Non-singing guests

David French

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Gorgon Heap said:
That was their closing number, but if you listen, only the Muppets are singing it.
That's a bit unfair; just because you can only hear the Muppets doesn't necessarily mean the Guests weren't singing along as well. When you have a whole lot of voices singing at once you're not going to hear every single voice on their own as they'll all have blended in together.
 

Gorgon Heap

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David French said:
That's a bit unfair; just because you can only hear the Muppets doesn't necessarily mean the Guests weren't singing along as well. When you have a whole lot of voices singing at once you're not going to hear every single voice on their own as they'll all have blended in together.
If they're blending well enough, then yes, that's correct. I sing in two competing barbershop quartets and a chorus and have been singing in choirs my whole life, so I've learned a lot about blend.

Often, though, you could hear the guest star's voice- Roger Moore, Sylvester Stallone, etc, when they were singing along with the Muppets.

As to my original summation, I've never noticed Shields & Yarnell's lips moving during the sung parts of their closing number, so I assume they weren't singing along. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Dil said:
Disney didn't have the rights to use Vincent Price's only singing appearance on his episode of The Muppet Show in the Season 1 DVD, so they had to make the episode look like Price "didn't" sing in it.
In real life, Vincent Price quite enjoyed singing, even though he wasn't hugely successful at it. He starred in a very short-lived Broadway musical called "Darling of the Day". You can listen to samples here.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
 

David French

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Gorgon Heap said:
If they're blending well enough, then yes, that's correct. I sing in two competing barbershop quartets and a chorus and have been singing in choirs my whole life, so I've learned a lot about blend.

Often, though, you could hear the guest star's voice- Roger Moore, Sylvester Stallone, etc, when they were singing along with the Muppets.

As to my original summation, I've never noticed Shields & Yarnell's lips moving during the sung parts of their closing number, so I assume they weren't singing along. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Interesting thoughts, thanks for that. It's been years since I last saw the Shields and Yarnell episode so I'm afraid we'll have to put a question mark beside them until we can get confirmation from someone.
 

giovannii

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Dil said:
I guess Edgar Bergen, Liberace, and Shields & Yarnell were unsungable on the show, too.

Comedy is Spike Milligan's and Jonathan Winter's forte, and their singing was only good for comedy as well.
Liberace sang "Eight Foot Two" as the finale in his Special Concert dedicated tot he Birds.

Shields & Yarnell sang "Make Em Laugh" as their closing number.

Edgar Bergen appeared in the "Consider Yourself" number. I dont think neither he, or Charlie McCarthy sang any of it tho.
 

giovannii

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Gorgon Heap said:
That was their closing number, but if you listen, only the Muppets are singing it.

I revised the non-singing guest list:

Season One: Juliet Prowse, Harvey Korman, Peter Ustinov, Phyllis Diller, Mummenschanz

Season Two: Don Knotts, Edgar Bergen (the Muppets sang "Consider Yourself and Charlie just made wisecracks during), John Cleese

Season Three: Spike Mililgan (arguably- he doesn't sing "It's a Small World" but toward the end, he hums it... before spitting out a ping-pong ball)

Season Four: Shields & Yarnell, Victor Borge, Jonathan Winters, Doug Henning

Season Five: Jean-Pierre Rampal, Wally Boag (he speaks some lyrics in the closing # but never sings them)

For the longest time I thought Brooke Shields didn't sing on the show, but she does actually sing the first two "I'm falling"s.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
Brooke Shields also sang in "We're Off To See The Wizard" in the closing number.
 

David French

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giovannii said:
Liberace sang "Eight Foot Two" as the finale in his Special Concert dedicated tot he Birds.
It's actually an adaptation of the song "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl?)" - this version is "Has Anybody Seen My Bird?"
 
D

Dil

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I don't think Spike Milligan was singing or speaking along "It's A Small World", in fact; I think he's shouting along:

"It's A Small World after all! It's A Small World after all! It's a Sma-all Wo-orld after all! It's A Smal Small World!"

He switched hats in each of those sentences.
 
D

Dil

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Gorgon Heap said:
In real life, Vincent Price quite enjoyed singing, even though he wasn't hugely successful at it. He starred in a very short-lived Broadway musical called "Darling of the Day". You can listen to samples here.

David "Gorgon Heap" Ebersole
Indeed, Gorgon Heap, yes Indeed. Vincent did quite enjoy singing, especially while playing his favorite role; as the voice of Professor Ratigan from The Great Mouse Detective. You can see and hear Ratigan's song in "The Great Mouse Detective" and the archive footage of that song in "Disney Sing Along Songs: Be Our Guest".
 
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