The Muppets A Green And Red Christmas

Louise Gold apparently appeared as one of the backing vocalists.

Catalogue number: CD Walt Disney Records 61635-7

Cast

Credited On Sleevenotes

Bill Barretta – as Pepe The King Prawn, Dr Teeth, Rowlf The Dog, and, The Swedish Chef

Dave Goelz – as Gonzo, Waldof, Zoot, and other assorted characters

Louise Gold – backing vocals

Eric Jacobson – as Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and, Animal

Jerry Nelson – backing vocals

Karen Prell – backing vocals

Mike Quinn – backing vocals

David Rudman – backing vocals

Steve Whitmire – as Kermit The Frog, Rizzo The Rat, Statler and other assorted characters

Uncredited

John Kennedy – as Floyd Pepper

Production Team

 Produced by - Ed Mitchell and Ted Kryczko

Arrangements by - Steve Merrell

Mixed by – Rick Ruggieri

Mastered by – Doug Sax, with “Sunny” Nam in Ojai, CA

Creative Direction by – Steve Gerdes

Album Design by – Sam Tejaratchi

Track Listing

1. Zat You Santa Claus? (by J. Fox) – Electric Mayhem Band (Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, and possibly Steve Whitmire)

2. A Red And Green Christmas (by E. Mitchell, and, T Armbruster) – Kermit and Miss Piggy (Steve Whitmire and Eric Jacobson)

3. The Christmas Party Singalong (by E. Mitchell, and, T Armbruster) – Rowlf with backing vocalists (Bill Barretta with the backing vocalists)

4. Merry Christmas Baby (by M. Love, and, R. Wilson) – Pepe (Bill Barretta)

5. The Man With The Bag (by I Taylor, D Brooks, and, H Stanley) – Floyd, Animal, and, Zoot (John Kennedy, Eric Jacobson, and, Dave Goelz)

6. Santa Baby (by J. Javits, P. Springer, and, T. Springer) – Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson)

7. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (by E. Pola, and, G. Wyle) – Gonzo and Rizzo (Dave Goelz, and, Steve Whitmire)

8. North Pole Comedy Club (by E. Mitchell, and, T. Armbruster) – Fozzie, Statler, and, Waldof possibly with backing vocalists (Eric Jacobson, Steve Whitmire, and, Dave Goelz and possibly backing vocalists)

9. Run Rudolph (by M. Brodie, and, J. Marks) – Electric Mayhem Band (Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, and, possibly Steve Whitmire)

10. Christmas Smorgasbord (by E. Mitchell, and, T. Armbruster) – Swedish Chef with backing vocalists (Bill Barretta with backing vocalists)

11. The Christmas Queen (by E. Mitchell and, T. Armbruster) – Miss Piggy possibly with backing vocalists (Eric Jacobson with backing vocalists)

12. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (by R. Blane, and, H. Martin) – Kermit (Steve Whitmire)

It is perhaps worth noting that all five of the “backing vocalists”, along with veteran Dave Goelz, and, Steve Whitmire, had all sung on The Muppet Christmas Carol (Soundtrack album), it leads one to speculate as to whether their could possibly be a connection?

Bill Barretta, Louise Gold, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Mike Quinn, and, Steve Whitmire had previously puppeteered on Muppet Treasure Island.

Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and, Steve Whitmire had previously puppeteered on The Animal Show.

Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and, Steve Whitmire were among the eight main puppeteers on The Muppet Show, on which Karen Prell also puppeteered.

Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, and, Louise Gold had previously appeared on The Royal Variety Performance (1977). Their recording credits include: The Muppet Show Music Hall, The Muppet Show 2, For What It’s Worth, Jim Henson Presents Silly Songs.

Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and, Steve Whitmire’s recording credits include The Muppet Show Music Album, The Great Muppet Caper (Soundtrack album), John Denver And The Muppets (A Christmas Together), John Denver & The Muppets Merry Christmas 45RPM, Muppet Music Sampler, Muppet Hits 1, Muppet Hits 2, Christmas For Kids, John Denver Christmas, and Music Mayhem And More.

It is not clear whether the songwriter D Brooks is or is not the same person as the acoustic guitar player Denny Brooks who featured on John Denver And The Muppets (A Christmas Together).

Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, Mike Quinn, and, Steve Whitmire had previously puppeteered on The Great Muppet Caper, and, The Muppets Go To The Movies.

Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Mike Quinn, and, Steve Whitmire had previously puppeteered on Dark Crystal, for which Jerry Nelson did some voice-work

Louise Gold, and, Mike Quinn went on to represent the puppeteers in an item about the film Dark Crystal on Blue Peter.

Louise Gold, and, Mike Quinn had previously puppeteered on the UK Outerspace segments of International Fraggle Rock for which Dave Goelz, and, Jerry Nelson did voices.

Dave Goelz, Karen Prell, Mike Quinn, David Rudman, and, Steve Whitmire had previously puppeteered on Labyrinth.

Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, Karen Prell, and, Steve Whitmire’s recording credits include Favorite Songs From Jim Henson’s Muppets, Put Some Zing In Your Spring, and, Muppet Music Mix.

Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, Karen Prell, Mike Quinn, David Rudman, and, Steve Whitmire had previously puppeteered: at Jim Henson’s Memorial Service, and on the film The Muppet Christmas Carol, and, sung on The Muppet Christmas Carol (Soundtrack Album).

Tom Armbruster, and, Ed Mitchell were also involved with Elmo’s Lowdown Hoedown, on which Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, and, David Rudman sang.

Rowlf The Dog (when he was performed by Jim Henson) had sung Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas on John Denver And The Muppets (A Christmas Together).

Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, and, Steve Whitmire had previously appeared in The All Time Get Around Sometimes Play Together Every Other Friday Night Vaudeville Show.

Jerry Nelson’s recording credits include Jerome Kern The first 100 Years, The Count’s Countdown, and, Born To Add.

Louise Gold, Karen Prell, Mike Quinn, David Rudman, and, Steve Whitmire had previously puppeteered on the Tale Of The Bunny Picnic.

Louise Gold, Karen Prell, and, Mike Quinn had previously puppeteered on The Ghost Of Faffner Hall.

Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, and, Mike Quinn had puppeteered on The Secret Life Of Toys.

Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, John Kennedy, Jerry Nelson, David Rudman, and, Steve Whitmire had puppeteered on Sesame Street (in the early 1990s).

Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Jerry Nelson, and, Steve Whitmire had featured on the documentary Of Muppets And Men, on which Karen Prell also appeared,

Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Bill Barretta contributed to the documentary I Love The Muppets.

Steve Whitmire, and, Eric Jacobson may have puppeteered on ITV’s 50 Greatest Shows.

Louise Gold. and, David Rudman went on to puppeteer on The Furchester Hotel.

Review

by Emma Shane, 27 December 2006

This is a rather odd Muppet Christmas offering. There are certainly some peculiarities about it. For instance why are such great Muppet singers as Jerry Nelson and Louise Gold, not to mention Karen Prell relegated to backing vocals, for something supposedly recorded in 2005? I can’t help wondering if some of the “backing vocals” could have come from elsewhere, or what? For the most part the backing vocals are fairly indistinct, Muppety, yes, but one can’t recognise individual performers. Though somewhere on the Christmas Smorgsbord track I thought I could perhaps hear a couple of cute-sounding females. Could that have been Karen and Louise? I’m not sure.

The album is considered something of an important transition in Muppet history. Since of the main performers on this album only two of them worked on The Muppet Show and are performing their own special characters from those days. Admittedly three of the “backing vocalists” are also The Muppet Show veterans (which only adds to the puzzle as to how their vocals came to be on the album). The two remaining principals, Dave Goelz and Steve Whitmire do their best to try and uphold the standards and style one would expect from classic Muppets, This comes across very well on It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.

Newcomers Bill Barretta, Eric Jacobson, and, John Kennedy do their best, but trying to step into the gloves of such legends as Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and, Jerry Nelson, well it’s asking a bit much. I think their talents might have been better served by having them create their own characters in the Muppet tradition. The trouble is that might not exactly sell records. I thought John Kennedy the least effective of the three. But that is probably because I really do admire Jerry Nelson’s talents. It was Jerry who made so many bit characters much more than bit parts, which a wonderful singing voice that helped to give The Muppets their sound. And well he’s too hard an act to follow. Meanwhile Eric Jacobson is trying to step into Frank Oz’s gloves. He does the voices very well. And he clearly has a talent for delivering comedy. However I really felt his talents would have been better severed by a new character one of his own. In recent years Frank Oz’s performance as Piggy had gone a bit off the mark, become rather a caricature of herself. So perhaps it is time to see what someone else can do with it; although there appeared to be a slight lack of chemistry between him and Steve on the title song (but then Jim and Frank had a very special chemistry). One has to remember that most of the classic Muppet characters were created with particular puppeteers in mind; and very often the character grew out of characteristics of his or her puppeteer; examples (on The Muppet Show alone) include: Kermit The Frog, Fozzie Bear, Floyd Pepper, Scooter, Gonzo, and, Annie Sue. How does a performer get inside someone else’s skin, can they really be that person? Well sometimes it can work, for example Steve Whitmire’s Kermit. However Eric Jacobson’s Fozzie is an example where it doesn’t quite work. Eric can deliver comedy onliners But, on North Pole Comedy Club, he seems to have made appear Fozzie a little too clever. When Frank Oz did Fozzie part of the joke was that Fozzie didn’t realise or didn’t want to realise quite how bad his act was. I think Eric would be better developing his own comedian character, a replacement for Fozzie (perhaps a bit like Leslie Carrara’s Spamela sort of filled a similar role in Muppets Tonight to that of Annie Sue on The Muppet Show – only Spamela was older and more sophisticated). Of the newcomers Bill Barretta seems to do the best. He has been with The Muppets for a number of years now, steadily working his way up. For Merry Christmas Baby he has been given a chance to do his own character, one that doesn’t belong to anyone else. His performance on The Christmas Party Singalong is one of those instances where, no I don’t think he does Rowlf as a character quite as Jim Henson would have done it. But if one is going to have Rowlf on then someone has to do it, and he tries to make it his own. In fact one should remember that as a character Rowlf grew and quite possibly changed a bit over the years; compare Rowlf on The Jimmy Dean Show to Rowlf on The Muppet Show. So while Bill’s version takes a bit of getting used to, perhaps its a way forward. The Swedish Chef however, I did not think so good as characterisation. But then I wonder what The Swedish Chef is doing on an album in the first place. He was really more effective as a visual character originally. So its more a fault of the album’s creators than Bill’s performance, and that said, the backing vocals do sound good on this track. As for Electric Mayhem. Well I wasn’t that keen on some of their pieces in the first place. They could descend into caricature; and the presence of the new performers only exacerbates that. It may sound severe to say this, but listening to this album I can’t help but wonder whether perhaps The Muppets have really had their day?

As a Christmas album, I think this CD is quite fun. The score is fairly innocuous, but funny. It would probably be a very good album to have on as background music for a Christmas party. A lot better and more pleasing to the ear than some of the albums sold for such purposes. As a Muppet album however, I do not think much of this album. It feels like an attempt to cash in on the fame and merchandising potential of The Muppets. It sounds rather more like some of those music albums there have been that used songs associated with The Muppets recorded by other people, rather than the genuine article; despite the fact that there are two veterans starring on the album plus another three (rather indistinguishable) on backing vocals. And as an album involving West End actress/ Singering-puppeteer Louise Gold? Well I don’t think she’s done anything this undistinguished since she recorded backing vocals some 29 years ago for the 45rpm record Miss Piggy’s Music Hall, right at the start of her Muppet career! Although her powerful voice can give tremendous strength to backing vocals, for once even that is not exactly in evidence. Is she even spottable on this album?

However, the album does have one track that is truly beautiful, a perfect classic Christmas song, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, sung with utmost simplicity and sincerity by Steve Whitmire as Kermit. This is one of those simple brilliant songs, that is just right for Kermit, it suits him as well as his signatures Bein’ Green, and, Rainbow Connection do. Like Jim Henson before him, Steve Whitmire understands just how to bring out that tender, simple quality in Kermit. In fact Jim Henson as Rowlf sang this song beautifully as a duet with John Denver, but Steve Whitmire’s performance on this album is even better. The one occasion when a performer inheriting another’s character has really worked.

Critics Comments

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Links about The Muppets A Red And Green Christmas

 Muppet Wiki page for the album: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/A_Green_and_Red_Christmas

Muppet Newsflash item about the album: http://muppetnewsflash.blogspot.com/2006/09/im-dreaming-of-green-christmas.html

Barnes And Noble’s page for the album: http://music.barnesandnoble.com/search/product.asp?ean=50086163571&z=y

Amazon.com’s page for the album: http://www.amazon.com/Muppets-Green-Red-Christmas/dp/B000IFRQ90/ref=pd_sim_m_2/105-2398029-0704419

Muppet Central Thread about the album http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=29533

Muppet Central Review of the album: http://www.muppetcentral.com/articles/reviews/merchandise/green_red_cd.shtml and on Greg James’s My Space page: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=29718577&blogID=186817301&MyToken=57cd618c-9f68-47f6-a3bf-85af2bda8c5e

FYE.com’s entry for the album: http://www.fye.com/The-Muppets-Green-and-Red-Christmas-Front-Page_stcVVproductId5985683VVcatId455366VVviewprod.htm

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