Greatest Hits and More

by Art Mooney

Overview

Art Mooney had a simple and effective formula for success: make recordings of old-fashioned melodies that everybody knows really well, using a bevy of loud and All-American singers, a well-oiled big band, accordion, glockenspiel and a banjoist to create an atmosphere invoking hot dogs, cotton candy, boiled sweets, beer buckets, ice cream, corn dogs, peanut shells and sawdust. Mooney, who is said to have patterned his instrumentation after a vaudevillian parade ensemble known as the Philadelphia Mummers, sold a lot of records for MGM during the late 1940s and early '50s using well-worn tunes with singalong titles like "Baby Face," "I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover," "Five Feet Two, Eyes of Blue," "Toot Toot Tootsie" and "If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake." Mooney's star vocalists were Betty Harris, Madelyn Russell, Cathy Ryan, Alan Brooks and Bud Brees. By far the weirdest record Mooney ever made was "Doo De Doo on an Old Kazoo," an almost alarming novelty featuring a team of vocalists who deliver the stilted lyrics with heavy-handed simplicity and take an instrumental chorus with kazoos wedged firmly in their mouths. Although it's all in fun, if the playback volume is raised to maximum output levels, some might find these harmonizing kazoos just a wee bit demonic. Mooney's music took a long time to find its way onto the digital reissue format. Released in 2007, Sepia's Greatest Hits and More filled a perceived gap in the 21st century musical marketplace. This bracing collection also includes a taste of Mooney's motion picture soundtrack recordings. They are not instrumentals, of course, but feature the signature Mooney ensemble vocalists, whose bright tonalities, concise diction and formidably wholesome harmonies were used in several Hollywood flickers including George Stevens' Giant" and David Miller's The Opposite Sex, which were both premiered in 1956. ~ arwulf arwulf

Product Details

Release Date:	07/10/2007
Label:	Sepia Records
UPC:	5055122110941
Rank:	91183

Tracks

1. I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover
2. The Big Brass Band from Brazil
3. Baby Face
4. Bluebird of Happiness
5. Sunset to Sunrise
6. Beautiful Eyes
7. Doo de Doo on an Old Kazoo
8. Again
9. Five Feet Two, Eyes of Blue (Has Anybody Seen My Girl)
10. Merry-Go-Round Waltz
11. Twenty-Four Hours of Sunshine
12. Hop Scotch Polka (Scotch Hot)
13. Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Good-Bye)
14. I Never See Maggie Alone
15. If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake
16. Silver Dollar
17. M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I
18. Lazy River
19. Heartbreaker
20. Honey-Babe
21. No Regret
22. Daydreams
23. Giant
24. Rock and Roll Tumbleweed
25. The Girl I Left Behind Me

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Art Mooney   Primary Artist
The Galli Sisters   Vocals
Mike Pingatore   Banjo
Bud Brees   Vocals
Alan Brooks [Vocals]   Vocals
Madelyn Russell   Vocals
Cathy Ryan   Vocals
The Four Clovers   Vocals
Betty Harris   Vocals

Technical Credits

Sidney Arodin   Composer
Robin Cherry   Remastering,Restoration
Art Mooney   Recitation
Tony Middleton   Liner Notes
Clark VanNess   Composer
Frank Capano   Composer
Craig Hewitt   Graphic Design
Sandor Harmati   Composer
Everett Tilsey   Composer