To people like myself, the late Burl Ives is best remembered as
\nthe narrator of the Christmas television special
\nRudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer<\/i>, while to people of my
\nparents’ generation (or even to those who spent their childhood in
\nthe ’60s), Ives was a very recognizable voice. His rich voice could
\nalmost transform any song into something magical; unfortunately, by
\nthe time Ives died a few years ago, his influence on the music
\nindustry was all but forgotten.<\/p>\n
Walt Disney Records has started to bring back some of its
\nglorious past by creating
\nThe Archive Collection<\/i>, re-releasing some albums which not
\nonly have never been released on CD, but have not seen the light of
\nday for around 30 years. Ives is the subject of the first disc in
\nthis project (two discs of which can only be purchased through
\nDisney’s website),
\nChim Chim Cher-ee And Other Children’s Choices<\/i>. Ives’s
\nroly-poly, cheerful image almost seems larger than life, and it
\nmade me very interested in checking this disc out.<\/p>\n
Ives selected a few songs from the soundtrack of
\nMary Poppins<\/i>, and on these his vocals fit the mood very
\nwell. Even the chiming in of a children’s chorus on “A Spoonful Of
\nSugar” doesn’t distract from the effectiveness of the song – if
\nonly I could say that about all the tracks on this album (which
\nclocks in at under a half-hour).<\/p>\n
Some songs are surprisingly addictive, though true
\nrock-and-rollers would be embarrassed to admit they liked them. Oh,
\nc’mon, go ahead and sing songs like “Mairzy Doats,” “Lavender Blue”
\nand “Chim Chim Cher-ee” out loud – in one sense, I was able to
\nrelive the memories I had of my copy of the
\nMary Poppins<\/i> soundtrack I had when I was a kid. (I don’t
\nremember what happened to that album – I either left it in the sun
\nto turn into vinyl soup or I dropped it on the floor.)<\/p>\n
But as much as I like Ives and think his voice could turn any
\nsong into gold, there’s evidence to prove that this is not the
\ncase, ruining yet another childhood ideal. “Funniculi Funnicula”
\ndoesn’t have the greatest vibe to it – even the words sound like
\nthey’re off a bit – and the song is a disappointment. On other
\nsongs like “Swinging On A Star,” I actually resented the addition
\nof the children’s chorus – I wanted to hear
\nIves<\/i> sing this one through. Still others, like “Polly Wolly
\nDoodle,” fall flat.<\/p>\n
There is, of course, a problem with the reviewer – namely, that
\nI’m 27 years old, and think singing “Polly Wolly Doodle” at this
\nage is polly-wolly-dumb. Ah, but this is where children come into
\nplay. My daughter just turned two, and once she’s grasped a little
\nmore of language skills (and not the word that Daddy let slip last
\nweekend), she will probably discover more joy in this album than I
\nwill ever be able to find at my age.<\/p>\n
Another problem on my end is that I wasn’t alive in 1964 when
\nthis record came out. Something tells me that someone who was in
\nthe ages of wonder (that is, under 10) in the mid-’60s will
\nexperience a sense of deja vu with
\nChim Chim Cher-ee And Other Children’s Choices<\/i>, even if they
\ndon’t totally flash back to their childhood.<\/p>\n
So, the end verdict on this one is a hung jury. It’s incredibly
\nhard for an adult – even someone like me who considers himself a
\n“grown, bent kid” – to try and recapture the magic of childhood,
\neven with an album like
\nChim Chim Cher-ee And Other Children’s Choices<\/i>. But this is
\nwhere today’s generation of kids will come in, and make this
\nlimited edition the stuff that memories are made of. And in the
\nend, isn’t anything Disney does really all about children?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7367],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-38915","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-burl-ives","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38915"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38915"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}