Friday, January 28, 2011

The Genius of Mike Batt

Recently, I have been drawn to the Wombles ? again! As I already wrote about a couple of years ago in this blog, The Wombles originally appeared in a series of children's novels by Elisabeth Beresford. These imaginary creatures were also made into a popular TV show in the 70s.

Mike Batt wrote the theme song for the Wombles TV show. After that, Batt made four full albums of Wombles music which became very succesfull. Mike Batt (under the title ?the Wombles?) even ended up spending more weeks on British charts than any other artist in 1974. The attention was well-deserved. Batt's songwriting was very good and his range of musical styles varied from Mozart to surf pop. There were live concerts, performed by professional session musicians wearing Womble costumes. Batt also starred at the concerts playing the role of one of the Womble characters.

Mike Batt doesn't seem to be too enhusiastic about his Wombles music anymore. I read that this is why the gold-selling Wombles albums haven't been re-released on CD. Therefore they will probably not be released anytime soon... Such great bubblegum music would definitely cheer anyone up and be of great value in nostalgic sense... Not to mention how much people of younger generations (such as myself) would enjoy it! Great music for both children and adults... What else do you need?
Update (12/05/10): I'm so happy! They ARE going to be released after all!

Before the Wombles albums come out I'll get myself some of Mike Batt's later solo material... I looked at Batt's musical life story and it was really amazing. He has been all around the world, worked with symphony orchestras and million-selling artists ? written some of their million-selling hits, of course... People seem to think Batt is a very underappreciated songwriter. I wonder if many people in general even have heard about him, considering how much he has achieved. One thing is for sure: writing four albums and eight hit singles for the Wombles doesn't look all that huge anymore when you think about all of the things Batt has done during his life.

But I still love those awesome Wombles tracks. Listen to some!

Womble Of The Universe
Nonstop Wombling Summer Party
The Wombling Song
Remember You're a Womble
Dreaming in the Sun
Banana Rock (Check out that accent...)
Minuetto Allegretto
Wombling Merry Christmas (Awesome Christmas song!)

Source: http://thoughtsonmelody.blogspot.com/2010/12/genius-of-mike-batt.html

The Housemartins Ladyhawke Maow The Love Language

No comments:

Post a Comment