The Muppet Show 2
Louise Gold
starred as one of The Muppet Performers
Catalogue number: (US Pressing LP) ARISTA AB
4192, (US Pressing Cassette) ARISTA ATC-4192, (UK Pressing LP) PYE NSPH 21, (UK Pressing Cassette) PYE ZCP 21, (UK Pressing Cartridge) PYE
Y8P 21, album produced in 1978. And, (Stereo 747 label Cassette) 2263.
There is evidence to suggest that this is very probably the first album Louise Gold ever recorded, and indeed at least two tracks that she features on, where actually recorded especially for the album.
Cast
The Players:
Jim Henson (as: Kermit The Frog, Rowlf, Link Hogthrob,
Waldorf, and other assorted characters)
Frank Oz (as: Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal,
Jerry Nelson (as: Floyd, Robin, Dr Strangepork, & other
assorted characters)
Richard Hunt (as: Scooter, Stadler, and other assorted
characters)
Dave Goelz (as: Gonzo, Zoot, and other assorted characters)
Louise Gold (as: Zelda Rose, Annie Sue Pig, and other assorted characters)
Non-Muppet
Bernadette Peters
Peter Sellars
Production Team
Producer - Jim Henson
Directors - Peter Harris and Philip Casson
Musical Associate - Derek Scott
Orchestra Conducted by - Jack Parnell
Writers - Jerry Juhl, Don Hinkley, Joseph A Bailey, and, Jim Henson
Music Consultant - Larry Grossman
Audio - Roger Knight and Ted Scott
Track Listing
Side A
1. The Muppet Show Theme - Cast (The Players)
2. Baby Face
- The Muppet Chickens (any player who can do a decent chicken impersonation: so
probably. Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Jim Henson, and, Louise
Gold are the most likely candidates)
3. There’s A New Sound - Scooter (Richard Hunt)
4. A Monologue - Fozzie Bear (Frank Oz)
5. Cuento Le Gusta - Miss Piggy and The Pigs (Frank Oz with: Jerry
Nelson, Richard Hunt, Louise Gold, etc)
6. Who?
- Zelda Rose and her singing Owl (Louise Gold, with Jerry Nelson)
7. Time In A Bottle - (Jim Henson)
8. An Editorial -
9.
10. At The Dance - Scooter, a muppet girl, Male Chicken, Female Chicken, Kermit,
Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, another muppet girl, Animal, a sheep (Richard Hunt,
Jerry Nelson, Frank Oz, Jim Henson, and, Louise Gold)
11. Upidee
- Fozzie Bear, A Blond Pig, Baskerville The Afghan Hound, Another Dog, Miss Mousey,
A Goat (Frank Oz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, and possibly Richard
Hunt)
12 Just One Person - Bernadette Peters and Robin with The cast (Bernadette
Peters and Jerry Nelson, with The Players)
Side B
13. Happy Feet - Kermit and the frog chorus (Jim Henson with Frank
Oz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, and, Dave Goelz)
14. Pigs In Space - Captain Link Hogthrob, First Mate Piggy, Dr Julius
Strangepork, The Announcer (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and, Jerry
Nelson)
15. I’m Five
- Robin (Jerry Nelson)
17.
18. The Pig Calypso - Miss Piggy, Kermit, with The Pigs (Frank Oz and Jim
Henson, with Louise Gold, Richard Hunt and Jerry Nelson
etc)
19. When
- Rowlf (Jim Henson)
20. A Gypsy’s Violin - Boris-The-Gypsy-Violinist and The Cast (Peter Sellers
and The Players)
21. Wishing Song - Gonzo (Dave Goelz with Jerry Nelson)
22. Animal Sings Gershwin - Animal (Frank Oz)
23. For What It’s Worth - Cast (Jerry Nelson with: Richard Hunt, Dave
Goelz, and, Louise Gold)
24. We Got Us - Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, and The Cast (Jim
Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Richard Hunt, Jerry
Nelson, and, Louise Gold)
25. Closing Theme - instrumental
If
getting the LP the
According to
various Muppet fans it is thought that:
On Track 10:
The girl dancing with Scooter and the Male Chicken are voiced by Jerry
Nelson, The female Chicken is voiced by Richard Hunt, and: the Sheep
dancing with Animal and the girl dancing with Fozzie are voiced by Louise
Gold.
On Track 11, Jerry
Nelson voices 5 different characters, namely: Baskerville The Afghan Hound, Another Dog, Miss
Mousey, and, A Goat
The version of
Who? used on this album is the one that was specially recorded
for the album The Muppet Show 2, with Zelda Rose sung by Louise
Gold, rather than the version on the Milton Berle episode of The Muppet Show, where it was sung by somebody else (an unsuccessful
candidate auditioning for a job on the show).
Two songs from
this album (For What It’s Worth, and, Pig Calypso) were released as a 45
RPM single For What It’s Worth. This of
course involved most of the performers (the six main puppeteers at least, and
Jack Parnell’s orchestra) on this album.
All of the Muppet performers featured on this album, and all the production team, had worked on The Muppet Show, which the two non-muppet singers had of course guested on. There is a very good reason why only six members of The Muppet Show Eight feature on this album, the remaining two members of the Eight (Kathryn Mullen and Steve Whitmire) did not join until later in the run of The Muppet Show. At the time of recording this album the newest recruit was Louise Gold, who had joined during Season II, and is featured on the album.
All six puppeteers represented The Muppets on The
Royal Variety Performance (1977), and according to Muppet Wiki the recording
of We
Got Us on this album actually comes from that performance.
All six puppeteers performed on the film The Great Muppet Caper, on which Jerry Juhl also worked.
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Frank Oz,
Frank Oz,
Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz,
and, Louise Gold puppeteered on The Dark Crystal, for which
Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Dave Goelz also puppeteered on Labyrinth.
Louise Gold and Philip Casson were later involved in creating the Spitting Image pilots.
Louise Gold, Peter Harris and Philip
Casson were later involved with Spitting Image
and the album Spit
In Your Ear
Philip Casson went on to direct Louise Gold in her actress’ guise in an episode of Casualty.
Louise Gold, Richard Hunt,
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Jim Henson,
Dave Goelz,
and, Louise Gold went on to
puppeteer on The
Animal Show, on which Frank Oz
did a guest puppeteering appearance, and Peter
Harris was also involved with.
Louise Gold, Jim Henson, and, Richard Hunt went on to puppeteer on Tale Of The Bunny Picnic.
Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Richard Hunt,
Louise Gold, and, Richard Hunt went
on to puppeteer on The Ghost Of Faffner
Hall (with Louise actually starring, she performed the title role).
Jim Henson, Frank Oz,
Frank Oz,
Review
by Emma Shane
Near the beginning of the album Stadler and Waldorf speculate what might be on this, “the second Muppet Show cast album” and conclude “Probably stuff that wasn’t good enough for the first.” In actual fact this is absolutely not the case, if anything this album is a vast improvement on the first. There are several reasons for this: Firstly, by the time this album came to be put together the show had run for longer, so there was more material to choose from, and everyone, especially the writers, was more experienced in knowing what would work and what would not, thus the standard on this album is much higher than on the first. The time that had elapsed between the first and second Muppet Show cast albums had also seen some changes to the cast. Although The Big Five muppeteers feature on both albums, the first album had also featured season one performers Erin Ozkar and John Lovelady, the meagre musical talent had on offer been eked out by adding Fran Brill to the group. By the time of the second Muppet Show cast album, both Erin Ozkar and John Lovelady had left, and we have the very welcome addition of Miss Ozkar’s replacement, Louise Gold, who, it has to be said, is a considerable addition to the musical resources of the troupe. Although it was very likely her first time properly recording on an album, the gloriously-voiced new girl certainly makes her presence felt on quite a number of tracks.
Besides The Muppet performers, the album also boasts two guest-stars. Bernadette Peters with Jerry Nelson, and the rest of the cast, sing a lovely rendition of the song Just One Person, and I think they do it rather better than the cast of the musical Snoopy do it on that show’s cast recording. Peter Sellers gets to display his comedy talents as a Gypsy violinist, accompanied by an equally mad bunch of muppet singers, amongst whom one can pick out the strong voice of Louise Gold, doing what she often does on these occasions, providing an extra-strong chorus.
The rest of the album is entirely devoted to the vocal talents of The Muppet performers themselves. Besides the many musical numbers, this includes several dialog tracks, mostly featuring Frank Oz. First there is Fozzie Bear on roller skates, a hugely amusing number, made particularly funny by Stadler and Waldof’s commentary. Then there is one of Sam The Eagle’s better editorials, the one on nudity. There is also an entire sketch from The Muppet Show’s regular Sci-Fi send-up, Pigs In Space, this is the legendary one where they have to perform the mid-course correction. I had my doubts about how well this would come across on a record, but it actually works surprisingly well, especially if you are a Star Trek fan. In addition the album includes an At The Dance skit recorded especially for it. This includes: Kermit making one of his characteristic maybe’s to Miss Piggy “I will dance with you when the sun goes red and the ocean turns a yoga”, a very funny female chicken referring to “Peoplepox” (as opposed to Chickenpox), and Animal attacking a sheep (which some muppet fans reckon was voiced by Louise Gold). But my favourite bit in this At The Dance, is Fozzie asking a cute girl, who almost certainly is voiced by Louise Gold, how she likes the jokes, but she’s only interested in dancing.
It is the music that really makes this album. This includes some surprising contributions from muppeteers: Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and, Dave Goelz, who are not particularly noted for their singing abilities (or at least Dave Goelz wasn’t at the time of that album). Frank Oz features prominently as Miss Piggy in Cuento Le Gusta, and again in The Pig Calypso. On both tracks he is admirably backed by the great Muppet singing talents (such as: Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Louise Gold), on the latter number, as well as a notable appearance by Jim Henson as “the frog has come to have his say”, one can particularly hear in the backing vocals of Louise Gold’s Annie Sue (that young lady happening to posses quite a naturally loud and powerful voice). Frank Oz also stars briefly on the track Animal Sings Gershwin, where he attempts a bit of A Foggy Day In London Town, sufficient to say it is so bad it is terrible, but that is probably intentional. Dave Goelz fares rather better, as Gonzo, singing Wishing Song. In fact considering that at the time of The Muppet Show he was not very experienced musically, he actually does it rather well, and it is something of a foretaste of what he would go on to achieve as a singer on Muppet recordings. Jim Henson also manages to handle his three solos very well, although his voice might not be in the same league as Hunt or Nelson, it is never-the-less more than passable, and well suited to the material he sings. When is the least successful of these songs, although it is very funny. Happy Feet, as his reliable standby Kermit, is sheer delight, he is absolutely in his element, and sings it really well. According to various Muppet fans Jim Henson also sings one of the most poignant numbers on the album Time In A Bottle. The number is thought provoking and characteristic of Jim Henson, the man who made his directorial debut with a short film called Timepiece, a man for whom there never seemed to be enough time.
The Muppet Show 2, is not, a sad album, it contains many moments of riotous Muppet fun, characterised, amongst other things by four ensemble numbers. Sea Chanty is a funny item about being a sailor, performed hilariously, in typical muppet fashion by a bunch of unlikely mis-fits: Scooter, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, and, Robin. In fact this works surprisingly well, especially Frank Oz’s Fozzie. Baby Face, as performed by The Muppet Chickens is one of the high-spots on the album, although I’m not sure how much of it was actually recognisable as anything. None-the-less it is very funny, in a typically muppet-chorus kind of a way. It is also a splendid example of just how good those muppeteers are at doing funny voices, and performing musical numbers in them. Another gloriously silly little song, they even say it is in it’s altered lyrics, is Upidee; This has some input from Frank Oz, some very noticeable input from Louise Gold, getting a rare opportunity to do a British accent (and a very classy British accent she does too), but the number’s biggest star is probably versatile Jerry Nelson, since he sings about four different characters! The number is also a great example of something else The Muppeteers are very good at, singing complete gibberish seriously! There cannot be that many singers who would be willing to do that. (For example Broadway’ s Ethel Merman would never sing any lyric she did not understand, and actually walked out of a show called Sadie Thompson because of that, somehow, though, I get the impression that The Muppet’s own resident Merman-belter might sing something regardless of whether it made sense - perhaps someone should try casting her in Sadie Thompson!). But delightful silliness, not to say down right zaniness is just typical of The Muppets, especially on The Muppet Show, and this is delightfully summed up by the team with We Got Us. The song may have originally been written for Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme to sing in the 1968 musical Golden Rainbow, but I do not think it can ever have been better inhabited than it is by The Muppets. This song is quite simply them, in particular the lines “People may say we are crazy the way we are, that we won’t even discuss,...., we got us” seem to be an accurate description of those crazy, zany, anarchic muppets, and their talented, extrovert, madcap muppeteers.
One thing The Muppets, especially at the time of The
Muppet Show had in abundance, which is really displayed well on this
album, is considerable musical talent. By being made in
All in all, if you buy just one Muppet album relating to The Muppet Show, I would suggest this, because it is one of the best, and out of the ones you are likely to stand a reasonable chance of being able to get a copy of, it is by far the best. All the tracks on it are worth hearing, some are perhaps more outstanding than others, but there is not a dud amongst them. The album revelles in the talents of six outstanding performers, all of whom make their own distinct contributions to the album, but are collectively more than the sum of the parts. In a way it might not seem fair to single out any one individual from the six for special praise, but perhaps one might just mention the newest, and youngest of them, Louise Gold (who at the time of this album was in her early twenties) makes her own unique contribution to the album, if it was her recording debut, then she certainly did it proud, and proved herself to truly belong with the zany, crazy, loveable, talented Muppet performers starring on this album, which must surely be one of the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, muppetational albums the muppet gang have ever produced.
Critics Comments
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Links about The Muppet Show 2
Muppet Wiki’s page for this album: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/The_Muppet_Show_2
Discogs’s
page for the album: http://www.discogs.com/release/1355282
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