By the way… Anything fun, funny or interesting counts. An album of preschool songs with Billy the Goat, Susie the Snake and Tom the Cow probably won’t fit.
I will add In the Mood by Henhouse Five Plus Two
There’s that hideously awful Frogs Chorus thing by Paul McCartney. (Link omitted out of basic decency)
j
A few more songs, including year and peak position on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100:
Oh! Susanna by The Singing Dogs (1955, #22) (The B side medley included ‘‘Jingle Bells’’, which was expanded and released as a single in 1971)
Rockin’ Robin by Bobby Day (1957, #2)
Uh! Oh! Part 2 by The Nutty Squirrels (1959, #14)
The Boll Weevil Song by Brook Benton (1961, #2)
Hey Shirley (This is Squirrely) by Shirley & Squirrely (1976, #48)
The Muppets covered the Gnu Song.
Okay – Disney and Don Bluth and other animated features give you plenty of animal-sung songs. Let’s go for less obvious.
Fleischer studios (until it was basically shut down by Paramount for scurrilous reasons) put out a lot of cartoons and two features, many with singing animals. Notable were Small Fry from the short of the same name and LOTS of Betty Boop cartoons (that, in the beginning, had a lot od animals).
The second Fleischer feature, *Mr. Bug Goes to Town* (AKA *Hoppity goes to Town* AKA *Bugville*) (1941) features four songs by the bugs:For something really obscure, consider 1948’s Bill and Coo, a movie starring – birds. All of the characters are birds, and the movie was filmed on a 30 X 15 foot set. And this was decades before Jonathan Livingston Seagull). A number of pieces of music were used, but I’m not surre if any birds sang any of them
Apparently the film won a special honorary Oscar in 1948.
The only reason I know about this is that we had a tie-in record for the film at my house when I was a kid, with pictures from the film on the record jacket. It’s not the kind of thing that shows up on TV, or in the movies at kiddie matinees, or even on home video. But it’s on YouTube in its full one hour glory:
The song *Let's all sing like the Birdies Sing* wasn't written for a Fleischer cartoon, but they used it in two cartoons. Later, Disney used it in their "Enchanted Tiki Room* at Disneyland and other parksThat reminds me of The Birdie Song which, dear lord, may be even worse than that awful frog thing. Link included for technical evaluation purposes only*.
j
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- see, I told you it was worse.
Prince had a lot of doggy help on La La La He He Hee
Just remembered a couple of good ones - and after the horrors I posted upthread, I’m morally bound to share these:
Animal Language by Lou Reed (not Uncle Lou’s finest work, but fun)
Freakout Frog by Spirit (Feat. Kermit, as the young people would have it these days)
j
Warner Brothers cartoons were created to feature their characters singing songs: in the beginning Looney Tunes were produced by Hugh Harmon, and Merrie Melodies were Rudolf Ising’s responsibility (The two also worked together as Harmon-Ising, probably the most appropriately named production company in film). Even after they left, the cartoons were often a way to feature a song (usually ones owned by WB, of course).
So there are dozens to choose from. The best of these is probably “I Love to Singa,” with Owl Jolson performing the song. Tex Avery directed, and Chuck Jones was one of the animators. The cartoon also features other songs sung by animals as part of a talent contest.
If I Only Had the Nerve and If I were King of the Forest by The Cowardly Lion
And Betty herself started out as a dog. Her ears morphed into hoop earrings.
The first song that popped into my mind was “Memory” from CATS.
“I Haven’t Got a Hat” sung by WB cartoon dogs Ham and Ex, in the landmark cartoon by that name. Not because of them, but because of the first introduction of a certain stuttering pig.
Hello my honey, hello my baby, hello my ragtime gal…
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s The Monkey is pretty awesome, and mostly consists of a conversation between some primates.
Lullaby From the Great Mother Whale For the Baby Seal Pups by Paul Winter features vocals (and a melody) by a humpback whale.
Litterbox Massacre is a Slamming Catcore band from Canada. Two days ago they released a new single, Red Dot Mystery.
I also give high marks to My Bowl’s Half Empty from their spring 2019 EP Welcome to the Scratching Post.
Does background singing count?
Pink Floyd - Seamus
How about I Want to Eat Your Face from Bruce Kimmel’s The Creature that wasn’t Nice/Spaceship/The Naked Space? It’s a sort-of musical version of Alien made by the same guy who made The first Nudie Musical. It’s sung by the titular Creature.
It starred Cindy Williams, Patrick MacNee, and Leslie Nielsen! (In addition to Kimmel, who wrote and directed it, and wrote all the songs)
