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Josie and the Pussycats was a 1970s girl group designed to be the real-life incarnation of the eponymous fictional band in the Archie comic book and Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon series. The group was made up of Cathy Douglas (also known as Cathy Dougher, and whose real name was Kathleen Dougherty), Patrice Holloway, and Cherie Moor (later known as Cheryl Ladd) [1] .
Their bubblegum pop album of the same name was released by Capitol Records with Danny Janssen's La La Productions. The group also released six singles in 1970 and 1971. All of the songs were re-released on a 2001 compilation, Stop, Look and Listen – The Capitol Recordings.
In preparation for its upcoming cartoon series, Hanna-Barbera Productions began working on putting together a real-life "Josie and the Pussycats" girl group, which was to provide the singing voices of the girls in the cartoons and also cut an album.
The "Josie and the Pussycats" recordings were produced by La La Productions which included producer-songwriter Danny Janssen (who had written for Bobby Sherman and the Partridge Family), his business partner Bobby Young, and songwriters Austin Roberts, Sue Steward (now known as Sue Sheridan) and Bobby Hart (formerly one of the producer-songwriters for the Monkees). They held a talent search to find three girls who would match the three girls in the comic book in both looks and singing ability, and, after interviewing over 500 finalists, settled upon casting Dougher as Josie, Moor as Melody, and Holloway as Valerie.
African-American with part-Hispanic background, Holloway was the younger sister of Motown legend Brenda Holloway. Having signed with the label as a solo artist in 1965, she was the only one of the three finalists with prior ties to Capitol Records (the label that released the Pussycats' album and singles). Her early Capitol singles, all highly collectible, include "Ecstasy," “Stay With Your Own Kind,” and "Stolen Hours" (released between 1965 and 1967). Most were produced by Hollywood-based writer-producers Billy and Gene Page.
Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor had come to Hollywood from her native South Dakota with a country and western band that broke up and went back home almost immediately upon arrival. Shortening her unwieldy last name and now going as Cherie Moor, she decided to stay and try her luck as a singer, dancer and actress on television. After marrying David Ladd, she went on to replace Farrah Fawcett in Charlie's Angels prior to the filming of its second season in 1977. She also released a Gold album and a top-40 single ("Think It Over") on Capitol the following year.
Janssen presented the newly formed band to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera to finalize the production deal, but was in for a major surprise. Hanna-Barbera wanted Janssen to recast Holloway, as they had decided to portray "Josie and the Pussycats" as an all-White trio, altering Valerie's character to make her Caucasian. Janssen refused to recast Holloway, whose voice he felt he needed for the soul-inspired bubblegum pop songs he had written, and threatened to walk away from the project. After a three-week-long stand-off between Janssen and Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera finally relented, allowed Janssen to keep Holloway, and changed Valerie back to being an African-American.[ citation needed ] Valerie had been introduced in the "Josie" comic book in late 1969, and the character had been African-American from the start.
Word quickly spread around Los Angeles about the stand that Janssen had taken. To show their gratitude, a number of the most notable soul session players in the city offered their services to La La Productions and the Josie album at a fraction of their regular fees. Among them were Elvis Presley's drummer Ronnie Tutt, Elvis' bassist Jerry Scheff, keyboardist Clarence MacDonald, flutist Wilton Felder, and guitarist Mike Stewart.
The Josie and the Pussycats sound is modeled after the late 1960s Detroit acts such as Motown's the Jackson 5 and Hot Wax Records' Honey Cone. A cover of the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" was featured on the soundtrack album while co-lead vocalist Holloway mimicked young Michael Jackson's singing style. [2] Holloway also sings lead on the Josie and the Pussycats theme song, which was written by Hanna-Barbera musical director Hoyt Curtin, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. The theme itself is based on a recurring score cue from the Jetsons .
Other lead vocals were performed by Cherie Moor. Although she was cast as the singing voice of Josie, Kathleen Dougherty only sings partial lead vocals on "If That Isn't Love" and "I'll Be There." Also present on the album are covers of Bobby Sherman's "La, La, La (If I Had You)", the Carpenters' "(They Long To Be) Close To You", and Bread's "It Don't Matter to Me".
Although Janssen used strings, horns, keyboards, and oscillators (electronic synthesizers) to create the band's sound, the on-screen cartoon band featured the trio of Josie on guitar, Valerie on tambourine, and Melody on drums.
Josie and the Pussycats: From the Hanna-Barbera TV Show was released on December 15, 1970, by Capitol Records. Six 45 RPM singles were released, four of which contained non-album songs and were available only as part of a Kellogg's mail-order promotion. None of the singles charted, resulting in poor sales and a shelved national tour. Hanna-Barbera contracted producer Jimmie Haskell and a group of anonymous session singers to perform the music for Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, and La La Productions' Josie and the Pussycats group was officially disbanded. Janssen and Holloway worked together on several songs after the demise of the band ("Black Mother Goose" and "Evidence," both issued in 1971), and Sue Sheridan (as Sue Steward) cut two solo singles for Capitol under Janssen and Young's supervision. Several years later, Sheridan wrote a few songs for Ladd's self-titled 1978 debut album, also released on Capitol Records.
The album, plus several singles and alternate takes, were collected in a limited edition digitally remastered set entitled Josie and the Pussycats: Stop Look and Listen: The Capitol Recordings, released by Rhino Handmade on October 5, 2001. Rhino pressed 5000 copies of the album. Earlier that same year, Babyface produced a new Josie and the Pussycats album as the soundtrack for the motion picture released by Universal Pictures that same year. This new reincarnation of the Pussycats had a harder, punk-rock sound, as opposed to their Motown 1970 counterparts. Letters to Cleo vocalist Kay Hanley performed all lead vocals.
All songs written and composed by Josie McCoy and other collaborators.
Josie and the Pussycats: From the Hanna-Barbera TV Show | |
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Studio album by | |
Released | December 5, 1970 |
Recorded | Spring–fall 1970 |
Genre | Bubblegum pop |
Length | 23:43 |
Label | Capitol |
Producer | Danny Janssen |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [3] |
CD compilation released in 2001, featuring all original album tracks plus the following:
These songs appeared in the show and have not been released for consumer purchase. "Clock on the Wall", "I Love You Too Much" and "Dreaming" were not included on the Rhino reissue. "Dreaming" has never been heard in its entirety.
Cartoon Network remade the original theme song in a short called Musical Evolution, in which the theme song, sung by Christina Fincher, goes through several changes in style, including disco, punk, country, heavy metal, and techno. [5]
The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that originally aired for one season on CBS Saturday morning from September 11, 1971, to January 1, 1972. With an ensemble voice cast of Sally Struthers, Jay North, Mitzi McCall, Gay Hartwig, Carl Esser and Lennie Weinrib, the show follows teenage Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble as they encounter problems growing up in the fictional town of Bedrock. The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show is the first spin-off series of The Flintstones. For the 1972–73 season, the show was revamped as The Flintstone Comedy Hour, with more time given to the original Flintstones cast alongside both reruns and newly produced segments of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.
Josie and the Pussycats is a fictional girl group rock band created by Dan DeCarlo for Archie Comics.
Josie and the Pussycats is a 2001 satirical musical comedy film co-produced by Universal Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures. Written and directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, the film is based on both the Archie Comics series and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Filmed entirely in Vancouver, Canada, the film features Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson as the Pussycats, with Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, Gabriel Mann, Paulo Costanzo, and Missi Pyle in supporting roles.
Josie and the Pussycats is a teen-humor comic book about a fictional rock band, created by Dan DeCarlo and published by Archie Comics. It was published from 1963 until 1982; since then, one-shot issues have appeared on an irregular basis. A second series, set in the New Riverdale universe, launched in September 2016.
Josie and the Pussycats is an American animated television series based upon the Archie Comics comic book series of the same name created by Dan DeCarlo. Produced for Saturday morning television by Hanna-Barbera Productions, 16 episodes of Josie and the Pussycats aired on CBS during the 1970–71 television season and were rerun during the 1971–72 season.
Jabberjaw is an American animated television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired 16 original episodes on ABC from September 11 to December 18, 1976. Reruns continued on ABC until September 3, 1978.
Brenda Holloway is an American soul singer who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. Her best-known recordings are the hits "Every Little Bit Hurts", "When I'm Gone", and "You've Made Me So Very Happy". The latter, which she co-wrote, was later widely popularized when it became a Top Ten hit for Blood, Sweat & Tears. She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s, after her recordings had become popular on the British "Northern soul" scene.
Ashford & Simpson were an American husband-and-wife songwriting, production and recording duo composed of Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson.
Hoyt Stoddard Curtin was an American composer and music producer, the primary musical director for the Hanna-Barbera animation studio from its beginnings with The Ruff & Reddy Show in 1957 until his retirement in 1989, except from 1965 to 1972, when the primary music director was Ted Nichols.
Patrice Yvonne Holloway was an American soul and bubblegum pop singer-songwriter, best known as a member of the musical trios Josie and the Pussycats, The Ikettes, and The Blackberries.
Speed Buggy is an American animated television series, produced by Hanna-Barbera, which originally aired for one season on CBS from September 8, 1973, to December 22, 1973. With the voices of Mel Blanc, Michael Bell, Arlene Golonka, and Phil Luther Jr., the show follows an orange anthropomorphic dune buggy who alongside teenagers Debbie, Mark, and Tinker, solves mysteries while participating in racing competitions around the world. The series was produced by Iwao Takamoto, executive produced by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and directed by Charles A. Nichols.
You're All I Need is the second studio album by soul musicians Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, released in August 1968 on Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records. Highlighted by three hit singles written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, You're All I Need was recorded throughout 1966 and 1967 and features two Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By". It peaked at #60 on the U.S. Billboard 200 Album Chart. You're All I Need was the two singers' final collaboration effort, as Terrell would become ill following recording, before succumbing to a brain tumor in 1970.
Jackson 5ive is a Saturday morning cartoon series that aired for two seasons on ABC from September 11, 1971 to October 14, 1972. Produced by Rankin/Bass and Motown Productions, it is a fictionalized portrayal of the careers of Motown recording group the Jackson 5. The series was rebroadcast in syndication in 1984–85, during a period when Michael Jackson was riding a major wave of popularity as a solo artist. It also briefly re-aired in 1999 on TV Land as part of their "Super Retrovision Saturdaze" lineup. The series was animated mainly in London at the studios of Halas and Batchelor, and some animation done at Estudios Moro and Topcraft.
Butch Cassidy also known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on NBC from September 8, 1973, to December 1, 1973. The series title is a play on the name of the unrelated 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The character's music group is called the Sun Dance Kids.
Stop, Look and Listen or Stop, Look, Listen may refer to:
Harlem Globetrotters is a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera and CBS Productions, featuring animated versions of players from the basketball team of the same name.
"You've Made Me So Very Happy" is a song written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Berry Gordy, and was released first as a single in 1967 by Brenda Holloway on the Tamla label. The song was later a huge hit for jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1969, and became a Gold record.
A Pocket Full of Miracles (TS306) is a 1970 album by Motown Records R&B group The Miracles, issued on its Tamla subsidiary label, one of three albums the group released that year. This album charted at #56 on the Billboard pop albums chart, and reached the top ten of the magazine's R&B albums chart, peaking at #10. It was released on September 30 of that year. Hit singles on the album included "Point It Out" and the topical Ashford & Simpson written-and-produced song "Who's Gonna Take the Blame", a sad, dark song about a girl that is turned out as a prostitute. Also included is the charting flip side "Darling Dear", B-side of "Point It Out", which reached #100 on the Billboard pop chart, and spawned a cover version by The Jackson Five.
Cartoon Medley is a compilation album produced by Kid Rhino and Atlantic Records for Cartoon Network and released on July 6, 1999. First unveiled in early 1999, it serves as a collection of songs from the channel's programs and anthological series, including those from Hanna-Barbera and others like Cow and Chicken and The Powerpuff Girls. In addition to the material, the album also includes six downloadable games and features for the listener. Critically, Cartoon Medley was awarded three out of five stars by AllMusic while "The Powerpuff Girls " was singled out by Billboard's Moira McCormick for being a "breakout" track.
"Meet the Flintstones", also worded as "(Meet) The Flintstones", is the theme song of the American 1960s animated television series The Flintstones. Composed in 1961 by Hoyt Curtin, Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, it is one of the most popular and best known of all theme songs, with its catchy lyrics "Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, they're the modern Stone Age family".