Put Some Zing In Your Spring

Louise Gold can be heard as Annie Sue Pig from The Muppet Show on Track 2 The Rhyming Song, uncredirted.

Catalogue number (Cassette): ZHDJ 38021-4

Cast

Dave Goelz (as Boober Fraggle)

Louise Gold (as Annie Sue)

Jim Henson (as Link Hogthrob, and, Kermit The Frog)

Richard Hunt (as Scooter)

Kathryn Mullen (as Mokey Fraggle)

Jerry Nelson (as Gobo Fraggle)

Frank Oz (as Miss Piggy, and, Fozzie Bear)

Karen Prell (as Red Fraggle)

Steve Whitmire (as Wembley Fraggle, and probably Kermit The Frog)

Production Team

 Produced by Target Stores, with Jim Henson Productions, and distributed by BMG Records, 1993

Track Listing

Side A

1. Zing Into Spring – Kermit The Frog and Miss Piggy (probably Steve Whitmire, and, Frank Oz)

2. The Rhyming Song (from The Muppet Hits Album) – Fozzie Bear, Link Hogthrob, Scooter, and, Annie Sue (Frank Oz, Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, and, Louise Gold)

3. Fraggle Rock Theme (from the Fraggle Rock Music And Magic album) – Gobo, Wembley, Boober, Mokey, and Red Fraggle (Jerry Nelson, Steve Whitemire, Dave Goelz, Kathryn Mullen, and, Karen Prell)

4. The Rainbow Connection (from the Muppet Movie Soundtrack) – Kermit The From (Jim Henson)

Side B

5. Zing Into Spring – Kermit The Frog and Miss Piggy (probably Steve Whitmire, and, Frank Oz)

6. The Rhyming Song (from The Muppet Hits Album) – Fozzie Bear, Link Hogthrob, Scooter, and, Annie Sue (Frank Oz, Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, and, Louise Gold)

7. Fraggle Rock Theme (from the Fraggle Rock Music And Magic album) – Gobo, Wembley, Boober, Mokey, and Red Fraggle (Jerry Nelson, Steve Whitemire, Dave Goelz, Kathryn Mullen, and, Karen Prell)

8. The Rainbow Connection (from the Muppet Movie Soundtrack) – Kermit The From (Jim Henson)

The album’s sleeve notes do not actually name any of the puppeteers singing on the album. However, according to Muppet Wiki the song ‘Zing Into Spring’ was recorded new for this cassette in 1993, and as this is post May 1990 it must be assumed that Steve Whitmire is singing the role of Kermit The Frog on this album.

The cassette does not actually state on it that it has a Side A and Side B, it simply has two identical sides.

Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen were the eight main puppeteers on The Muppet Show, on which Karen Prell also worked. They all appear in the documentary Of Muppets And Men (although Karen Prell was unnamed on it).

The Muppet Show Eight (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen) along with Karen Prell’s recording credits include Favourite Songs From Jim Henson’s Muppets, on which The Fraggle Rock Theme, and, The Rainbow Connection also appear

The Muppet Show Eight (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen) along with Karen Prell’s recording credits also include Muppet Music Mix, on which The Rhyming Song, The Fraggle Rock Theme, and, The Rainbow Connection also appear.

The Big Five (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and, Dave Goelz), along with Louise Gold represented The Muppets on The Royal Variety Performance (1977 Production). Their recording credits include the albums: The Muppet Show Music Hall, The Muppet Show 2, and, For What It’s Worth.

The Big Five (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and, Dave Goelz), along with Louise Gold’s recording credits include Jim Henson Presents Silly Songs, on which The Rhyming Song also appears.

The Muppet Show Eight (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen) all puppeteered on The Muppets Go To The Movies, and, The Great Muppet Caper; Their recording credits include: The Great Muppet Caper (Soundtrack Album), John Denver & The Muppets A Christmas Together, John Denver & The Muppets Merry Christmas 45RPM, Christmas For Kids, John Denver Christmas, and, Muppet Hits 2.

The Muppet Show Eight (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen)’s recording credits together include: The Muppet Show Music Album, and, Muppet Hits 1 on both of which The Rhyming Song also appears.

The Muppet Show Eight (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen)’s recording credits together include Muppet Music Sampler on which The Rainbow Connection also appears.

The Muppet Show Eight (Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen)’s recording credits together include Music Mayhem And More on which both The Rhyming Song, and, The Rainbow Connection also appear.

Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen puppeteered on The Dark Crystal, on which Jerry Nelson did voices.

Jerry Nelson, and, Dave Goelz voiced the UK Outer-Space segments on Fraggle Rock, segments for which Louise Gold was one of the puppeteers.

Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Kathryn Mullen, and, Karen Prell puppeteered on Labyrinth.

Frank Oz, Richard Hunt, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, Kathryn Mullen, and, Karen Prell took part in Jim Henson’s Memorial Service.

Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen have all performed on Sesame Street during the 1990s.

Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Karen Prell puppeteered on The Muppet Christmas Carol, and can be heard on The Muppet Christmas Carol (Soundtrack album).

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

Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, and, Louise Gold puppeteered on Muppet Treasure Island. They also took part in the documentary I Love The Muppets

Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, and, Louise Gold puppeteered on The Animal Show, on which Frank Oz was a guest puppeteer.

Jerry Nelson, Dave Goelz, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Karen Prell’s recording credits supposedly include A Green And Red Christmas.

Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Kathryn Mullen took part in The All Time Get Around Sometimes Play Together Every Other Friday Night Vaudeville Show.

Jim Henson appeared in Inside The Labyrinth.

Jim Henson, Richard Hunt, Steve Whitmire, Louise Gold, and, Karen Prell puppeteered on The Tale Of The Bunny Picnic.

Jim Henson, Jerry Nelson, and, Louise Gold’s recording credits include Jerome Kern The First 100 Years.

Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and, Louise Gold’s recording credits include Elmo’s Lowdown Hoedown.

Louise Gold, Richard Hunt, and, Karen Prell puppeteered on The Ghost Of Faffner Hall.

Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and, Louise Gold’s recording credits include Born To Add.

Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and, Louise Gold’s recording credits might include The Count’s Countdown, although there are some questions as to whether Louise Gold is actually singing on it.

Steve Whitmire probably puppeteered Kermit The Frog on ITV’s 50 Greatest Shows.

Review

by Emma Shane

This is one of the those Muppet promotional albums from the early 1990s which is rather hard to find. It is also one of the worst Muppet albums I have ever heard, and would not have encouraged me to buy the albums (The Muppet Movie Soundtrack, the Fraggle Rock Music And Magic album, and Muppet Hits) it is supposed to be promoting. The album’s one new song Zing Into Spring (which doesn’t come from any of the albums being promoted) sounds almost like a tacky imitation of The Muppets rather than the real thing. Kermit, presumably voiced by Steve Whitmire is acceptable. However Frank Oz’s performance as Miss Piggy isn’t exactly good, in fact its one of the least good performances I have ever heard of his. Back in the days of The Muppet Show itself, under Derek Scott’s masterful coaching he delivered some fairly decent singing performances. His performances as Piggy deteriorated noticeably without Jim Henson, and this is one of those occasions where it really shows. Sadly it seems as though the rest of the album has been poorly constructed by the sound mixers as Target in a bid to make his efforts sound good by trying to make everything else sound as bad. The major problem with this album is the truly dreadful quality of the mixing used, and general poor quality of this rather cheap tacky album. This means that even such a beautiful song as The Rainbow Connection does not sound anything like as lovely as it should, when Jim Henson sings it with such delightful simplicity. While not justice whatsoever is done to the contributions that those brilliant Muppet singers Louise Gold and Richard Hunt’s make to The Rhyming Song. Their excellent work is very poorly served by such atrocious mixing. Similarly the ever excellent Jerry Nelson’s contribution to the Fraggle Rock Theme also suffers a great deal. Any Muppet album with such excellent numbers as The Rhyming Song (a classic from The Muppet Show), and the ever wonderful Rainbow Connection as originally performed in The Muppet Movie should be to a much higher quality than this. Yet this album seems to be a foretaste of the way The Muppets would become mere mass marketed charter led products, rather than the carefully crafted creatures created by a unique combination of writers and extraordinary performers; which included three great singers, plus several others who given the right direction could do jolly well.

The shockingly low quality of this probably originally rather cheap tacky cassette, reminds one of when some episodes of The Muppet Show were brought out on poor quality DVD by HMV. If companies are going to realise classic Muppet songs and programmes, and of course one hopes they do, please could they at least try and get it onto a reasonable quality of whatever media they are realising it on.;

If you wanted to buy just one album that involved Louise Gold’s rather amusing contributions to The Rhyming Song, you would be much better off buying the Muppet Hits album itself, or of course ‘The Muppet Show Music Album’ LP on which the song first found its way onto record. Put Some Zing In Your Spring is an album really only worth buying for a completist, and even then it is not worth playing. Well not unless you simply have to review it.

Links about Put Some Zing In Your Spring

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

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