“Life is like a hurricane…”

Roger Feigelson and, no doubt, the late, great Doug Fake have proved themselves tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties, because by the time you see this post, the two-CD release of Ron Jones‘s music for the 1987 series “DuckTales” will have been released by Intrada Records. I know better than to do the whole ‘posting what else I would like in this release’s vein’ thing on public forums, but we’re not on public forms. We’re on my blog, so here are a few other releases from Disney cartoon shows I would love to see put out sometime between now and my (undoubtedly food-related) death:

1. TaleSpin (Christopher L. Stone) - The next logical choice for a TV soundtrack release if “DuckTales” is a decent seller (he said, wryly). I had a CD-R of Stone's 40-minute promo back when I first got into obtaining CD-Rs, so, of course, it's practically unlistenable now. All the more reason.

2. Spider-Man (Udi Harpaz) - Technically, it is Disney. A lot of Saban-produced shows and movies in the 90s had orchestral music that the projects didn't really deserve. I genuinely feel that this may have the highest chance of getting a release.

3. Kim Possible (Adam Berry) - No, it's not orchestral, but it is colorful as shit and, sometimes, that's all you need.

And, as long as I'm playing with house money, let's flip around to some other channels with shows whose music I'd love to see released:

Nickelodeon

1. The Penguins of Madagascar (Adam Berry) - As with all of his scores for McCorkle/Schooley shows (see above), Berry’s music is nicely catchy and the jazzy edge is a welcome mix with his energy.

2. My Life as a Teenage Robot (James L. Venable) - The show’s sci-fi/action feel gave Venable a lot to work with and he delivered.

3. The Angry Beavers (Charlie Brissette) - Brissette clearly had a blast with the movie, TV and song parodies he wove into his music. Name me another composer who would reference the theme music from Good Neighbor Sam (“Dag’s List”)!

There are two other shows I'd love the soundtracks for, but there's a big ol' asterisk next to them. May as well pull off the Band-Aid:

Invader Zim (Kevin Manthei)* - Technically, this was released. On a 77-minute promo CD I was lucky enough to obtain and on a mini-CD containing every note that Manthei wrote for the show that I was also lucky enough to obtain. As soon as I find a way to play the latter, I am set.

Ren and Stimpy (too damn many composers to list here)* - The stock music utilized for the many episodes came from Raymond Scott (and I have an album featuring most of them) and a number of production houses. A YouTube user has done great work cataloging the pieces and the episodes in which they were used, but I wouldn't mind a professional pair of hands.

Saturday morning (and elsewhere) mashup:

Beetlejuice (Acrobat Music) - What can I tell you? I've been re-watching the show on MeTVToons and it reminded me of how fun the background music was. The collective known as Acrobat Music did a fine job and even threw in some neat variations on the theme Elfman wrote for the show.

Futurama (Christopher Tyng) - You'd think that this would've found its way out in the Comedy Central era (We got a CD of “Family Guy” scoring. Why not strike while the iron is hot?), but better late than never. Or sooner. It's only a matter of time before Hulu loses interest in financing new seasons, leading to this never coming out.

Galaxy High (Don Felder) - Stemming from an earworm of a theme song, the former Eagle’s underscoring was quite delightful.

Green Eggs and Ham (David Newman) - Each episode score was recorded with a 70-piece orchestra. Add to that the labels' collective allergy to taking a chance on further Newman albums and you have a classic case of pissing in the wind. It's not fair.

Inspector Gadget (Haim Saban and Shuki Levy) - All I want is for some label to come through with this show's underscore the way that La La Land did with Saban/Levy's “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe” back in 2012. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Jim Latham - Yes, I know this isn't a cartoon. This is a composer. A damn talented one who provided the music for just about every Sony movie spin-off cartoon series. “Men in Black”. “Jumanji”. “Extreme Ghostbusters”. All deserving of releases. Oh, hell, let's throw in “Godzilla”and “Jackie Chan Adventures” for the sake of completism.

ReBoot (Robert Buckley) - Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve watched this show, but I have fond memories of Buckley’s underscore. Surely, there’s something about this to appeal to others.

Sailor Moon (Bob Summers) - Summers released a digital album of his tracks a few years ago, but a more comprehensive version would be very welcome. Don't think so? Even people who hated (?!) the DiC dub loved the music.

Tiny Toon Adventures (various) - If nothing else, the chance to hear veteran composers go full Stalling (Broughton, Stevens, Rosenthal, Rubinstein) is worth preservation. 

Xiaolin Showdown (Kevin Manthei) - With a more expansive scope than “ZIM” (appropriate, considering the show’s many characters and settings), Manthei produced some exceptional music.

A boy can dream, can't he?