The Muppets A Green And Red
Christmas
Louise Gold apparently appeared as one of the backing
vocalists.
Catalogue number: CD Walt
Disney Records 61635-7
Cast
Credited On Sleevenotes
Bill Barretta – as Pepe The King Prawn, Dr Teeth, Rowlf The Dog,
and, The Swedish Chef
Dave Goelz – as Gonzo, Waldof, Zoot, and other assorted
characters
Louise Gold – backing vocals
Eric Jacobson – as Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and, Animal
Jerry Nelson – backing vocals
Mike Quinn – backing vocals
David Rudman – backing vocals
Steve Whitmire – as Kermit The Frog, Rizzo The Rat, Statler
and other assorted characters
Uncredited
John Kennedy – as Floyd
Pepper
Production Team
Produced
by - Ed Mitchell and Ted Kryczko
Arrangements
by - Steve Merrell
Mixed by – Rick Ruggieri
Mastered by
– Doug Sax, with “Sunny”
Creative
Direction by – Steve Gerdes
Album Design
by – Sam Tejaratchi
Track Listing
1. Zat You Santa Claus? (by J. Fox) – Electric Mayhem Band (Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz,
Eric Jacobson, and possibly Steve Whitmire)
2. A Red And Green Christmas (by E. Mitchell, and, T Armbruster) – Kermit and Miss Piggy (Steve Whitmire and Eric
Jacobson)
3. The Christmas Party Singalong (by E.
Mitchell, and, T Armbruster) – Rowlf
with backing vocalists (Bill Barretta
with the backing vocalists)
4. Merry Christmas Baby (by M.
Love, and, R. Wilson) – Pepe (Bill Barretta)
5. The Man With The Bag (by I Taylor, D Brooks, and,
H Stanley) – Floyd, Animal, and,
Zoot (John Kennedy, Eric Jacobson, and, Dave Goelz)
6. Santa Baby (by J. Javits, P. Springer,
and, T. Springer) – Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson)
7. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (by
8. North Pole Comedy Club (by E.
Mitchell, and, T. Armbruster) –
Fozzie, Statler, and, Waldof possibly with backing vocalists (Eric Jacobson, Steve Whitmire, and, Dave
Goelz and possibly backing vocalists)
9. Run Rudolph (by M. Brodie, and, J. Marks)
– Electric Mayhem Band (Bill Barretta,
Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, and, possibly Steve
Whitmire)
10. Christmas Smorgasbord (by E. Mitchell, and, T.
Armbruster) – Swedish Chef with backing vocalists (Bill Barretta with backing vocalists)
11. The Christmas Queen (by
E. Mitchell and, T. Armbruster)
– Miss Piggy possibly with backing vocalists (Eric Jacobson with backing vocalists)
12. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (by R. Blane, and, H. Martin) – Kermit (Steve
Whitmire)
It is perhaps worth noting that all five of the “backing
vocalists”, along with veteran Dave
Goelz, and, Steve Whitmire, had
all sung on The Muppet Christmas
Carol (Soundtrack album), it leads one to speculate as to whether their
could possibly be a connection?
Bill Barretta, Louise Gold, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson,
Mike Quinn, and, Steve Whitmire had previously
puppeteered on Muppet Treasure Island.
Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and, Steve
Whitmire had previously puppeteered on The
Animal Show.
Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and, Steve
Whitmire were among the eight main puppeteers on The
Muppet Show, on which
Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, and, Louise Gold had previously appeared on The Royal Variety Performance
(1977). Their recording credits include: The Muppet Show Music Hall, The Muppet Show 2, For What It’s Worth, Jim Henson Presents Silly Songs.
Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and, Steve
Whitmire’s recording credits include The
Muppet Show Music Album, The
Great Muppet Caper (Soundtrack album), John Denver And The
Muppets (A Christmas Together), John
Denver & The Muppets Merry Christmas 45RPM, Muppet Music Sampler, Muppet Hits 1, Muppet
Hits 2, Christmas For Kids, John Denver Christmas, and Music Mayhem And More.
It is not clear whether the songwriter D Brooks is or is not the same person
as the acoustic guitar player Denny
Brooks who featured on John Denver And The
Muppets (A Christmas Together).
Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, Mike Quinn,
and, Steve Whitmire had previously
puppeteered on The Great Muppet Caper,
and, The Muppets Go To The Movies.
Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Mike Quinn, and, Steve
Whitmire had previously puppeteered on Dark
Crystal, for which Jerry Nelson
did some voice-work
Louise Gold, and, Mike Quinn went on to represent the
puppeteers in an item about the film Dark Crystal
on Blue Peter.
Louise Gold, and, Mike Quinn had previously puppeteered
on the UK Outerspace segments of International Fraggle
Rock for which Dave Goelz, and, Jerry Nelson did voices.
Dave Goelz,
Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson,
Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson,
Tom Armbruster, and, Ed Mitchell were also involved with Elmo’s Lowdown Hoedown, on which Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, and, David
Rudman sang.
Rowlf The Dog (when he was performed by Jim Henson) had sung Have
Yourself A Merry Little Christmas on John Denver And The
Muppets (A Christmas Together).
Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, and, Steve Whitmire had previously appeared in “a burlesque show with some of the Muppet
company”.
Jerry Nelson’s recording
credits include Jerome Kern The
first 100 Years, The Count’s Countdown,
and, Born To Add.
Louise Gold,
Louise Gold,
Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and, Mike Quinn
had puppeteered on The Secret Life Of
Toys.
Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, John Kennedy, Jerry Nelson,
David Rudman, and, Steve Whitmire had puppeteered on Sesame Street (in the early 1990s).
Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, and, Steve
Whitmire had featured on the documentary Of
Muppets And Men, on which
Review
by Emma Shane, 27
December 2006
This
is a rather odd Muppet Christmas offering. There are certainly some
peculiarities about it. For instance why are such great Muppet singers as Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold, not to mention
The
album is considered something of an important transition in Muppet history.
Since of the main performers on this album only two of them worked on The
Muppet Show and are performing their own special characters from those
days. Admittedly three of the “backing
vocalists” are also The Muppet Show veterans (which only
adds to the puzzle as to how their vocals came to be on the album). The two
remaining principals, Dave Goelz and
Steve Whitmire do their best to try
and uphold the standards and style one would expect from classic Muppets, This
comes across very well on It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.
Newcomers
Bill Barretta, Eric Jacobson, and, John
Kennedy do their best, but trying to step into the gloves of such legends
as Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and, Jerry Nelson,
well it’s asking a bit much. I think their talents might have been better
served by having them create their own characters in the Muppet tradition. The
trouble is that might not exactly sell records. I thought John Kennedy the least effective of the three. But that is probably
because I really do admire Jerry Nelson’s
talents. It was Jerry who made so many bit characters much more than bit parts,
which a wonderful singing voice that helped to give The Muppets their sound.
And well he’s too hard an act to follow. Meanwhile Eric Jacobson is trying to step into Frank Oz’s gloves. He does the voices very well. And he clear has a
talent for delivering comedy. However I really felt his talents would have been
better severed by a new character one of his own. In recent years Frank Oz’s performance as Piggy had
gone a bit off the mark, become rather a caricature of herself. So perhaps it
is time to see what someone else can do with it; although there appeared to be
a slight lack of chemistry between him and Steve on the title song (but then
Jim and Frank had a very special chemistry). One has to remember that most of
the classic Muppet characters were created with particular puppeteers in mind;
and very often the character grew out of characteristics of his or her puppeteer; examples (on The
Muppet Show alone) include:
Kermit The Frog, Fozzie Bear, Floyd Pepper, Scooter, Gonzo, and, Annie
Sue. How does a performer get inside someone else’s skin, can they really be
that person? Well sometimes it can work, for example Steve Whitmire’s Kermit. However Eric Jacobson’s Fozzie is an example where it doesn’t quite work.
Eric can deliver comedy onliners But, on North Pole Comedy Club, he seems to
have made appear Fozzie a little too clever. When Frank Oz did Fozzie part of the joke was that Fozzie didn’t realise
or didn’t want to realise quite how bad his act was. I think Eric would be
better developing his own comedian character, a replacement for Fozzie (perhaps
a bit like Leslie Carrara’s Spamela
sort of filled a similar role in Muppets Tonight to that of Annie Sue on The
Muppet Show – only Spamela was older and more sophisticated). Of the
newcomers Bill Barretta seems to do
the best. He has been with The Muppets for a number of years now, steadily
working his way up. For Merry Christmas Baby he has been
given a chance to do his own character, one that doesn’t belong to anyone else.
His performance on The Christmas Party Singalong is one of those instances where,
no I don’t think he does Rowlf as a character quite as Jim Henson would have done it. But if one is going to have Rowlf on
then someone has to do it, and he tries to make it his own. In fact one should
remember that as a character Rowlf grew and quite possibly changed a bit over
the years; compare Rowlf on The Jimmy Dean Show to Rowlf on The
Muppet Show. So while Bill’s version takes a bit of getting used to,
perhaps its a way forward. The Swedish Chef however, I did not think so good as
characterisation. But then I wonder what The Swedish Chef is doing on an album
in the first place. He was really more effective as a visual character
originally. So its more a fault of the album’s creators than Bill’s
performance, and that said, the backing vocals do sound good on this
track. As for Electric Mayhem. Well I
wasn’t that keen on some of their pieces in the first place. They could descend
into caricature; and the presence of the new performers only exacerbates that.
It may sound severe to say this, but listening to this album I can’t help but
wonder whether perhaps The Muppets
have really had their day?
As
a Christmas album, I think this CD is quite fun. The score is fairly innocuous,
but funny. It would probably be a very good album to have on as background
music for a Christmas party. A lot better and more pleasing to the ear than
some of the albums sold for such purposes. As a Muppet album however, I do not
think much of this album. It feels like an attempt to cash in on the fame and
merchandising potential of The Muppets.
It sounds rather more like some of those music albums there have been that used
songs associated with The Muppets
recorded by other people, rather than the genuine article; despite the fact
that there are two veterans starring on the album plus another three (rather
indistinguishable) on backing vocals. And as an album involving
However,
the album does have one track that is truly beautiful, a perfect classic
Christmas song, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, sung with utmost
simplicity and sincerity by Steve
Whitmire as Kermit. This is one of those simple brilliant songs, that is
just right for Kermit, it suits him as well as his signatures Bein’
Green, and, Rainbow Connection do. Like Jim Henson before him, Steve
Whitmire understands just how to bring out that tender, simple quality in
Kermit. In fact Jim Henson as Rowlf
sang this song beautifully as a duet with John
Denver, but Steve Whitmire’s performance
on this album is even better. The one occasion when a performer inheriting
another’s character has really worked.
Critics Comments
.
Links about The Muppets
A Red And Green Christmas
Muppet
Wiki page for the album: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/A_Green_and_Red_Christmas
Muppet Newsflash item about the album: http://muppetnewsflash.blogspot.com/2006/09/im-dreaming-of-green-christmas.html
Barnes And Noble’s page for the album: http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=50086163571&z=y
Amazon.com’s page for the album: http://www.amazon.com/Muppets-Green-Red-Christmas/dp/B000IFRQ90/ref=pd_sim_m_2/105-2398029-0704419
Muppet Central Thread about the album http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=29533
Muppet Central Review of the album: http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/reviews/merchandise/green_red_cd.shtml and on Greg James’s My Space page: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=29718577&blogID=186817301&MyToken=57cd618c-9f68-47f6-a3bf-85af2bda8c5e
FYE.com’s entry for the album: http://www.fye.com/The-Muppets-Green-and-Red-Christmas-Front-Page_stcVVproductId5985683VVcatId455366VVviewprod.htm
