• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

TV stars recording music

LARadioRewind said:
Now cut that out! Pardon me for giving the wrong year--The album (also known as Jack Benny Plays The Bee) was reissued in 1978. It first came out on Capitol Records in 1956. There!
Click to expand...

<hand on cheek> Well!
 
Has anyone mentioned The Brady Bunch kids yet? Seems that they put out an album or two (in character) as The Brady Bunch kids, although I am thinking that one or two of them attempted a semi-serious career in country music years later.

With The Partridge Family, I suppose that you would have to ask the classic "chicken or egg" question. ;D
 
Jackie Gleason had LP's of soft music under his name
Was Shelby Flint on TV - Angel On My Shoulder (probably not)
What about screen actors?
Robt Mitchum - Ballad Of Thunder Road
Sal Mineo - Start Moving, Little Pigeon and others
Noel Harrison - Suzanne
Anthony Perkins (Tony Perkins) - Moonlight Swim
Fess Parker (TV?) - Ballad Of Davy Crockett, Wringle Wrangle

Hope I didn't deviate from theme too much.
 
^ Well as far as movie actors, certainly you'd have to say Richard "MacArthur Park" Harris, for starters....

cd
 
Shelby Flint did appear on tv...but long after she recorded Angel On My Shoulder. She was on one 1967 episode of I Spy and sang the theme song for the 1973 tv-movie The Borrowers. She also sang three songs in Disney's 1977 movie The Rescuers.

Here is a contemporary artist who started on television: Aubrey Drake Graham appeared in 130 episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation. The series began in 2001 and is still running. Since 2009, recording as simply "Drake," he's had two number-one albums and several hit singles and has been a featured vocalist on several singles by other artists.
 
Michael Parks starred on Then Came Bronson, 1969-70, playing a reporter named Jim Bronson. After his best friend committed suicide. Bronson quit his job and took the man's motorcycle and started traveling the country, looking for the meaning of life. On the episode of October 29, 1969, Parks sang Long Lonesome Highway. The song was released as a single and reached #20. It was Parks' only Top-100 hit.
 
Jack Webb (Dragnet) also recorded a few albums:

Songs from Pete Kelly's Blues (1955)
You're My Girl: Romantic Reflections by Jack Webb (1958)
Golden Throats volume 1 (1988)
Just the Tracks, Ma'am: The Warner Brothers Recordings (2000)
 
Jack Webb--"All we want is the facts, Ma'am, just the facts"---recorded Otis Redding's Try A Little Tenderness. It was included on the first Golden Throats album. Rhino has released four Golden Throats compilations so far: The Great Celebrity Sing-Off (1988), More Celebrity Rock Oddities (1991), Sweethearts Of Rodeo Drive (1995) and Celebrities Butcher the Beatles (1997). Among the "butchers" on those albums are William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Mae West, Goldie Hawn, Eddie Albert, Andy Griffith, Jim Nabors, George Maharis, Sebastian Cabot and Phyllis Diller. Yikes!
 
Eddie Hodges... He was a young Broadway actor who made numerous TV appearances (Bonanza, Gunsmoke, etc.) who had two fairly big hits in the early 60's... I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door & (Girls Girls Girls were) Made to Love.
 
Art Carney recorded several songs in character as Ed Norton, including "Va-va-va-Voom!," "Sheesh, What a Grouch!" and "Song of the Sewer." I am not making this up. I actually own these records.

And though Jim Nabors recorded several serious albums in his rich baritone, he made one in character as Gomer Pyle, singing as Gomer.
 
Norton told me to ask you, "Hey, whaddya say there, rnigma? How about you 'n' me goin' bowlin'?"

From 1966 to 1970, several hour-long Honeymooners sketches were part of Jackie Gleason's Saturday-night CBS variety series. In 1971, those episodes were syndicated as a new season of The Honeymooners. Sheila MacRae, who played Alice on those sketches, recorded an album with her husband, Gordon MacRae, who had several big hits, 1948-50, including some duets with Jo Stafford. Our Love Song was released on Capitol #T-1353 in April of 1960.
 
We've mentioned a lot of singers/tv stars from the 1950s-60s but we've neglected one of the biggest from the '80s. Michael Damian began recording in 1981 with a remake of Eric Carmen's She Did It. His tv appearances led to him being added to the cast of The Young & The Restless, playing Danny Romalotti from 1981 to 1998. In 1989 Damian had a number-one hit with a remake of the David Essex song Rock On.

Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears were members of the Mouseketeers during the 1989-95 run of The Mickey Mouse Club. Four amazing success stories: From "M-I-C...K-E-Y..." to Sexyback, Bye Bye Bye, Genie In A Bottle and Oops I Did It Again. ;)
 
6 pages and hard to believe no one has mentioned John Schneider of "Dukes of Hazzard" fame. Had 11 top-10 Country hits in the 80's, 4 of which went to #1 including one of my all time favorites "I've Been Around Enough to Know" , a chart-topper from 1984.
 
Will Smith first charted in May of 1988 with Parents Just Don't Understand, a duet with DJ Jazzy Jeff. The recording---I hesitate to call it a "song"---wom a Grammy for best rap record. The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air premiered on September 10, 1990. We all have to admire the show's casting director---How clever to cast a rapper from Philadelphia in a series about a rapper from Philadelphia!
 
Smittian said:
6 pages and hard to believe no one has mentioned John Schneider of "Dukes of Hazzard" fame. Had 11 top-10 Country hits in the 80's, 4 of which went to #1 including one of my all time favorites "I've Been Around Enough to Know" , a chart-topper from 1984.
Click to expand...

Good catch. I'm scratching my head too, since I've always thought of JS as being a much better singer than actor.
 
We mentioned Richard Chamberlain, star of television's Dr. Kildare. How about the star of the other big "doctor show" of the 1960s? Vince Edwards, who played the lead role in Ben Casey, had two minor hits in 1962, Why Did You Leave Me and Don't Worry 'Bout Me, then three years later got to #108 with a remake of the Four Lads' No Not Much.
 
Even now Disney and Nick try to push some of their teen stars as having albums and videos, but not too many of them actually have hits that get played anywhere but on those channels. Miley Cyrus and possibly Selena Gomez are the only ones I can think of that may have had hits, but correct me if I'm wrong. I'm just going by what I see when my daughter has the channels on.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom