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TV stars recording music

S

stevations

A friend sent a youtube link from a song by Ronnie Burns who was George and Gracies son.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiX4vW4rlpk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcR5rjWp310

This brings me to the topic of what tv stars tried a singing career? Some that came to mind are Johnny Crawford on the Rifleman.......of course Ricky Nelson......Gale Storm of My Little Margie......

Some sang on the shows, others did not. Can we include the Brady Bunch? Did they ever release a record?

If I recall right I saw some sheet music of Gracie Allen singing for a political party.

I have a 45 record of the Get Smart tv show that has 99 on one side and 86 on the other side. I will have to find it and see who sings. I think Barbera Feldon sang 86.

Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies sang No Time At All from a broadway play she did after the tv show ended. It is a very good song and she could really belt out a tune too, maybe it was with the help of some of her moonshine.
 
Gee, I wonder who sent you that? <Groucho emoticon> :)

Two from the same show:

Shelley "Johnny Angel" Fabares
Paul "My Dad" Petersen (Donna Reed Show)

John "Let Her In" Travolta

As to Ronnie, it was as if they were trying to Ricky-Nelson-ize him. JMHO.

Can we count cartoon-ized singers? The Harlem Globetrotters did an LP right after their cartoon series started. One that Joe Donovan at WHAS played, and it received a lot of response, was "Rainy Day Bells" (1970), written by Neil Sedaka & Howard Greenfield, I think. It's on YouTube as well. Funny thing, though...there was always 1 song on each episode, but "Rainy Day Bells" was not among them. One YouTuber actually dubbed RDB over other Globetrotters animation.

cd
 
"Say good night, Gracie." "Good night, Gracie." In 1933 George Burns and the aforementioned Gracie Allen got to #6 with a comedy recording, Burns & Allen Dialog. Of course they were radio stars at the time; they wouldn't move to television until 1950.

In 1962, Dr. Kildare star Richard Chamberlain had a #10 hit with Theme From Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight). He even managed to have seven more chart hits, including remakes of Love Me Tender and All I Have To Do Is Dream.
 
Don't forget Johnny Crawford from The Rifleman. He had several hits in 62 and 63.. Cindy's Birthday was his biggest but I really liked Proud
 
Also, just remembered Don Grady's Ugga, Bugga, Eew-Eew-Eew. He performed it in character as Robbie, on an episode of My Three Sons. I also recall talk about a possible release on 45 RPM, but never heard it on the radio.
 
I believe Patty Duke charted in the 60s with "Don't Just Stand There"
...and let's not forget David Soul from "Starsky and Hutch" ("Don't Give Up on Us"), though maybe we should!
Someone mentioned animated shows, and a youthful Rick Springfield debuted on a US cartoon show in the early 70s -- the record didn't do much, and he was a muscian first and TV character second but I guess it counts.
 
This may be a stretch, but a still active quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Terry Bradshaw, released a Country album in '73, featuring the songs of Hank Williams.
 
Is that a stretch? I don't know---have Pittsburgh Steelers games ever been shown on television? :D

How did we forget about Annette Funicello? She was one of the original Mouseketeers when The Mickey Mouse Club debuted on ABC October 3, 1955. She didn't think she had a good singing voice but Walt Disney told her they'd "fix it up" with overdubbing. She went on to have four top-20 hits, 1959-60: Tall Paul, First Name Initial, O Dio Mio and Pineapple Princess. And...the aforementioned Paul Petersen appeared on a few episodes early in the first season. And...the aforementioned Don Grady (then known as Don Agrati) appeared on most of the episodes in the fourth season.

Another original Mouseketeer, Darlene Gillespie, recorded six singles (five on Disneyland Records, one on Coral) but none of them charted. The boys all favored Annette. She, um, stood out from the other Mouseketeers, if you get my meaning.
 
I understand that Don Grady was a member of the 60s band Yellow Balloon, who had a top 40 hit called---um---"Yellow Balloon". (A thread about song names exactly the same as the name of the band could be brought up here, but it'd be a short one.)

I don't know how successful he was as a country artist, but I believe that Chuck Woolery, the game show host, had one or two chart country records. I don't know if he would count here, though....he was the first host of "Wheel of Fortune" in the 70s before the country run...BUT, he was a member of the pop band "Avant Garde" in the late 60s (who did "Naturally Stoned" which peaked right at 40).

cd
 
Since cd637299 mentioned "cartoon-ized singers," we have to include the Archies. They had a number-one hit, Sugar Sugar, and couldn't go on tour to promote it!

Chuck Woolery released five singles on Columbia, 1969-70; four on RCA, 1971-73; one on Warner Bros., 1977; and one on Epic, 1980. And no, they weren't successful.

Getting back to Don Grady, he recorded several singles for Capitol, Challenge and Canterbury, 1964-67. He obviously liked labels with names that started with "C." He made it to #132 on the Bubbling Under chart in late 1966 with The Children Of St. Monica. He then, as cd637299 points out, had a hit as the drummer for the Yellow Balloon. The song, Yellow Balloon, was about a, uhmm, type of prophylactic product.

And getting back to Disney, Fess Parker sang Ballad Of Davy Crockett in the "Davy Crockett Indian Fighter" episode of the Disneyland tv show, 12-19-1954. The song was released as a single and went to #5. Parker would have one more hit, Wringle Wrangle, from the movie Westward Ho The Wagons.
 
Here is another tv-star-turned-singer. For a few weeks in summer of 1976 and again in early 1977, the Jackson 5 had a tv musical variety show. The group included Michael, Marlon, Jackie, Tito and Randy. (Jermaine had quit to go solo.) The Jacksons' three sisters---Maureen (who later became Rebbie), LaToya and Janet---also appeared on the series. Janet would go on to co-star in Good Times, 1977-78; A New Kind Of Family, 1979-80; and Diff'rent Strokes, 1981-82. Then she started recording. Her first single, Young Love, got only to #64...but she went on to have ten number-one hits, so don't feel sorry for her.
 
cd637299 said:
I understand that Don Grady was a member of the 60s band Yellow Balloon, who had a top 40 hit called---um---"Yellow Balloon". (A thread about song names exactly the same as the name of the band could be brought up here, but it'd be a short one.)

I don't know how successful he was as a country artist, but I believe that Chuck Woolery, the game show host, had one or two chart country records. I don't know if he would count here, though....he was the first host of "Wheel of Fortune" in the 70s before the country run...BUT, he was a member of the pop band "Avant Garde" in the late 60s (who did "Naturally Stoned" which peaked right at 40).

cd
Click to expand...

EVery time I hear the name Chuck Woolery, I wonder if he has a cousin somewhere named Tom Foolery.
 
unitron said:
cd637299 said:
I understand that Don Grady was a member of the 60s band Yellow Balloon, who had a top 40 hit called---um---"Yellow Balloon". (A thread about song names exactly the same as the name of the band could be brought up here, but it'd be a short one.)

I don't know how successful he was as a country artist, but I believe that Chuck Woolery, the game show host, had one or two chart country records. I don't know if he would count here, though....he was the first host of "Wheel of Fortune" in the 70s before the country run...BUT, he was a member of the pop band "Avant Garde" in the late 60s (who did "Naturally Stoned" which peaked right at 40).

cd
Click to expand...

EVery time I hear the name Chuck Woolery, I wonder if he has a cousin somewhere named Tom Foolery.
Click to expand...

Actually it has been in my mind, if ever I had to write a game-show-related skit, maybe for my church, I would definitely use the name "Tom Foolery" for a host. It sure would get laughs.

cd
 
Someone mentioned David Soul. He started in the biz as a folksinger after dropping out of college, opening for, among other acts, Ramsey Lewis. Fred Bronson tells all about it in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits on the "Don't Give Up On Us" page.

Didn't Miami Vice's Don Johnson start out as a singer?

ixnay
 
I'm sure Don started as an actor from the get-go, in movies like "The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart" and "A Boy and his Dog."
When Don recorded that album on which "Heartbeat" appeared, he was backed by top musicians including Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Don's "Miami Vice" costar Philip Michael Thomas recorded "Fish and Chips" which stiffed.

The cartoon in which Rick Springfield appeared was "Mission: Magic."

There was "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" by Connie Stevens (and Edd Byrnes).
 
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