A.A. Milne Poetry Recordings (Looking for a Specific Recording)

Cafe Society
1

When I was a kid, I grew up on Winnie-the-Pooh. Mom and Dad read it, they taped a broadcast of the movie which pretty much got worn out, and we had a cassette tape of someone reading/singing various bits of poetry from the two Pooh books and also from When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six.This tape got a lot of play in the car on road trips and the like. I can’t go looking for it now as the cassette, assuming it still exists, is a couple thousand miles away. A little bit of searching on Wikipedia tells me that the music was composed by Harold Fraser-Simson (tough name to spell after watching too much TV) and I think it was performed by George Baker and Gerald Moore. However, my searching has failed me and I cannot come up with the name of the recording or any source of it on either CD or for download.

So, does anyone know what I’m talking about and perhaps know where I might be able to get a copy?

Oh, in case anyone was wondering, it came up because while out picking apples a week or so ago I was warned to watch the thistles, which got me singing Pooh’s little poem about Tigger’s finicky eating habits. This, of course, then necessitated an entire explanation and also put me in the mood to find this recording.

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It doesn’t sound exactly like what you’re talking about, but I remember having this record as a kid (in addition to the Disney Pooh ones).

3

Thudlow Boink I had that record too! OMG, wow, nostalgia overload…

asterion, if you’re looking for the old George Baker recording, I’ve found it at a couple of places:

Music Stack

A selection of songs for download on Amazon.co.uk

There are also a few listings on eBay, FWIW.

Actually the Pooh record I remember best is this one, read by Maurice Evans. His lugubrious voice was perfect for Pooh and especially Eeyore.

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This is the Evans version I had (back when I slept with a stuffed piglet)! Had 2 of them IIRC - think they are still downstairs. May have to give them a listen. Rum tum tiddy um pum indeed!

5

The standard, for many people here for many years, was the dramatised radio one with Norman Shelley as Pooh (though the recording quality now sounds poor).
I’ll enter a Big Raspberry here for the awful Disney ones. ‘Disneyfication’ of our culture, indeed.

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Thudlow Boink, I, too, had that one. I still sometimes find myself singing Ho! for the Life of a Bear at odd times.