How the Grinch Stole Christmas! / Horton Hears a Who!

Rhino Records, with plenty of time for the Christmas holidays, finally released a soundtrack to everyone's favorite Dr. Seuss adaptation: "How The Grinch Stole Christmas!". Famed animator Chuck Jones adapted the classic Seuss tale about a nasty Grinch stealing Christmas from Who-ville, and had original songs written for the show. Perhaps the most famous of these songs, "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch" has become an instantly recognizable classic. This album presents the entire audio of the show, and includes a few bonus tracks with just the songs. Also included is the entire audio portion from "Horton Hears a Who!", another Seuss/Jones collaboration, which also involved Who-ville.

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas" is almost completely underwritten with score by composers Albert Hague and Eugene Poddany, and it was great to be able to hear the show (and not be "distracted" by the wonderful animation), and focus on the musical contribution to this show. Always underscoring the action onscreen, animation music tends to be limited in themes, yet this score contains about four themes, all of which seem to stem from the songs written for the show. Boris Karloff is, of course, excellent as the narrator of the tale, and the MGM Chorus does a delightful job singing the songs. But the best feature of this album, of course, is "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch", performed with such evil deliciousness by Thurl Ravenscroft, who is also known for providing the voice of Tony the Tiger.

The second half of the album is focused on "Horton Hears a Who!", which was also scored by Eugene Poddany. Once again the score underscores the animation on screen, and again most of the themes stem from the songs present in the show. The most memorable moment of this show, at least for me, is the song "Be Kind To Your Small Person Friends", utilizing "The Stars and Stripes Forever" by John Philip Sousa.

The audio quality for "Grinch" is presented in high-fidelity mono, and there are some times where the fact that it was recorded in 1966 is blatantly apparent - but there are some other moments that sound exceptionally well - including "You're A Mean One Mr. Grinch". Three years later, in 1969, "Horton Hears A Who!" was recorded in stereo, and the sound quality is exceptional. The narration at times seems a bit "older" in quality than the music, but that's probably just the way things were. Also included in this album is a nine-page interview with director/animator Chuck Jones, in which they talk about the music and process for these two shows. Oddly enough, they also include the lyrics for the songs from "Grinch", but not from "Horton". Oh well. This album is still a great addition to your Chrismas or soundtrack library. And with Ron Howard's live feature adaptation of "Grinch" (starring Jim Carrey) coming out next Chrismas, here's to hoping that this album keeps people satiated until then!