Friday, August 28, 2020

Various Artists - Ren & Stimpy Production Music, Vol. 1-3

I watched the new documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story earlier this week, an amazing, thrilling, hilarious and ultimately deeply disturbing chronicle of the rise and fall of the groundbreaking and beloved 1990s Nickelodeon cartoon and its creator, John Kricfalusi. Here's the trailer for it:

If you're an old fan of the show, I heartily recommend you see this film. I won't give anything away here, other than to say that it will jolt you to your core... but hopefully not enough to displace your fond memories of this program.

I distinctly recall the first time I ever saw Ren & Stimpy. I moved to the Washington, DC area during the summer of 1991, and soon afterward acquired a new girlfriend. During the first weekend we hung out together that fall, she insisted that we get up to watch this manic new cartoon airing on Nicktoons... it was the "Space Madness"/"The Boy Who Cried Rat!" episode, and by the end of it, I knew that I had just seen one of the greatest cartoons of the age.  From then on, I watched the program religiously every weekend, absorbing multiple viewings of the same shows (Ren & Stimpy's production company, Spümcø, was notorious for missing delivery deadlines, leaving Nickelodeon no choice but to air the same episodes over and over again as a stopgap), and loving every single one of them.

As I mentioned in a previous blog posting, one of my all-time favorite Ren & Stimpy episodes is "Rubber Nipple Salesmen", containing what has to be the most disturbing, off-putting - and yet, hilarious - scene EVER included in what was ostensibly a children's cartoon:

By the start of the second season, it was all over. Nickelodeon fired Kricfalusi in September 1992 (for several valid reasons, in my opinion - see the documentary film for details), and Spümcø completed the slate of remaining shows written or directed by Kricfalusi before production of the show was moved by the network to Games Animation. Ren & Stimpy aired for another three seasons, into 1995, but without John K.'s imagination and energy behind it, the later-period episodes were little more than pale echoes of the show in its heyday.

A lot of what made this show great was in its liberal use of vintage "incidental music" from the 1950s and 1960s, that gives every cartoon a certain "throwback" tone to some of the classic animation and studios from that era. Way back in 2006, a great site called Secret Fun Blog and its compiler Kirk D. went the extra mile, and began offering compilations of music from Ren & Stimpy.  To quote from his superb post:

Put simply, these melodies have enriched my life. Play them on your drive to work and you're the star of an instructional traffic safety film, turn it on during dinner and mealtime becomes 80% happier (but be careful.. play the wrong track and you could wind up with a touch of Space Madness). Best of all you can listen and imagine that you live in the world of Ren and Stimpy where the walrus-napping horse is your next door neighbor, where the toy stores are stocked with Log from Blammo, and a visit from Powdered Toast Man is just a complaint away!

The links to Volumes 1 and 2 of this great collection have long been dead on his blog... but fortunately, I took the opportunity at the time to acquire this outstanding music. There was also a THIRD volume of tunes from this show released during that time... this comp was a little harder to track down, and even harder to sort out, since most of the tracks came without track numbers or composer attribution. But I took care of that, to the best of my ability, utilizing various authoritative sources. So what you have here for Vol. 3 is about as complete as you're going to find out there.

Comedy Central announced earlier this month that it had greenlighted a reboot of Ren & Stimpy, featuring all new episodes, for the upcoming season, to air alongside rebooted versions of old 90s cult hit shows like Daria and Beavis & Butthead. My personal feeling on this is that they should just leave it well enough alone.  These shows - especially Ren & Stimpy - were of a certain time and place in the past, and fondly remembered by those of us lucky enough to see them when they first emerged. Ren & Stimpy (at least the first two seasons) was lightning in a bottle, and attempting to recapture that is a foolish and futile exercise - especially so when John Kricfalusi, the creator and lead animator of the original series, is slated to have no involvement whatsoever in the reboot.  Just let it go, Comedy Central - stop trying to "reanimate" the corpse, as it were.

Enough of that.  Here for your listening pleasure are all three fan-assembled volumes of music from this seminal cartoon, released between 2006 and 2008.  I hope that this post brings you plenty of "Happy Happy, Joy Joy!"

(And as always, let me know what you think.)

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

Various Artists - Ren & Stimpy Production Music Vol. 1 (2006): Send Email
Various Artists - Ren & Stimpy Production Music Vol. 2 (2007): Send Email
Various Artists - Ren & Stimpy Production Music Vol. 3 (2008): Send Email

69 comments:

  1. Yet another STELLAR post from the Great Pee-Pee!!! Thank you...

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  2. So great thanks for finding and sharing!

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  3. An unexpected collection - thanks again Mr. H!

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  4. Happy happy! This stuff is great, thanks a million.

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  5. A belated thank you for these collections - what a find! I never realized they used some Raymond Scott music in the series.

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  6. A wonderful time in my life and love this music1 Thanks!

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  7. I worked at an animation studio when they did animation for Space Madness. What a time! and thanks for the music, PP

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    1. WOW - REALLY?!? That must've been amazing! Were you guys laughing your asses off at this crazy animation coming from this weird studio? Ah, the 1990's - what a time!

      Thanks for the great comment!

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  8. Thanks a lot for sharing.

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  9. Thanks so much for the links! And, of course, thank you for being such a delightfully prompt, professional, and courteous Pee-Pee Soaked Heckhole.

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  10. Brilliant, thanks for finding and sharing these treasures!

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  11. dementedly super cool.

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  12. Thanks so much for preserving these collections!

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  13. I just want to say thank you to the person that runs this blog for compiling this collection! I haven't downloaded it yet but the dedication you've talked about makes me so much more excited to hear it!

    -Cade U.

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  14. Many thanks for these three volumes you put together. Glad I found your great site

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  15. So amazing! This music really brought this show to life

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  16. Just when I thought it was time to lose all hope for the world, I discovered this glimmer of light. Pee Pee you are my Powdered Toast Man.

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  17. Thanks for this, will be sending to my daughter as well! Cheers, Randy.

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  18. Thank you so much for sharing this album. First heard about it from RubberRoss and was curious, and now I am loving this album a lot!

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  19. thanks for the links! I had these a while back, but I'd lost them.

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  20. I had gotten the first two R+S music volumes from another site a while back, but had assumed the third to be lost to the void. Thanks for both sharing the album and sorting through the tracks!

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  21. Thanks soooo much for sending me the music! Been looking for it for yonks, ya hero!

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  22. I found the original blog, and was overjoyed to discover (as usual) that the internet has made available again these wonderful compilations for all to enjoy!

    I would also like to extend a personal thanks to the proprietor of this blog for helping me add this release to Musicbrainz, so that people might be better aware of its existence.

    Vol1:https://musicbrainz.org/release/d4f77828-da06-4462-92f0-3ca0d2780071
    Vol2:https://musicbrainz.org/release/4a1adecd-ac4c-44d6-bb6a-f76fba77aa64
    Vol3:https://musicbrainz.org/release/1c981f90-7495-4143-8b1e-a0e97157acd0

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  23. Thank you very much for a simple share of an otherwise difficult to find album(s).

    - Kye

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  24. Wow! I've been listening to Vol. 1 all morning. What a delight to hear all these great tracks in one place. Thank you!

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  25. Thank you for acquiring and sharing these wonderful files. Loved volume 2 for years and now I have the other 2 volumes to listen to! I feel truly blessed. Again, thank you.

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  26. Absolutely ripping my friend!

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  27. Now this is the good stuff i was looking for! I've always had a soft spot for R&S music and when I had the opportunity to do some video making, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to add these tracks in. Thanks a ton for these!

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  28. my internet-nerding, media bounty-hunting, librarian cup utterly runneth over. happy, most happy. joy, indeed, joy. amen.

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  29. Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! My Collection has been restored. Thank you.

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  30. Thank you for posting this. I've been looking for these albums.

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  31. Awesome, so glad you made this!

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  32. Thank you so much for helping me replace Vols 1 and 3! I lost them during a change from one PC to another, and I thought they were gone for good. Best wishes to you!

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  33. Thank for you sharing. It is greatly appreciated. It's hard to find good public domain music, and coming from this source makes it better!

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  34. Yes sir, I do like it!

    I used to have volumes 1 and 2 but lost them a good few years ago. My son (11) and I have been making our way through the DVD every weekend morning. Now I get to share this excellent music with him too… JOY!

    Thank you Pee-Pee Soaked Heckhole

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  35. Thanks for the share. Quick and easy contact and much better than other services out there that remove links. I've been listening to these all day!!

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  36. Access to all this extremely useful music is a wonderful thing!

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  37. Thanks so much for Volume 3!

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  38. From Jack Wheat: "I remember when Volume 1 first dropped. I had just gotten back into R&S. Listening now has me nostalgic to go back and watch them again!"

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  39. Thank you for the links to volumes 1-3! You are extremely generous and very fast! I really appreciate this effort to preserve this music for fans, and am happy to have some possible selections for future video content I am creating. Happy holidays!!!

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  40. Thank you so much, I've been listening to these albums online and it's a delight to have a copy saved to my server!

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  41. Thank you so much for the links are your preservation efforts!

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  42. I remember finding Kirk D's blog back in 2006 and was so excited since I'd been wanting this music forever at that point. When the blog dropped pack 2 I got it as well. However, I never knew there was a third installment as well. Excellent!!

    I watched R&S back in the early 90s as a little kid and when I rewatched on Nickelodeon (when it came to my country) a few years later, I had a lot of pleasant memories float back just from hearing the music used in the show.

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  43. Thanks for sending the albums, it's great to hear all these and have them properly tagged. I was surprised how fast the reply was too!

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  44. Very cool thanks!

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  45. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. This is very joyous find! Wonderful :D

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  46. I'm SO happy, happy & filled w Joy Joy

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  47. Thank you for the links! have great day!

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  48. Not only did you archive the compilations, but you also updated Volume 3 to be more consistent with Vol 1+2?
    You are an absolute legend. Thanks for the download link!

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  49. Thank you so much for all your hard work!!! 🙂

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  50. The three volumes of Ren and Stimpy Production Music are more then anyone has the right to hope for.

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  51. Thank you so much!

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  52. WAHOO!!! SWEET BUTTERY TUNES FOR MY EARS!!

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  53. Mr. Heckhole, Thanks a million for making all this Ren & stimpy incidental music available. This is really great work. Thanks again!

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  54. Terrific collection of unique memories from these tunes. What a gift.

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  55. Happy Happy Joy Joy! Years ago I downloaded Vol. 1 but could never find Vol. 2, and now I FINALLY got it. Thanks a million for all the elbow grease you put in to track down the R&S production music.

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  56. Glad to see that this music is being preserved and won't be lost to the Internet ether. There's plenty that will be nostalgic/familiar if you're a SpongeBob fan too.

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  57. Thank u vaddy much, u made my llife a little less boring, Oh Joy

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  58. Yo thanks again! This collection is solid gold and greatly appreciate the work of putting this together, maintaining it, and the beauty and vibes from these artists. The music of Ren & Stimpy and many other classic cartoons is forever imprinted on my mind.

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  59. This is REAL, you can access the downloads sending an email!
    Now I'm able to listen all three albums!

    To be honest, these kind of requests from websites may be doubtful... But in this case , there's nothing to worry about. No spam, no viruses, no suspectful installers. Just a nice guy who shared links via email to be able to download these folders (and pretty quick!)

    Are still there honest people around the web? It seems so!
    Thanks a lot!
    Now you, dear reader, go ahead. Here's your safe download!

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  60. Ask and he shall deliver. Many thanks!

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  61. Thank you so much for sharing this. These songs are absolute nostalgia for me and its amazing for me to be able to experience them again.

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