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
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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