timberg's granddaughter Shannon Cullem and Richard "Mr Tin Pan Alley" Halpern are spot-on versions of Popeye, Wimpy, Olive Oyl, Betty Boop and the other Fleischer favorites. The orchestration is lively and sprightly, and my daughter, who's just starting to sing and speak, loves the songs as much as I do.
