Annette's Pajama Party (Buena Vista,
released November 1964).
The last Annette LP officially tied to a specific AIP Beach
Party film, and one of the more interesting ones.
This
LP is popular – quite popular, in fact -- among collectors,
primarily because of the very un-Disney-esque, cheese-cakey pictures
of Annette in bedtime “attire” on the gatefold cover (which are only
the "teasers;" the pictures of Annette on the inside covers leave even
less to the imagination, per the example below). Frankly, given the
previously mentioned “urban legend” about Walt
Disney decreeing Funicello never be involved in any "suggestive"
sequences in Beach Party movies, one is left wondering how on earth
the Buena Vista designers ever got this album cover approved.
But don’t let that issue distract you, for this
is the LP featuring perhaps one of the most “musical” of
the Beach Party movies.
Which
leads us to the vinyl itself, both sides consisting of material from
the AIP film Pajama
Party, which next to The Ghost In The
Invisible Bikini had the smallest number of songs
of any of the movies in the series. Despite that, to quote the
increasingly infamous Martha Stewart, there are more than a
handful of really good things here: the uptempo title cut which
starts off the record, two nice Styner-Hemric ballads (There Has To Be A Reason , a
solo version of her wonderful duet in the film, and Stuffed Animal; the latter having some
notoriety that is discussed in the section of this site
about the movie itself) as well as three decent
instrumentals of the dance music from the movie. All of the
latter are good, but the particularly choice one is the cover
of Beach Ball (when it came to studio musicians, Disneyland
Records Music Director Tutti Camrata hired the best in the business
and that really shows on this record). And in a rare
exception from all of Annette's other albums, the record even
includes a solo cut performed by another artist (film guest star
Dorothy Lamour, who does her “Where Did I Go
Wrong” number from the film). Interestingly, it also includes
a jazzy number with a rather complex syncopation, one that most
viewers of the film won't recognize: The Maid And The
Martian is the title number from the
similarly-named version of the movie that was released (one
I've never seen on broadcast or
video).
Annette's
Pajama Party was originally released in mono (BV-3325)
and stereo (STER-3325). It has
never been re-released in any format.
Availability: this is probably the hardest
Annette Beach Party album to track down. It wasn’t a big seller, has
the same gatefold problem as Annette at Bikini
Beach and again is highly popular with collectors
because of the cheese-cakey cover. Copies come up on the web
auction sites infrequently and tend to go for serious
dollars.
Related singles: none,
this is the only Annette Beach Party related LP that produced no
singles. |