Jingle Cats

Jingle Cats is a series of Christmas novelty recordings from producer Mike Spalla.

Early recordings

The Jingle Cats began their recording career in December 1991, when a precocious kitten named "Cheesepuff" crawled into a Hollywood studio recording booth and began meowing along with the song Jingle Bells, which was being recorded in a session at the time. The studio engineer, Mike Spalla, recorded the meows and adjusted the timing to the music to make the first cat singing in recorded history. The song was sent to Kiss-FM in Los Angeles and POWER-106 where it was played on the air the next day, Christmas Day. The following year, the Jingle Cats cassette was presented at the KLOS Classic Rock Expo in Los Angeles. 1,000 cassettes were distributed by City Hall Records in San Rafael, California. KNBC (Channel 4 News) in Los Angeles broke the story on Dec. 10, 1992 and the Jingle Cats sold out in about one hour.

In all, it took more than 1,000 meows, screeches and growls to assemble 20 melodies.^[1]

Albums

Meowy Christmas

In 1993, the album Meowy Christmas, by the Jingle Cats, was released on CD and cassette (1993) which sold over 100,000 copies in its first four weeks of release. Meowy Christmas reached number 10 on Billboard's catalog chart in 1994 and featured holiday classics such as "O Christmas Tree", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", and "Deck The Halls". There are 20 songs on the album. The tagline is "Real Kittens Sing 20 Holiday Classics." All of these songs are arranged and adapted by Mike Spalla. The arrangements are copyrighted by Mike Spalla. The original source of the songs is public domain because the songs are very old Christmas Classics.

Here Comes Santa Claws

1994's follow up album, Here Comes Santa Claws, co-released by BMG in Canada, capitalized on the success of Meowy Christmas to present an assortment of 20th century Christmas compositions including "The Christmas Song", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", and naturally, "Here Comes Santa Claus". Here Comes Santa Claws also notably contained an original composition, "A Kitten's Story". The album also contained a rendition of Israel's National Anthem, "Hatikvah".

Rhythm and Mews

In 2002, Rhythm and Mews was released. The album abandons the Christmas music focus of previous releases, and presents a musical program of 'year-round' favorites as disparate as "Over The Rainbow", "Dueling Banjos", "The Star Spangled Banner", and "Happy Birthday to You". In 2008, Jingle Cats Music www.jinglecats.com released the Jingle Cats Christmas DVD, a collection of Jingle Cats animation, and a new album by the Jingle Dogs entitled "Puppy Holidays."

First Meowel

In 2009, Jingle Cats Music released a brand new album by the Jingle Cats entitled, "First Meowel."

Production, editing, and liner notes

The singing in Jingle Cats is the real sounds of cats which have been edited to create the illusion that real cats are singing. The albums typically feature a short story in the liner notes, explaining how the cats were discovered (in the case of Meowy Christmas, that a litter of kittens appeared at Santa Claus' doorstep at the North Pole, and their caroling formed the basis for the release).

Appearances in media

Jingle Cats and Jingle Dogs recordings have appeared in such films as Fred Claus, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Mixed Nuts. Additionally, Sony released a role playing game for Apple computers titled Jingle Cats: Aito Yujono Neko Monogatari, Love Para Daisakusen. This was also released on Sony PlayStation in Japan. The objective of the game was to care for and breed musical cats. At the highest level, the cats sing "Smoke on the Water".

Collaboration with Jingle Dogs and licensing

Jingle Dogs, first guesting on the original 1993 "Jingle Cats Medley" on Meowy Christmas, were committed to disc with their own CD and cassette on 1995's Christmas Unleashed album as well as the 2008 release Puppy Holidays. Jingle Dogs also made several appearances on Jingle Cats' 1993 debut Meowy Christmas.

Jingle Cats in pop culture

• Jingle Cats has over 1 million views on YouTube.
• Jingle Cats appear on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann (December 10, 2008)
• In the 2007 movie Fred Claus, the Jingle Cats and the The Singing Dogs are heard on the taxi radio.
• Jingle Cats seen on The Colbert Report (Dec. 2007)
• Jingle Cats appeared on the NBC Network in a holiday special on December 22, 2008.
• Jingle Cats on CNN (December 1995)
• Jingle Cats' Meowy Christmas was number 10 on Billboard Magazine's Catalog Chart (December 1994)
• Jingle Cats on Entertainment Tonight (December 1993)

References

1. ^ Wharton, David (1993). "It's the Cats' Meows." Los Angeles Times. 1(3).

• "Tower Records #1 selling Christmas CD in 1993" (see album description)
• NPR "Noah Adams spoke to the creator Mike Spalla about 'Jingle Dogs: Christmas Unleashed' and 'Jingle Cats: Meowy Christmas'"

External links

• Jingle Cats official site
• Jingle Cats YouTube site
• International Business Times "Jingle Cats are Purring Again"
• New York Times review of Jingle Dogs Christmas Unleashed 1995
• "Jingle Cats Came Back" Toronto Star Sat Nov 21 2009
• "Jingle Cats 3D" 2011
• [1] "Dulcet tones of the Jingle Cats" 2010
• [2] "Also Charted #19 Holiday Albums" Billboard January 1, 1994
• iTunes Preview
• [3] "Happy Birthday" iTunes