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A New Muppet Show Album
I've decided that there needs to be a new Muppet Show album. It's shocking to me that there were only 2 LPs released of music, the last of which was in 1978 when the show still had three more years to go. With as much musical content as was featured on this show, it's appauling that such very little of it was released commercially. I mean, if you figure that there are at least an average of 6 songs per episodes at 120 episodes, that's approximatley 720 songs over the course of the show; give or take.
The Muppet Hits CD and it's follow-up were dissapointing releases omitting material from the original LPs. I think that especially now with the 25th Anniversary being celebrated (what better time to do it?), that the music of this show deserves more attention. I mean, sure we can bootleg the songs we really like from our taped-from-Odyssey episodes (for those of us who have them, I only have the Time-Life releases), but how swell is it to go back to The Muppet Show 2 LP and listen to "Time In A Bottle," "Just One Person" with Bernadette Peters or "A Gypsy's Violin" by Peter Sellers without any audience laughter or applause?
The thing that irks me in the back of my mind is that I know there are session masters of other material like this sitting in a vault at the Henson Archives out there somewhere (like the Ark of the Covenant, but more valuable). You know, the versions recorded of the song before the audience track (laughter, applause) was laid in.
The way I figure it, is that Henson could make some really cool deal with someone like Rhino Records or Varèse Sarabande and make a "The Muppet Show: 25th Anniversary Special Edition" 2-disc set containing all material never before released (okay, I'll give in somewhat... 90% unreleased material), all digitally restored and remastered from the original masters!
Disc One would be all Muppet only stuff. No guest stars. Stuff like the Smile Medley from the Brooke Shields episode (and dozens others that I just can't think of right now).
Disc Two would be all stuff done by guest stars and The Muppets. Having an entire disc devoted to big names would also be a shoe-in for a sales angle; I mean, I'm sure every Diana Ross fan out there would love to get their hands on a CD that contained her unreleased performance of "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand" on The Muppet Show. Same goes for so many other stars (you can see it now, the CD would be packaged with a sticker on the wrapper stating that this disc contains previously unreleased material by "such and such, etc").
I know I'd love to have remastered, sans-audience versions of Linda Ronstadt's "When I Grow Too Old to Dream," Julie Andrews' "When You Were A Tadpole and I Was a Fish," Danny Kaye's "Inchworm" or Ben Vereen's "Imagination."
[sigh], I get all dreamy just thinking about it. Can I co-produce the album?
Are there still Henson spies here?
Hello? [echoes.......]
My plea has been made. That's my one of many dreams. I see it happening with old film scores all the time and it just makes so much sense to do it for The Muppet Show. It just needs the attention fo somebody willing to devote the time and effort to it, which sadly seems to be lacking in quality media releases for Muppet content lately.
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