Disclaimer: This site is not endorsed by Alan Arkin or any movie studio.
No, this isn't a page to talk about the singing he did in Return of Captain Invincible. Nor is it about movie soundtrack music. Rather, this is about Alan Arkin's
singing career. From various interviews, Alan Arkin makes it clear that music was a part of his childhood. Even though his parents were teachers (until the Red Scare),
he has said that the house was filled with music. At an early age, he taught himself to play guitar, and while he was in college, he began to play in his
first band, The Tarriers, as a way to earn some extra cash on the weekends. In past interviews, singing sounds like something he just fell into, but actually,
he released an album through Elektra before that.
It's amazing what you can uncover when you create a webpage. Most of the information on this site is the result of fairly simple websearches. However, in
all of my searching, I don't recall finding anything on "I Like You," or if I did, I guess I assumed that it was a song from one of the groups I'd already discovered.
Then, in one month, I received multiple emails from visitors to this site asking what I knew about this song. My honest answer was that I knew nothing. Once I
knew what to look for, I found someone with the song, and I am now able to present the mp3. I know nothing about it except that it is fairly obscure, but it
has aired on a handful of radio stations, as well as (to the best of my knowledge) the Doctor Demento show.
The Tarriers were a surprise hit, but they unfortunately a bit ahead of their time. Their genre was folk, and the folk explosion had yet to occur. In fact, they were better known for
their contribution to thewave of Calypso music. Their "Banana Boat Song" hit #27 on Billboard, but none of their other songs neared that level of success. A couple of years
later, artists like Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio played "Everybody Loves Saturday Night" and "Tom Dooley," and those are the versions that people remember.
I can't really quantify the success, but my father(seven years younger than Arkin) doesn't remember the Tarriers, but he does remember most of the songs that I played for him
as hits for other groups. And, of course, Harry Belafonte's version of the "Banana Boat Song" or "Day-O" is the version that people remember from Beetlejuice. Wouldn't it
have been amusing had Alan Arkin (or for that matter, one of his kids) been cast in that film? The same thing goes for "A Mighty Wind." Anyway, one night after a
performance in Paris, Arkin decided to quit the band to focus on his acting career. It was a few years before his acting really took off, but he had already
made his film debut in Calypso Heat Wave, as a member of his band.
If you wish to purchase the Tarriers music, two CDs are in print (and available through your favorite MP3 service). If you only want the Arkin tracks, make sure you pick up:
The other CD is from after he left the band. However, if you are simply a folk fan, I'd suggest listening to some of the tracks on that one
(And yes, I'm a merc. Buy through that link, and I get a few cents or something.)
The second group that Alan Arkin was a member of played children's (folk) music and went by the name "The Babysitters." It was very much a family affair that he
played with his first wife, Jeremy Arkin, as well as his second wife, Barbara Dana Arkin, and his son, Adam. I've yet to hear any of the music,
but the short reviews of the group I've read were fairly favorable. One writer even counted one of their albums as part of the Top Five Best Children's Albums
ever. They released four albums from 1958 to 1968, which are obviously fairly difficult to find today. In 1991, Vanguard (record company) released a compilation CD,
but it's also been out of print for about ten years, making the group very difficult to track down. Another issue complicating any websearch on the group is the
punk group "Babysitters" and the book series that I loved as a child. However, fear not. I found a copy and will eventually post excepts to this page.
Most biographies list only the previous two bands and Alan's songwriting credits, but through the power of the internet, I discovered an even more obscure band named
Jeremy's Friends. Finding this out of print record isn't helped by the fact that their record label went out of business shortly after releasing it. This group is also
difficult to even conduct a websearch for, because apparently, there are a lot of people named Jeremy, and many of them have friends.
Here is the blurb from the back of the album, followed by MP3's. Once someone secures the rights and re-releases the album, I will take these down.
"The singing of folk songs, humorous or serious, should be fun - for both the singer and the listener. Even the most somber folk song was probably first sung
to relieve some deep feeling and ease a troubled mind. So, why try to improve on either the sadness or humor in good folk songs? Why not sing them as well
as you can - feeling them as personally as you can, of course - have the sheer fun of singing them, and let the words and music of the songs themselves make
their own points?"
That direct, yet thoughtful statement sums up one of the working credos of the bright, fresh, inventive trio of young folk singers who have identified themselves
with the attractive, if enigmatic name of Jeremy's Friends. To be exact, the "Friends" are Carole Mann, Alan Arkin, and Brooks Jones. Before pooling their
talents, each had had a good deal of experience on his own in the singing of both folk and other songs. Carole, who hails from San Francisco, was well-known
in folk circles in that city; Alan served a seasoning stint with the popilar Tarriers; and Brooks has had the distinction of being heard in an album of his own on
records. The threesome met by accident, exchanged songs and singing views, and suddenly found themselves so involved in fun-filled singing experiments that
their teaming became inevitable. Since that teaming, they have appeared widely, especially along the eastern seaboard, in select niteries and in concert. Away
from their mutual activities, however, each of these talented youngsters pursues a busy career of his own. Carole both acts and dances and she can boast of
status as a published poetess. Alan, song-writer and arranger as well as singer, has acted frequently in television, has several short stories published, and has
won prizes as both a sculptor and a photographer. Brooks has been a metallurgist, a mandolin-player in authentic hill-billy groups, and an arranger and/or
composer of background musical scores for documentary films. Concurrently with his activities with the "Friends," he is an associate producer at the McCarter
Theatre, the lively little "Lincoln Center" of Princeton, N.J.
These bright, imaginative, zestful youngsters - with loads of vigor, thoughtfulness, talent - that's the threesome known as "Jeremy's Friends." here, in the debut
on record together, the trio offer a delightful cross-section of songs from their ever-expanding repertoire. The line-up is effervescently novel and varied,
wonderfully entertaining in its range. Here, you'll find freshly refurbished versions of such old favorites as "Hangman," "Cockles and Muscles," "The Old
Maid" - and a novelty like the Calypso-derived "Abdication," which celebrates a very important event which brought a new Duke and Duchess into the
peerage - and a number like "Ragupati," an Indian folk song picked up by ear by the group from an Asian student - and even new-styled, written folk songs
like Woody Guthrie's "Pastures Of Plenty." In everything, "Jeremy's Friends" show themselves to be one of the most attractive folk-singing groups to come
along in many a moon.
But, then, their credo underlines that singing should be fun. In these recordings, that's exactly what they're having - and the feelings infectiously
transmit to the listener!
Ragupati *
*-Highly Recommended!
I first discovered that Alan Arkin even released another album through an artist biography of the Tarriers. This album, released in 1955 and produced when
Alan was 20 years old, is the earliest recording that I know of, and it's very hard to find. I found my copy through a London-based record shop. As with Jeremy's
Friends, many biographies simply don't list it, and it's never been re-released. Rather than let good music go to waste, you can find the tracks below.
Listening to the record, you can hear the singing talent, but to me, personally, it's simply not as exciting as the others that Alan Arkin has been involved with.
Most of the songs are just Alan and his guitar, and to my ears, the songs just need a little more something. But, apparently, it was enough to get others
interested, so who am I to judge? Regardless, now you can judge for yourselves:
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