The Cricklewood Tapes:
a three-CD set of original session recordings made for the series – including music, adverts and stings.
I will be releasing all eight of the BBC seasons, the one ITV season and various audio collections, one season at a time. Please please do not tag or rehash this release as all that achieves is to dilute the file spread. Feel free to post this release elsewhere but please leave it as it is.
Since the early days of television, programme-makers have usesd music enhance their visuals - but few did it as The Goodies. So intrinsic is the show’s music that it is impossible to imagine its absence - it isn’t in the show, it’s of the show. And yet, due to the production policies of the time, the sourec recordings were disposed of once the show itself was completed. Most of these reeel-to-reel audio tapes were recycled for other productions, but five original session tapes have survived and are presented here as a unique artefact of the recording process used on this world-famous comedy series.
Written by Bill Oddie in partnership with Michael Gibbs and Dave MacRae, the series' specially-composed music was eclectic in scope and covered a wide range of styles and formats (includ jingles and fake adverts). The sessions on this set feature some fan favourites - Dumb Animals, Berserk, Working the Line, Bonecrusher - as well as the only remaining element from the original version of Kitten Kong not to be included in the remake: the fake advert soundtrack for the meat/chocolate bar Universe (“So full of cow it almost moos...”).
Originally broadcast from 1970 to 1982, The Goodies was one of the most recognisable and popular comedy series on British Television. Debuting on BBC2, it combined the talents of writer-performers Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, three alumni of the famed Cambridge Footlights. The trio proclaimed themselves to be ‘the Goodies’, offering to take on “Anything Anytime” as exaggerated caricatures of themselves. Audiences of up to fifteen million tuned in, and after a decade the trio transferred to London Weekend Television in 1981 for their final season.
A memorable and important aspect of The Goodies’ success was its distinctive music which backed the elaborate, cartoon-Iike exploits of the trio. Many of these early songs were re-workings of Bill’s extensive back catalogue from the BBC radio sketch show I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again which he had worked on since 1964 in collaboration with Tim and Graeme. The melodies for The Goodies were composed by Bill originally in association with Rhodesian avant-garde jazz arranger Michael Gibbs. Michael had moved to London in 1965 and played on albums such as The $1,000,000 Collection with Johnny Dankworth - at whose house Bill was introduced to him, having admired Michael’s work with vibes player Gary Burton.
When Michael took up the post of composer-in-residence at his old alma mater of Berklee College of Music in Boston from late 1974, Bill instead collaborated with New Zealand-born arranger, pianist and jazz musician David MacRae from 1975 onwards. David had been a keyboard player on earlier albums and sessions for The Goodies following a meeting with Bill at a gig in 1972. Arriving in England in 1971, David performed at Ronnie Scott’s famous jazz establishment as well as being part of groups such as Caparius, Nucleus and Matching Mole, while his wife Joy Yates would provide backing vocals on various recordings for The Goodies. Bill also performed with David and Joy in
their band Pacific Eardrum during 1977 and 1978.
Only five recording tapes of the series’ tunes - salvaged by sound supervisor Adrian Bishop-Laggett - are currently known to exist, and their contents are presented here in their original re-mixing sequence:
- Tapes 202 and 203: Recorded around June 1971, this comprises material for Series 2 Episodes 1 to 7 (Disc 1 Tracks 1-7 and 8-15). Vocalists: Barbara Moore, Neil Lancaster, John Evans.
- Tape 203a: Recorded 28-30 September 1971 , this comprises material for Series 2 Episodes 8 to 13 (Disc 2). Musicians: Brian Odges, John Marshall, John Mitchell, Gary Boyle and Chris Spedding. Vocalists: Tony Burrows, Neil Lancaster.
- Un-numbered Tape: Recorded 14-15 August 1974, this comprises material for the planned Series 5 Episodes 8 to 13 plus an item for studio recording on Episode 4 (Disc 3 Tracks 1-9)
- Tape 105: Recorded around October 1977, this comprises material for Series 7 (Disc 3 Tracks 10-25)
The Goodies The Cricklewood Tapes (CD 1)
01. The Goodies - Away from it All.mp3
02. The Goodies - The Philharmonic Glee Club Rock'n'Roll Band.mp3
03. The Goodies - Fun Palace.mp3
04. The Goodies - The One That Got Away.mp3
05. The Goodies - Travelling Theme.mp3
06. The Goodies - Jungle Drum Link.mp3
07. The Goodies - Land of Hope and Glory.mp3
08. The Goodies - Dumb Animals.mp3
09. The Goodies - Changed.mp3
10. The Goodies - Square Dance.mp3
11. The Goodies - Far Away.mp3
12. The Goodies - 50 Men in My Life (aka Dreaded Wheat).mp3
13. The Goodies - Kitten Kong.mp3
14. The Goodies - Universe.mp3
15. The Goodies - Superman.mp3
The Goodies The Cricklewood Tapes (CD 2)
01. The Goodies - Bad Bad Lot.mp3
02. The Goodies - Spacehopper.mp3
03. The Goodies - Berserk.mp3
04. The Goodies - Sunny Morning with You.mp3
05. The Goodies - One More Chance.mp3
06. The Goodies - Maybe.mp3
07. The Goodies - Down on the Farm.mp3
08. The Goodies - A Woman's Work.mp3
The Goodies Goody Soul
01. The Goodies - Big Brave Bold Hunka Man.mp3
02. The Goodies - Crazy Man.mp3
03. The Goodies - Les Girls.mp3
04. The Goodies - Walzing Matilda.mp3
05. The Goodies - Front Page News.mp3
06. The Goodies - Working The Line.mp3
07. The Goodies - Bonecrusher [Remix 1].mp3
08. The Goodies - Bonecrusher [Remix 2].mp3
09. The Goodies - Bunfight.mp3
10. The Goodies - Shiny Shoes.mp3
11. The Goodies - On The Road.mp3
12. The Goodies - Rock Goodies.mp3
13. The Goodies - Goodies Split.mp3
14. The Goodies - Meanwhile.mp3
15. The Goodies - A Few Days Later.mp3
16. The Goodies - Punky Business.mp3
17. The Goodies - I'm In Love For The Very First Time.mp3
18. The Goodies - Stretching.mp3
19. The Goodies - Dodo's Theme.mp3
20. The Goodies - Sad Dodo's Theme [Take 1].mp3
21. The Goodies - Slave Chase Music.mp3
22. The Goodies - War.mp3
23. The Goodies - Max Wall Drums.mp3
24. The Goodies - Bless This Horse.mp3
25. The Goodies - Cotton Fields.mp3