Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Wideo Wednesday: Welcome to Horrible Hall ...

 



Don't believe I ever noted I had these DVDs in my archive. Well, I do now. Groovie Goolies: The Saturday"Mourning" Collection. [Update: after a little searching, I find I did list it, but misspelled it as Groovy Ghoulies. Go figure.]

Groovie Goolies premiered in 1970, made by Filmation. The premise was that a batch of ‘hip’ monsters lived together in an eccentric castle/boarding house, where they had daily adventures, told jokes, and sang songs. They were all ‘cousins’, and Sabrina the Teen-Aged Witch was their cousin too, and would sometimes drop by, and they would appear on her show as well. In fact, the two shows were originally packaged together.

Besides all their tag lines (‘This place is driving me batty!’ ‘I needed that!’) what I remember most are the songs. Sung by a number of imaginary ‘groups’ like The Mummies and the Puppies and The Rolling Headstones (as well as the trio of Drac, Frankie, and Wolfie) in-world, they were actually sung by a studio band, rather like The Archies. They combine toe-tapping good fun with a vibe that I experienced sometimes as downright scary (such as the songs ‘What’s in the Bag’ and ‘Midnight’). A selection of these were released as an LP at the time, and, years later, as a CD.

Many can be found on YouTube these days. Here is a small selection.

Groovie Goolies Frightening Frankie Dangerous Drac And Weirdo Wolfie (Music Video) - YouTube

Groovie Goolies What's In The Bag (Music Video) - YouTube

Groovie Goolies - Cling Clang - YouTube

Groovie Goolies Chicka Boom (Music Video) - YouTube

Groovie Goolies Midnight Music (Video) - YouTube

Groovie Goolies - Noises - YouTube

Groovie Goolies - Population Party (1970) in Stereo w/ Animation - YouTube

Groovie Goolies - Super Ghoul (1970) - YouTube

Groovie Goolies Where You Going Little Ghoul (Music Video) - YouTube



Cling Clang always reminds me of The Marvelous Toy, by Tom Paxton (also attributed to John Denver and Peter, Paul, and Mary, who certainly did covers of it; I’ve also seen it described as an Irish folk song!)


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