Songs from the Neighborhood

[MysteryNeighbor]

It's a CD of the songs heard on the show but being performed by other artists.

You can find it on Amazon, just click on the link below:
http://www.amazon.com/Songs-From-The-Neighborhood-Mister/dp/B000BO9ZIS

On an NPR broadcast in 2005,the man who produced the album was looking for a company to distribute it and said that one was interested on the condition that the CD album should have rap or hip-hop versions of the songs.That didn't go over very well!

[Neighborhood Archive]

There was a little bit of discussion about this CD on the blog last December:

http://neighborhoodarchive.blogspot.com/2011/12/songs-from-neighborhood-cd-2005.html

[mitsguy2001]

I agree that it should have definitely included Betty Aberlin, Joe Negri, Chuck Aber, Maggie Stewart, Francois Clemmons, and anyone else that I missed.  I heard a really beautiful rendition of "There are many ways to say I love you" by Betty Aberlin and Joe Negri.  That for sure should have been included.

The only song I've downloaded so far is "It's You I Like", by Amy Grant.  Amy  Grant has a beautiful voice, and one that works very well for that song.  I should check out some of the others sometime.  Betty seems to recommend the one that Donna Summer sang.

[Jazzman67]

This recording is ok. I think the best voice on the CD really belongs to Mareen McGovern who sings the song This is just the day. She has an impecable voice and she picked a good song to sing. It's one of my favorites on the CD. Holly Yarbrough does a good job, too.

I prefer Holly Yarbrough's Jazz recording which is much closer to the original music than any of the songs on the CD. What do you Do is a good one, too, with a Big band sound to it, on the Songs from the Neighborhood CD.

I'm really looking forward to getting John Ellis' new recording, which includes 6 of the Neighborhood songs. You can listen to some of the music here in sample format. It's really a tribute to both Fred Rogers and Johnny Costa since the musicians play Jazz the way Johnny Costa and Joe Negri played it on the program.

http://www.amazon.com/Its-You-Like-John-Ellis/dp/B007GNMIK4

The Cd has been released today on Amazon.

It would have been nice, I agree, to have a recording with some of the neighbors on CD. I do remember some of the older recordings that were done during the earlier days. The earlier recordings had much better arrangements done, along with some fine playing by the strings. Joe Negri played on one of those recordings.

For me, I had a lot of fun attending a concert at the Symphony Hall in Boston in 1986! Betty Aberlin, Johnny Costa, Francios Clemmons and Mr. Mcgeely joined Mr. Rogers for a one hour musical concert. Betty Sang I like to take my time... I believe Purple Panda made an appearance, too. Brighams was busy that day!

I had then given Mr. Rogers a picture from our visit outside the WBZ station the year before.