Mark Evanier tipped his readers to Boomerang, the cable channel, showing the 1964 feature cartoon ‘Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear.’ It’s recording on the FiOS DVR right now.
I never saw ‘Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear’ when I was a kid, but I sure do remember listening to the record promoting it that was offered on Kellogg’s cereal boxes. The song was written by David Gates, who I assume is the same David Gates that later wrote the Monkees song ‘Saturday’s Child,’ then formed the group Bread, but I can’t say for certain.
It’s been over forty years since I’ve heard this record. Side two is badly banged up, but it plays all the way through.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/SEP/YogiBear.mp3]
We were big on sending away for stuff, and I’m pretty sure that’s how we got this record. The flexi-disks bonded to the cardboard were the only on-box records I can recall. I think the only copy of “Sugar, Sugar” we had was one of those.
Hey – I’m sitting here about to say that “Saturday’s Child” came out on the “Kind Of A Hush” lp in early ’67! So, that’s after the Monkees debut lp from fall ’66. Still, I’ll have to see if I have a copy of Peter Noone doing Saturday’s Child – that would be fun to hear.
JeanieBeanie might be thinking of the Hollies song, “Yes I Will”, which was a Top 10 hit in England in early ’65. In the USA, we know it as “I’ll Be True To You”, from the Monkees debut, sung by Davy Jones.
As for David Gates, he did some work for Colpix in the early/mid-sixties (such as The Girlfriends – “My One And Only Jimmy Boy”. Colpix released the ‘Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear’ soundtrack. Colpix morphed into Colgems when the Monkees arrived. So, that would place David Gates right there in the middle of Yogi Bear and The Monkees!
Was this record included with the cereal – or did you have to send away for it? I have some of those Monkees records which were printed on the back of Kellogg’s cereals. You had to cut them out and try to play them on a turntable. A “real” record included in/on the box is a lot better!
I think the Hermits’ version of “Saturday’s Child” was out in ’67, with “There’s a Kind Of a Hush,” after the Monkees did it. D.F. Rogers will know. Yogi Berra was a catcher, so how could he have pitched something? 😉
“Herman’s Hermits” also recorded “Saturday’s Child,” a year or two before the Monkees, and don’t forget who Yogi Bear is based on, baseball great Yogi Berra. I remember him pitching Chocolate Yoo-Hoo.