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JERRY BECK
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AMID AMIDI
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Popeye sings Looney Tunes theme
by jerry
August 13, 2009 10:45 am


Speaking of Popeye (as we were here)… his voice croons one of the greatest cartoon theme songs of all time. No, not “I’m Popeye The Sailor Man” by Sammy Lerner - I’m talking about his cover of the Looney Tunes theme, The Merry Go Round Broke Down.

CLICK HERE for a download of the track, sung by the original voice of Popeye, Billy Costello.

(via Don Brockway, art above by Chogrin - and thanks to Alex Rannie)

08/13/09  11:27am

As strange as hearing Helen Kane sing I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat.

08/13/09  12:32pm

Sounds like Popeye was doing Tuvan throat singing before Tuvan throat singing was cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY1pcEtHI_w

08/13/09  12:37pm

Haha! Thanks for brightening my day, Jerry.

08/13/09  1:07pm
doug holverson says:

Well blow me down! Mask-ups ain’ts new!

08/13/09  2:51pm
FP says:

That Lawrence Welk clip made me crap with horror.

08/13/09  3:02pm
uncle wayne says:

Yes, oh yes, oh YES! A true true day-brightener!! Down to the scat-adlibs. I love it!

08/13/09  3:16pm
Bob says:

What’s next, Scrappy singing “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”

08/13/09  3:44pm
Thad says:

Thuh-thuh-thask’s all folks! Arararararar!

08/13/09  4:32pm
Earl Kress says:

The most interesting part of this to me is that in the middle, when he sings in his own voice, he sounds a lot like Jack Mercer’s real voice.

08/13/09  6:34pm
Dock Miles says:

>Sounds like Popeye was doing Tuvan throat singing before Tuvan throat singing was cool.

I thought the same thing. Billy Costello was obviously a gifted and unique scat-singer (he went to the vocalisms on the chorus even when singing in his crooner-style voice), but this snippet raises intriguing questions about vocalsims. Obviously, Costello isn’t doing two voices at the same time as the Tuvans do, but he shows the basic mode of tone-sliding occurs to folks doing non-verbal singing, probably from day one.

Fascinating.

08/13/09  7:24pm
Robert Barker says:

Did anyone ever ask Billy Costello about why he was fired from doing the Popeye voice? What did he do after being fired? He lived until 1971. Did this talented man, who had also been in Fred Waring’s band, just fall off the face of the earth?

08/13/09  7:47pm
Anthrocoon says:

In one scene from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Roger starts to sing the song with alternate lyrics (”My buddy’s Eddie V/A Sourpuss you see…”)
Judge Doom grabs Roger and pulls him by the ears, IIRC…and then
looks down at the record. “The…Merry Go Round…Broke…Down.
A rather loony selection, yes?”

08/13/09  11:01pm
Chris Sobieniak says:

Thanks for the Lawrence Welk surprise! The only consolation out of that is noticing it was captured from my local PBS station (bugs don’t lie) so I’ll let you off the hook!

Cool tune from the ol’ spinach-packin’ sailor.

08/14/09  4:48am
Tim Hodge says:

As a kid, I used to have a 45 of Popeye & Olive Oyl singing “I’m a Little Teapot”. Wish I knew where it was.

08/14/09  5:56am
Mark McDermott says:

Ah, was the crooner voice really Costello’s “natural” singing voice, or was he just imitating Rudy Vallee or the pervasive crooning style of the time?
Any notes on when the record was recorded? Before it became the celebrated cartoon theme it is today?

Can’t see YouTube at work, so I didn’t spot the Lawrence Welk spot. Have seen the one where they cover “One Toke Over the Line,” though. Trying to verify a claim on Wikipedia that Larry once covered a Frank Zappa song.

08/14/09  6:48am
Andy Ice says:

He does a better Popeye here, than in the cartoons he voiced.That was indeed a treat ! Nice find.

08/14/09  10:34am
J Lee says:

I’m trying to think of what the best Disney song would have been to hear Costello sing. Probably “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Bo” from “Cinderella”, but feel free to toss in your own suggestions.

08/15/09  12:39pm

predicted the AAP sale which would end up in Warner Bros.’ hands.

08/23/09  12:14pm
James E. Parten says:

Billy Costello recorded “The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down” (along with several other selections) for Rex records in London on August 12, 1937. This was only about three months after the song was being recorded in Nre York by the likes of Gene Kardos (Melotone) and Dick Robertson (Decca).
After Costello left the employ of Max Fleischer, he appears to have gone over to Britain, where he cold trade on being “the original Popeye” without worrying about any cease-and-desist orders that might have popped up. He may have tored more extensively yet, as several of the sides he reocrded in London were only issued in South Africa, including a two-sied “Official Popeye Club Record”. (Wouldn’t we like to find that one in a thrift shop?!)

10/17/09  10:52pm
Chogrin says:

Thanks for using my image Jerry!

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