Doddy and the Diddymen
Apparently, the UK had their own version of Alvin and the Chipmunks.
Creator's Wikipedia page.
Live version of the act here, not embeddable.
Comments
From what I gather way before the days of modern digital audio processing it was a real labor of love to make recordings like this. One had to be pitch perfect to sing in a specific register and have spot on timing to make these.
And for those WUvians who are more familiar with British entertainment, am I right that Noddy was an animated automobile character? It seems familiar.
And for those WUvians who are more familiar with British entertainment, am I right that Noddy was an animated automobile character? It seems familiar.
Posted by KDP on 07/14/17 at 11:22 AM
The Diddy Men didn't have the field to themselves. There was also Pinky and Perky, a pair of pig puppets that specialised in doing covers of 1960s pop tunes (e.g. "Baby Love", originally by the Supremes). The BBC really liked Pinky and Perky, despite the fact that they were skull-crushingly awful. At least the Diddy Men were funny.
Recording the musical numbers was surprisingly easy. You first recorded the backing track at full speed, then played it back at half speed while recording the vocals. You had to sing the words more slowly, but there was a full backing track to help you out. Recording speech was rather more difficult as you didn't have any timing cues, but it was something you got better at with practice.
P.S. Noddy was the name of the driver, not the car. He was a creation of the author Enid Blyton, which should be enough to find him on Wikipedia.
Recording the musical numbers was surprisingly easy. You first recorded the backing track at full speed, then played it back at half speed while recording the vocals. You had to sing the words more slowly, but there was a full backing track to help you out. Recording speech was rather more difficult as you didn't have any timing cues, but it was something you got better at with practice.
P.S. Noddy was the name of the driver, not the car. He was a creation of the author Enid Blyton, which should be enough to find him on Wikipedia.
Posted by Stuart on 07/15/17 at 09:43 AM
The animated car was called Brum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMQ5KAElbC8
Posted by Richard Bos on 07/15/17 at 01:32 PM
To Stuart and Richard: Thank you for your replies. My British entertainment i.q. just went up a half point.
Posted by KDP on 07/17/17 at 07:46 AM
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Category: Fey, Twee, Whimsical, Naive and Sadsack | Music | 1960s | Europe