OSF: Child Singers

For this week's OSF (which is defined as music created before 1999), the theme is child singers. I chose two artists that are from different eras, but who both have a Disney connection. The first selection is then 15 yr old Tevin Campbell's uptempo remake of Strawberry Letter 23, which was originally done by Shuggie Otis and later made famous by The Brothers Johnson. I thought Tevin did a damn good job on this song and that it should have been a bigger hit. As for Tevin's Disney connection, he provided the voice of "Powerline" in the 1995 animated musical feature A Goofy Movie.

Next up is Tall Paul by Annette Funicello. Up until the rise of some of the latter day cast members of The Mickey Mouse Club (Britney, Justin, Christina, and Keri), Annette was without a question the most famous of The Mouseketeers. Released in 1959 when Annette was 16, Tall Paul was Annette's biggest hit (peaking at #7) and the first time that a female singer hit the top 10 with a rock and roll song. Check out the portions of the clip that include Dick Clark playing puppetmaster.

Strawberry Letter 23 by Tevin Campbell and Tall Paul by Annette Funicello: