Jim Henson Reviews | Colossal Reviews

Record basics

Album name: The Muppet Show 2
Group name: Various artists, including Jim Henson, Frank Oz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, Dave Goelz, Louise Gold, Bernadette Peters and Peter Sellers
Year: 1978
Number of discs: one
Label: Arista Records
Collection: Selman
Distinguishing characteristics:
- Scratched into side one of LP: AB-xxx 4192-SA
- Scratched into side two of LP: AB-4192-SB
Buy it on Amazon: $24.95

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

This is The Muppet Show 2; I reviewed The Muppet Show late last year. It was pretty bad.

In that review, I wrote:

… the Kermit the Frog voice was so awful that I would pay money never to have to hear it again.

Since I’m about to listen to another Muppets record and will almost certainly hear the Kermit the Frog voice again, I hope my audience will appreciate the level of my commitment to this project.

Also, in the interim between reviewing The Muppet Show and The Muppet Show 2, I discovered this incredible artifact: a Muppets version of Kick Out the Jams, attributed to “Muppet City 5.” As a longtime fan of the MC5… wow.

What I expected

More of Kermit the Frog’s voice.

What it was actually like

It was pretty bad, but for people who like infantile sound effects, such as chicken buk-bukking, I guess it would have been pretty good.

Almost every song was a gimmick of some kind, such as Who by “Zelda and Her Singing Owl.” Get it? Who? Ha. Ha.

A particularly nightmarish part was Kermit the Frog’s tap dancing.

There were also various parts that reminded me eerily of A Child’s Garden of Grass: A Pre-Legalization Comedy, which I clearly stated was “not suitable for children.” So that’s concerning.

Peter Sellers, as always, was physically incapable of being unfunny in A Gypsy’s Violin, but that is only insofar as one considers foreign accents to be funny. Ha. Ha.

The Muppets’ version of New York State Of Mind was actually better than Barbra Streisand’s version from a few days ago, which says very little about the Muppets and a whole lot about Barbra Streisand.

On the other hand, their version of For What It’s Worth was absolutely appalling, and everyone involved in it should be… sternly reprimanded. So here is Buffalo Springfield doing it at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and here is another cover version that’s great.

Grade

1/5: horrible enough that I couldn’t make it through

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’m definitely familiar with the existence of the Muppets, but it was not something that I watched while growing up, for whatever reason (that probably had something to do with my parents thinking it was dumb).

I did watch Sesame Street, though.

What I expected

Skits and songs for children, voiced by the adults who did the Muppet characters on the television program.

What it was actually like

I thought that I might find this entire record intolerable, but parts of it were actually tolerable.

Mississippi Mud, for example, wasn’t terrible! It had good banjo, but with more of a strumming style instead of the Scruggs three-finger picking style.

Mr. Bassman was also decent, and immediately made me think of Sha Na Na (they did do this song, but it’s actually a Johnny Cymbal song), and then, naturally, of The Marcels’ Blue Moon.

That said, there was a very prominent Oompa-Loompa sound on the opening track The Muppet Show Theme and I had to turn the volume down just to make it through.

Also, the Kermit the Frog voice was so awful that I would pay money never to have to hear it again.

I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog might have been the worst song, but it was not easy to pick.

Grade

1/5: horrible enough that I couldn’t make it through

The Muppet Show 2 (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

What I expected

What it was actually like

Grade

The Muppet Show (Vinyl record album review)

Record basics

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

What I expected

What it was actually like

Grade