New CD Featuring Muppet/Sesame Street Tunes

[JohnFranklin]

Got this today via e-mail. Sounds good to me

jf

Nettwerk Productions (Canada) has joined forces with The Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach and will subsequently release an album of children's music titled 'For The Kids', featuring artists such as Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Five for Fighting, Guster, Sixpence None the Richer and Remy Zero on November 5th, 2002 in North America.

The Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach - An Arts Umbrella Project is a unique school that offers free music education to inner city youth in Vancouver, British Columbia. This new program represents a partnership between Sarah McLachlan and Arts Umbrella, Canada's largest visual and performing arts institute for young people ages 2 to 19.

In the United States, Nettwerk America has teamed with VH1's Save The Music as part of an ongoing campaign to restore and nurture music education programs in the U.S. public school system and raise awareness about the importance of musical programs to youth. A portion of the proceeds from the U.S. release of the 'For The Kids' album will be donated to Save the Music, which is a non-profit organization.

Adam Schlesinger, of both Ivy and Fountains of Wayne fame, says "For a lot of kids, music is one of the first things you become truly passionate about, and it can really help you to see the world in new and unexpected ways." Schlesinger appears with his Ivy bandmates on For the Kids, covering The Carpenters' classic "Sing."

Other contributions to the album include Sarah McLachlan's version of the Kermit classic "Rainbow Connection," the Tom Waits' original lullaby "Bend Down The Branches", as well as Sixpence None The Richer's "Good Night Children Everywhere," originally recorded by crooner Vera Lynn.

1. Cake - Mahna Mahna (Muppet Show)
2. Barenaked Ladies - La La La La Lemon (Sesame Street)
3 Sarah McLachlan - The Rainbow Connection (Muppet Movie)
4. Guster - I've Got To Be Clean (Sesame Street, Bert's song)
5. Dan Zanes - Wonderwheel (original)
6. Glen Phillips - Have A Little Fun (original)
7. Five For Fighting - The Hoppity Song (original)
8. Billy Bragg & Wilco - My Flying Saucer (Woody Guthrie)
9. Darius Rucker - It's All Right To Cry
10. Ivy - Sing (The Carpenters)
11. Remy Zero - Bright Eyes (Watership Down)
12. Dan Wilson - Willie The King (original)
13. Bleu - Snow Day (original)
14. Chantal and Raine Maida - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (Mozart)
15. Sixpence None The Richer - Good Night Children Everywhere (Vera Lynn)
16. Tom Waits - Bend Down The Branches (original)

Some further tidbits of info related to 'For The Kids':
- The first 25,000 albums will come with a Colorific Crayon in the spine of each disc for the U.S. release. Laurentian Crayon will have their crayons in the spine of each disc for the first 5,000 copies released in Canada.
- Darius Rucker was the singer of Hootie and the Blowfish. His track was originally sung by Rosy Grier, the 70's pro footballer.
- Dan Wilson is the singer of Semisonic.
- Glen Phillips was the singer for Toad The Wet Sprocket.
- Dan Zaines is a former member of The Del Fuegos and is now a very successful children's artist.
- Bleu is a Boston artist newly signed to Aware/Columbia - album coming early 2003. He also has a track on Spider-Man.
- The Billy Bragg & Wilco track originally appeared on the album 'Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2' which came out in the year 2000.
- Remy Zero's "Bright Eyes" was originally recorded by Art Garfunkel for the animated film, 'Watership Down'.

 

[scarecroe]

Originally posted by JohnFranklin
1. Cake - Mahna Mahna (Muppet Show)
2. Barenaked Ladies - La La La La Lemon (Sesame Street)
3. Sarah McLachlan - The Rainbow Connection (Muppet Movie)[/B]

Wow. These I've *got* to hear.

 

[grail]

wow...

i'm gonna have to get that. it'd be worth it even if it was just Cake doing Mahna Mahna...

 

[scarecroe]

It should be noted that Mozart didn't write "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," but he did write a series of variations on the original folk tune "Ah, vous dirai-je maman".... much like many composers throughout history have done. But he shouldn't get credit for it.

 

[scarecroe]

Originally posted by grail
i'm gonna have to get that. it'd be worth it even if it was just Cake doing Mahna Mahna...

Yeah, who is this Cake fellow anyhow?

I love hearing all the different versions that have been done of this tune over the years. I'm still hoping to see the Swedish film for which it was written.

 

[grail]

Originally posted by scarecroe
Yeah, who is this Cake fellow anyhow?

not a him, they're a whole band. the song that most people remember by them is one called "Never There" overall, i personally feel they're pretty average "rock, kinda" fare, but every now and again they really shine. usually when i think of them i think of the band "Goldfinger" too...but i'm not sure why.

 

[MuppetQuilter]

It's All Right to Cry is from Free to Be You and Me and was written by Carol Hall. It wasn't credited in the list, so I thought I'd add the info.

 

[Thog]

I love Cake. I saw them live a few years ago and it is one of the best shows I've ever seen. (next to Cyndi Lauper)

 

[scarecroe]

Originally posted by Thog
I love Cake. I saw them live a few years ago and it is one of the best shows I've ever seen. (next to Cyndi Lauper)

I too, love cake. Particularly the chocolate variety. No coconut please.

 

[radionate]

This CD will be a lot bigger then I think people realize. Bands like the Barenaked Ladies (BNL), Cake, etc. have huge fan followings that will buy these things up like crazy. I'm gonna have to find one of these as well as many of the people included on the disc are among my personal favorites. It's gonna be interesting to see how sales of this go. I'm betting it'll be another surprise hit like the new They Might Be Giants children's CD, which is selling more for adults then kids.