You probably remember the classic Sesame Street album Sesame Street Fever (on the right), a takeoff on the movie soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever and the disco craze in general. The producer of that best-selling album died of bladder cancer on Monday in New York City.
Arthur Shimkin also produced the Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer album sung by Jimmy Durante and came up with the idea that spawned Little Golden Records, which included such artists as Bing Crosby, Alfred Hitchcock, Roy Rogers, and Burl Ives. He also produced the 1961 version of Peter and the Wolf, with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. I remember that album really well. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, if you finished your work in class early, you got to go over to the corner of the room, sit in a comfy chair, and listen to albums on headphones, and that was one I listened to over and over again.
The obit says that Shimkin produced over 3000 records, and that is quite an achievement.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-09-2006 @ 10:40AM
Sonya said...
Is that the same album that had The Nutcracker Suite on the flip side? If so, I had that album and would love to find it again. The part where the wolf was coming was always so scary to me as a child.
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1-12-2007 @ 12:23PM
H. Galewitz said...
I worked with Golden Records in the 50's and 60's and I have no memory of Jimmy Durante ever appearing on a Golden Record. I, of course, remember our version of Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer as we reissued it every year and Johnny Marks would call each year to see how it was selling. The record was recorded by mitch Miller or his right hand man, "Jiggs"
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1-12-2007 @ 12:25PM
H. Galewitz said...
Burl Ives was never on a Golden Record.
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