D. J. David B. Spins Comics-Tunes: Tip Of The Hat To Arnold Stang
It has often been wondered (by me, if not by anyone else) whether the purview of this blog extends to animated cartoons as well as those printed in newspapers and in comic books. Well, for this Tuesday anyway, it does.
What better way to pay tribute to the legendary actor Arnold Stang, than to look at and listen to his most important contribution to toondom, Top Cat?
As was often the case at Hanna-Barbera, Top Cat was based on a popular character without any mention of him. Clearly, The Flintstones were the Stone-Age Honeymooners, Snagglepuss was a pink Bert Lahr, and Yogi Bear was Art Carney’s Ed Norton (forcing Barney Rubble to be a non-Carney characterization when The Flintstones came along later). In none of these cases, or any of the others, did the original actor provide the voice. Which makes it that much more fun that Arnold Stang imitated Phil Silvers’ Sgt. Bilko character rather than doing Top Cat as himself, given that Arnold’s natural voice was so distinctive and well-established on radio and television.
In memory of the late, great Mr. Stang we present, not one but TWO toon tunes today. One is the theme song you’ve heard a million times (but probably not in breath-taking STEREO!) and the other is an odd rarity you’ve probably never heard before. Nostalgia meets new-stalgia at the nexus of music and cartoons.
For a Top Cat treat, click the links below…
— DJ David B.
glad to have discovered this. thanx!
Great discovery, can’t stop listing to the Top Cat song. Possibly it’s the origin of him being renamed Boss Cat in the UK…?
Love Top Cat, and I for one firmly believe that you SHOULD extend into animated cartoons more often.
HOWEVER, here you have made an old mistake - I need the names of the artists!
All these songs you put up, I make them into CDs you know, for my own personal use. Even make a box for them and everything. Up to Volume Three at the moment, and I’ve loved every song here, except for that Jay North/Dennis the Menace one, and Popeye the Ladies Man. We all have our limits, ho ho!
Ryan, I know you’re a stickler for these details. But sometimes I just don’t have them. The theme song may have been written by Hoyt Curtin (that’s a good guess, since he did a lot of Hana-barbera stuff) but the Top Cat song was probably from a kiddie record and possibly wasn’t credited. So to answer your question, I dunno!
Sorry about the Dennis the menace and Popeye duds. They can’t all be winners!
Cheers for that - I’ll just credit it to Top Cat then, heh.
No need to apologize at all, two out of sixty+ is an amazing amount of good stuff. Plus, you’ve introduced us to the Capes & Masks, which is no bad thing in the slightest. True!
Yes, a really great discovery the Top Cat song!! Wow!