The music of The Banana Splits

[Jon Olafsson]

Is there anyplace that you can get the songs besides on Boomerang?

[wakddood]

I wrote this before I joined, I ended up finding the bootleg CD on Ebay and won it for 16.95. That's cheap compared to Amazon, there it goes anywhere from 39.99 to 249.98 new and used. I'm listening to it right now, I'm hearing songs I haven't heard on the show. Did they leave out some of the songs when it went into syndication?

[Mark A. Yurkiw]

wakddood said:

I wrote this before I joined, I ended up finding the bootleg CD on Ebay and won it for 16.95. That's cheap compared to Amazon, there it goes anywhere from 39.99 to 249.98 new and used. I'm listening to it right now, I'm hearing songs I haven't heard on the show. Did they leave out some of the songs when it went into syndication?

Congratulations on getting the CD. However, if you really want to hear the songs the way they should sound, try tracking down the original records...the main bootleg CD that's out there sounds terrible.

As far as I know, two songs from the original We're The Banana Splits album were not ever used on the show: "In New Orleans" and "Don't Go Away--Go-Go Girl." (When you hear these songs, maybe it'll be obvious why they weren't used on a Saturday morning cartoon show.)

Other songs released on various 45s do not appear to have ever been played on the show:

"Let Me Remember You Smiling"
"Long Live Love"
"Pretty Painted Carousel"
"The Tra La La Song" (Single Version)

None of the songs used in the Season 1 shows were cut from the syndicated shows. However, Season 2 is not represented at all in the available half-hour reruns (apart from the show opening and closing) and I can't rule out the possibility of some of these other songs having been used in Season 2. (The "Long Live Love"/"Pretty Painted Carousel" single was released during the second season, and the Splits reportedly sang "Long Live Love" on an NBC special covering the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1969.) However, we've been told the song segments in Season 2 were all reused from Season 1...so far, I have been unable to verify this for certain, but I have yet to see any stills of the characters miming songs in the Season 2 costumes either.

However...several songs used in the Season 1 shows were never released on records. (They'll get you coming or going, I guess.)