Free to Be… You and Me

Infobox Album
Name = Free to Be… You and Me
Type = soundtrack
Artist = Various artists


Released = November, 1972
Recorded =
Genre =
Length =
Label = Bell
Producer =
Reviews =
Last album =
This album =
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"Free to Be… You and Me" is a record album and illustrated songbook for children, first released in November 1972, and later in 1974 as a television special, featuring songs and stories from celebrities (credited as "Marlo Thomas and Friends"). Using poetry, songs, and sketches, the basic concept was to salute values such as individuality, tolerance, and happiness with one's identity; a major thematic message is that anyone, whether a boy or a girl, can achieve anything one wants.

The album has become a cult classic across the United States amongst many who were children in the 1970s.Fact|date=April 2007

Overview

The original idea to create the album came from Thomas; she wanted to teach her then-young niece Dionne about life, in particular that it was OK to go against the gender stereotypes that were blatantly evident in the children's books of that time (ie, Daddy's a construction worker or a doctor while Mommy is a teacher or a nurse--if Mommy even works at all; boys don't play with dolls or cry; girls can't be athletes or go through life unmarried). The album was produced by Carole Hart, with music produced by Stephen J. Lawrence and Bruce Hart, with stories and poems directed by Alan Alda. Proceeds went to the Ms. Foundation for Women. The album has been published by Arista Records since 1983 (it was first published by Bell Records), and is still in print today. As of 2006 it has sold more than 500,000 copies. (A well-received sequel, "Free to Be... A Family", was produced in 1988.)

Well-known songs include "It's All Right to Cry," sung by football hero Rosey Grier; the title track by the New Seekers; "Help" by Tom Smothers; "Sisters and Brothers" by The Voices of East Harlem; and "When We Grow Up" performed by Diana Ross on the album, and performed by Roberta Flack and Michael Jackson on the special.

Other sketches, some of them animated in the television special, include "Atalanta," narrated by Alan Alda, a retelling of the ancient Greek legend of Atalanta; "Boy Meets Girl" with Marlo Thomas and Mel Brooks providing the voices for puppets resembling human babies, who use cultural gender stereotypes to try to discover which is a boy and which a girl; and "Dudley Pippin" with Billy De Wolfe.

The children pictured on the original LP jacket were school-mates of Abigail, Robin and David Pogrebin, the children of Letty Cottin-Pogrebin, then the editor of Ms. Magazine. Most of the children attended Corlears School.

Television special

The television special first aired March 11, 1974, on ABC, earning an 18.6 rating/27 share and went on to win an Emmy. 16 mm prints of the special were also struck, and some schoolchildren from the 1970s remember seeing the television special projected in schools in that period.

The special appeared occasionally on HBO in the 1980s, and more recently, on the cable channel TV Land. It is currently available on home video.

TV cast

*Alan Alda
*Harry Belafonte
*Mel Brooks
*Rita Coolidge
*Billy De Wolfe
*Roberta Flack
*Rosey Grier
*Michael Jackson
*Kris Kristofferson
*Shel Silverstein
*Tom Smothers
*Marlo Thomas
*Dionne Warwick
*Cicely Tyson
*Carol Channing
*The New Seekers
*The Voices of East Harlem

Track listing

# "Free To Be... You And Me" - Music by Stephen J. Lawrence, Lyrics by Bruce Hart, Performed by The New Seekers
# "Boy Meets Girl" - Written by Carl Reiner and Peter Stone, Performed by Mel Brooks and Marlo Thomas
# "When We Grow Up" - Music by Stephen J. Lawrence, Lyrics by Shelley Miller, Performed by Diana Ross
# "Don't Dress Your Cat In An Apron" - Performed by Billy De Wolfe
# "Parents Are People" - Music and Lyrics by Carol Hall, Performed by Harry Belafonte and Marlo Thomas
# "Housework" - Performed by Carol Channing
# "Helping" - Written by Shel Silverstein, Performed by Tom Smothers
# "Ladies First" - Performed by Marlo Thomas (based on a Shel Silverstein poem about a girl whose insistence on always getting to "go first" simply because she is a girl ends up making her the chosen meal of cannibals)
# "Dudley Pippin And The Principal" - Performed by Billy De Wolfe, Bobby Morse, and Marlo Thomas
# "It's All Right To Cry" - Music and Lyrics by Carol Hall, Performed by Rosey Grier
# "Sisters And Brothers" - Music by Stephen J. Lawrence, Lyrics by Bruce Hart, Performed by Sisters and Brothers
# "My Dog Is A Plumber" - Performed by Dick Cavett
# "William's Doll" - Music by Mary Rodgers, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, Performed by Alan Alda and Marlo Thomas (based on the children's book of the same name, about a boy whose family is perplexed by his desire for a doll to care for)
# "Atalanta" - Performed by Alan Alda and Marlo Thomas
# "Grandma" - Performed by Diana Sands
# "Girl Land" - Music by Mary Rodgers, Lyrics by Bruce Hart, Performed by Jack Cassidy and Shirley Jones
# "Dudley Pippin And His No-Friend" - Performed by Bobby Morse and Marlo Thomas
# "Glad To Have A Friend Like You" - Music and Lyrics by Carol Hall, Performed by Marlo Thomas
# "I'd Rather Be The Sun" - Performed by Dionne Warwick

References

External links

*imdb title|0194897