The Count’s Countdown
Louise Gold is credited
in the sleeve notes as featuring as The Countess, album produced in 1997 -
However, has been some debate as to whether this is correct. This page assumes the sleeve note credits were correct (see below).
Catalogue number: (Sony
Wonder CD) LK 63409, (Sony
Wonder Cassette) LT63409.
Cast
Starring
Jerry
Co-Starring
Fran
Brill (as Zoe, and,
The Countess’ Mother)
Kevin
Clash (as Elmo)
Louise
Gold (as The
Countess)
Richard
Hunt (as A Great
And Good Friend Of The Count)
The Count’s Special Guests
Ftatateeta
and the Bats
Nine Robins
The Royal
Transylvanians (featuring Marilyn Sokol)
The Singing
Dancing Lambs
Production Team
Produced
by - Ed Mitchell and Christopher Cerf
Mastered by Vic
Anesini at Sony Music Studios,
Musical
Director for
Arranged and
Conducted by - Dave Conner, Stephen Lawrence, Robby Merkin,
Sam Pottle, and, Joe Raposo
Music Supervisor
- Danny Epstein
Lyrics
Coordinator - Dan Sovak
Special
Thanks To - Vicki Bennett, Lou Berger, Thom Cadley, Janelle
Courts, Joe Diaz, Tina Fuscaldo, Ryan Hewitt, Ann
Marie Kearns, Steven Laszio, Joe Marziotto, Chuck
Nankivell, John Phillips, Renee Rachelle, Deborah
Strafella, Belinda Ward, Linda White, and, Alan Winnikoff
Music by - Christopher
Cerf, Tony Geiss, Stephen Lawrence, Robby Merkin, Jeff
Moss, Lee Pockriss, Sam Pottle, Joe Raposo, Jule
Styne
Lyrics by - David
Axlerod, Sammy Cahn, Tony Geiss, Emily Kingsley, Jeff
Moss, Joe Raposo, Adam Rudman, Norman Stiles, Peter
Swet, Belinda Ward
Track Listing
1. The Song Of The Count
(Music by Jeff Moss, Lyrics by Emily Kingsley, 1972) -The Count (Jerry
Nelson)
2. The First Day Of School
(Music and Lyrics by Jeff Moss, 1982) - The Count (Jerry Nelson)
3. The
4. Little Miss Count Along
(Music by Robby Merkin, Lyrics by Adam Rudman, 1994) - The Count
and Zoe (Jerry Nelson and Fran Brill)
5. Nothing To Count
(Music and Lyrics by Jeff Moss, 1983) - The Count (Jerry Nelson)
6.
7. The Batty Bat
(Music and Lyrics by Joe Raposo, 1986) - The Count with Ftatateeta and
the Bats (Jerry Nelson and company)
8. Counting Is Wonderful
(Music by Sam Pottle, Lyrics by Emily Kingsley and David
Axlerod, 1975) - The Count and Elmo (Jerry Nelson and Kevin Clash)
9. One Potato (Music
and Lyrics by Jeff Moss, 1978) - The Count (Jerry Nelson, with
company)
10. Count Up To Nine
(Music by Sam Pottle, Lyrics by David Axlerod, 1977) - The Count
with Ftatateeta and The Bats (Jerry Nelson with Company)
11. Hands (Music
and Lyrics by Jeff Moss, 1978) - The Count (Jerry Nelson)
12. It’s Been A Long Time
(Music by Jule Styne, Lyrics by Sammy Cahn, - not sure of
recording date) - The Royal Transylvanians with The Count (Marilyn Sokol
with Jerry Nelson)
13. Counting Robins
(music by Christopher Cerf, Lyrics by Norman Stiles, 1994) - The
Count and Nine Robins (Jerry Nelson, with company)
14. I Could Have Counted All Night (Music
by Stephen Lawrence, Lyrics by Belinda Ward) - The Count, The
Countess, and, The Countess’ Mother (Jerry Nelson, Louise Gold,
and, Fran Brill)
15. The Lambaba!
(Music and Lyrics by Tony Geiss) - The Count with The Singing Dancing
Lambs (Jerry Nelson with company)
The Cassette follows the same
track-listing as the CD, with Tracks 1 to 7 on Side A, and Tracks 8 to 15 on
Side B.
There has been some debate as to whether
Louise Gold actually sang I
Could Have Counted All Night on this album. The voice is a very unusual
one, for her, although not outside the bounds of possibility to be one of hers.
Muppet Fan TW noticed that Louise Gold could not have puppeteered
the number of Sesame
Street itself (because that was puppeteered right-handed), its possibly
the singing on the programme itself may have been Julianne Buescher (Muppet Fan TW thinks that is who it sounds most
like). However, Louise Gold (as she
herself confirmed) did sometimes sing numbers on Sesame Street that she
didn’t puppeteer, so this could be one of them. The big question, though, is
whether the sleeve notes of this album are correct. The three puppeteers
credited on the track in question in this album can’t remember for certain: Ms
Gold herself doesn’t remember it (but that doesn’t necessarily mean she didn’t
do it). Meanwhile Puppeteer FB and Sesame Street colleagues (including Puppeteer
JN)’s consensus of opinion seems to be that Louise Gold probably did sing it.
Apart from Marilyn Sokol, it is
not known who sang the roles of The Count’s Special Friends on this album,
however likely possibilities include: Pam Arciero, Camille
Bonora, Fran Brill, Richard Hunt, Jim Kroupa, Peter
Linz, Richard Lyon, Noel MacNeal, Alison Mark, Jim
Martin, Joey Mazzarino, Jeff Moss, Carman Osbahr, Marty
Robinson, and, Tish Summers
All
of the people involved with this album had of course worked on Sesame Street.
The CD version of the album and the cassette version
had slightly different front covers. Both depicted Elmo and The Count, with The
Count holding a microphone. On the cover for the CD Elmo was holding a CD, and
on the cover for the cassette Elmo was holding an audio cassette tape.
Many
years before this recording, Louise Gold played a maid in a production
of My Fair Lady and in it is very likely that she sang
backing vocals on that production’s version of I Could’ve Danced All
Night.
Jerry Nelson,
Richard Hunt, and, Louise Gold, appeared on The Muppet Show, as did Fran Brill (although she was
only in Series 1); for which Sam Pottle wrote the theme tune.
Jerry Nelson,
Richard Hunt, and, Louise Gold feature on the albums: The Muppet Show Music Hall, The
Muppet Show 2 , The Muppet Show Music
Album , John
Denver & The Muppets A Christmas Together, John Denver &
The Muppets Merry Christmas 45RPM, Jim Henson Presents Silly Songs
, Muppet Hits 1 , Muppet
Hits 2, Christmas For Kids, and, John Denver Christmas. They puppeteered on
The Muppets Go To The Movies, and were also among the muppeteers who
appeared on The Royal Variety
Performance (1977), and featured in the documentary Of Muppets And Men.
Jerry
Jerry
Jerry
Jerry
Jerry Nelson
and Louise Gold puppeteered on The Muppet Christmas Carol, and, The Secret Life Of Toys; and can
be heard on the The Muppet Christmas Carol
(Soundtrack album) and Jerome Kern The First 100 Years.
Jerry
Jerry
Jerry
Jerry
Kevin Clash
puppeteered on Labyrinth
Marty Robinson
puppeteered on Spitting Image
Jerry Nelson, Kevin Clash, and, Louise
Gold puppeteered on Muppet Treasure
Island.
Stalwert
Muppet singers: Jerry
Jule Styne’s
music can also be found in Gentlemen
Prefer Blondes and Side By Side By
Sondheim.
Camile Bonora, Richard Hunt, and, Marty
Robinson puppeteered on Tale Of The Bunny Picnic.
Jerry Nelson did voice-work
on the UK Co-Production of Fraggle Rock (as well
as puppeteering on the main show).
Pam Arciero, Camille Bonora, Fran Brill,
Kevin Clash, Louise Gold, Richard Hunt,
Jerry Nelson, and, Marty Robinson had performed at Jim Henson’s Memorial Service.
Ed Mitchell went on to
work on A Green And Red Christmas,
for which Jerry Nelson is credited
as a backing vocalist.
Louise Gold, and, Richard Hunt had puppeteered on The Ghost Of Faffner Hall.
Louise Gold
subsequently appeared on stage with Liz Robertson (Lerner) in Noel/Cole: Let’s Do It, and Side By Side By Sondheim.
Review
by Emma Shane, 17
January 2003
If,
like me, you are a fan of that wonderfully voiced muppeteer Jerry Nelson,
then this album is an absolute must have, seeing as he is it’s star. Indeed the
very best thing about this album is that at long last it gives Jerry Nelson
his chance in the limelight. In the many years he has been with The Muppets he
has made an immeasurable contribution to their success, in particular with his
notable contributions to their musical success, yet, he seems all to often a
little overlooked, but not on this album. If any Muppet album could be
described as truly his, it is this one, and with his wonderful voice he makes
the most of it.
Two
of Jerry Nelson’s best performances on the entire album are The
First Day Of School and Hands. The former gives Jerry
Nelson a brilliant opportunity to demonstrate his considerable vocal
prowess, changing style several times in the song. It starts fairly quiet and
slow, but the chorus is a fast tempo tour de force. Although I am familiar with
hearing Jerry Nelson’s singing on Sesame Street and The
Muppet Show, until I heard this number I don’t think I realised just
quite how brilliant a singer he is. Hands is notable simply
because Jeff Moss made a good job of writing ironic lyrics. Well they
are very ironic as sung by a performer like Jerry Nelson. After all
besides, the twenty two things listed in the song, his hands can also operate a
puppet (such as The Count), rather well.
All
of the tracks on this album are very listenable to, not least because they are
so well sung. Few Muppet albums contain quite such a consistently high standard
of vocal performance as this one. Nevertheless some songs do stand out a little
more than others. Amongst the more memorable are: Little Miss Count Along,
and, The Batty Bat. A bit more notable are Counting Robins,
and, The Transylvania Polka. The former has a very catchy tune
and I’m sure a similar tune turned up somewhere on The Muppet Show,
while the latter, is very funny, and could well be a sort of spoof on something
else.
Another
number which is clearly a spoof, this time most definitely from Lerner and
Lowe’s My Fair Lady, is, my favourite track on the album,
I Could Have Counted All Night. This is the only track where the star
of the album is to some extent overshadowed by one of his colleagues, namely Louise
Gold. Ever since their Muppet Show days these two have always
made a great singing team (and one who seem to take it in turns to shine - Louise
may dominate on this particular number, but on some of their other duets Jerry
has dominated, and on other occasions neither has dominated the other, it’s a
very equal partnership). In this particular instance, it seems to be
magnificently appropriate for Louise, to take the lion’s share of the number.
However, Jerry, as one would expect, stands up to her well, and the combination
is shear delight. Fran Brill, taking on a Mrs Pearce (Henry Higgin’s
housekeeper) type role as The Countess’ Mother barely gets a look in. But
perhaps the most striking thing about this track, is not the wonderful winning
singing combination (good though that undoubtedly is), but Louise Gold’s
excellent job of creating an accent for The Countess. If I hadn’t known she was
on this track I certainly would never have guessed it was her. In fact the
first time I heard the track I was not entirely certain who was who (out of Louise
Gold and Fran Brill). It was only by realising that lyrically which
part had to be The Countess, that I knew which had to be her.
All
in all, if you want to hear the cream of the Muppets musical talent, then this
album, starring the great Jerry Nelson, along with some of the best
singers amongst his fellow Muppeteers, is certainly one to get.
Critics Comments
.
Links about The
Count’s Countdown
Muppet
Wiki’s page for this album: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Count%27s_Countdown
FYE.com’s
entry for this album: http://www.fye.com/Count-s-Countdown-Front-Page_stcVVproductId200172VVcatId455366VVviewprod.htm
