Back in the day (Saturday morning, to be precise), Scooby Doo, Archie, The Amazing Chan And The Chan Clan, Josie And The Pussycats etc. would go try to solve a mystery/have an adventure and partway through there would a musical interlude where music and song would accompany a scene where, basically, the cast would run around like a chicken with its head cut off and the antagonist(s) would give chase. Is there any way to find this music? Has it been released on record, tape, cd, anything?
Would this be an example of the music you’re interested in? There seem to be several tunes here.
No. That is just standard cartoon chase music.
Josie and the Pussycats was, of course, a cartoon about a band, and as such, they had an original song in most, if not all, of their episodes. (And Cheryl Ladd, then credited as “Cherie Moor,” sang on many of them, as she provided the singing voice of Melody.)
An album of those songs was released back in the 1970s, and on CD at some time after that. Amazon lists it, but has no way to purchase it right now. I’m pretty sure that that’s Ladd in the album cover below.
A very good example of what I’m talking about.
Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp had a musical interlude, but I don’t believe there was any running around. While it appeared to be just a bunch of chimpanzees chewing bubblegum while playing, I think that their songs were supposed to be sending secret codes to A.P.E.
The Groovy Ghoulies always had one.
@DMC 's post remindied me of discogs.com; here’s the link to the Josie and the Pussycats CD, which appears to also have music from the sequel series, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.
https://www.discogs.com/release/14875715-Josie-And-The-Pussycats-The-Collection
And, here’s a link to a Youtube playlist which appears to be most, if not all, of the original vinyl album, plus some other tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIoYk5084tI&list=PLl4KJVTSf0RMe6Co_41DBZ_MAc20bXkbf
I think that musical performance I linked is from the pilot, not an interlude.
Yes, the blonde in the photo is Cheryl Ladd. She actually was capable of singing, and had a nice singing voice (I’ve heard her 1978 self-titled album), and there was nothing wrong with her voice. Just too many others competing for “girl with a nice voice” spots on the radio dial, I guess. Karen Carpenter, Helen Reddy, and Olivia Newton-John were tough competition in the late 1970s.
Interestingly, in the comics, Josie (guitar, lead vocal) was a redhead, Melody (drums) was a blonde, and Valerie (whatever else needed playing) was a brunette.
How do I remember this stuff?
Apparently, though the cartoons showed Josie singing lead, Ladd, who was cast as Melody due to being the blonde, sang lead on most of the songs.
This is the series I remember doing it most. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids.
Of course, this went all the way back to 1965 with The Beatles cartoon series. Each cartoon set up a situation where a Beatles song was played as the characters rushed around tying up the plot. The half-hour show itself would start with a standard cartoon of this type, have two short cartoons which were also songs but included on-screen lyrics, and then end with a standard cartoon.
The cartoons were always written around the songs and it was a pleasure to see how far the writers would go to get the plot to work with the lyrics. Anna is a ship? Miss Lizzie is a suit of armor?
I don’t even vaguely remember that one existing, weird. I take it was yet another Scooby clone?
I barely remember it. Ran for one season in 1973, and Wikipedia says that, yeah, it was similar to Scooby-Doo or Josie and the Pussycats (teen rock band solves crimes). Also, it notes that Micky Dolenz voiced the drummer in the group.
Speaking of Micky Dolenz…
In the live-action realm, inspired by A Hard Day’s Night, The Monkees had a non-performance musical break in almost every episode. The segments were called “romps”, which seems to be as good a term as any.
And it also had Judy “Dyna Girl” Strangis as a singer.
“Me and my friends get no respect!
What does Scooby do that we neglect?
We be puttin’ all our foes in check,
but me and my friends get no respect!”
Cartoon Network did a 90s version of Jabberjaw for one of their “Groovies” shorts. Making fun of the musical breaks in their cartoons too.
Another ‘toon was a Charlie Chan and the Chan Clan ( or somesuch title ) and they broke into song whereby the hip teens/young adults played in a rock band and they belted out some bubblegum-ish song.
Robert Smigel had a lot of fun parodying this part of Saturday morning cartoons. Scroll down the page the video of the X-Presidents musical interlude.