by Cynthia Rose
Seattle Times staff reporter
Been getting any strange answering-machine messages lately? If they come from The Simpsons, chances are the cut was stolen from a new CD.
It's Rhino Record's "Songs in the Key of Springfield," 51 musical highlights from the show that has now surpassed "The Flintstones" as TV animation's longest-running success. The unique CD project, whose preparation took over a year, includes tunes culled from the show's inception (in 1990) through 1996. All its main characters are represented. Plus, there are fave clips for collectors and fans: like a church rendering of "Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida" or the tunes from Marge Simpson's theater troupe musical of "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Early lessons in pop culture
Such music's origins stretch back to Christmas 1964, when "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening got a tape recorder. "Inspired by my dad's Stan Freberg records," he says, "I began making `The Matt Groening Show.' It featured regulars The Matt Groening Orchestra, a personal theme song ("Matt Groening, Cool Guy"), jungle adventures, comic monologues - even canned laughter. Groening forced his sisters, Lisa and Maggie, to listen "over and over again."
Later, Groening developed other obsessions: soundtracks by Bernard Hermann (Alfred Hitchcock's muse); Ennio Morricone (who scored spaghetti Westerns) and Nino Rota (who worked with Fellini). By 1989, when he was preparing "The Simpsons," he says the early research paid off. "From `Rocky and His Friends' I learned you can make a great cartoon show, even with lousy animation. You just need good voices and great music."
Groening did not approve of then-current conventions. "For like 15 years, cartoon music had been all this namby-pamby, synthesizer schlock . . . These noodly themes that all seemed to whimper `we can't offer much but please like our pathetic little show.' " Instead of going with this prevailing flow, Groening approached composer Danny Elfman - whom he had seen perform as leader of a comic troupe, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo. (Elfman also played in L.A. new-wave band Oingo Boingo.)
Groening made Elfman a mix tape for inspiration. It included TV's theme from "The Jetsons," Nino Rota's music for "Juliet of the Spirits," a Remington shaver jingle by Frank Zappa and some crazy music by Esquivel. "There was also a teach-your-parrot-to-talk lesson," he adds.
A month later, Elfman had written his theme, included on the Rhino CD in a longer version. (Groening: "It made most producers nervous, until James L. Brooks came in and started to rave about it. He said, `This is great! This is lemmings-marching-to-their-death music!' ") The new CD also boasts eight sets of Simpsons' end credits, ranging from a "Hill Street Blues Homage" to a Halloween special"Addams Family Homage." All are fulsomely rendered by Alf Clausen, series composer, and the second-largest orchestra used on television.
Fans got in on the act
Clausen has now worked for seven seasons and 150 episodes. But he has never lost his zest for the series and he spent great energy for Rhino.
"I spent many hours surfing the Net, reading fans' opinions about the best Homer line, the best Apu line. This album directly reflects the fans' opinions regarding the most attention-getting moments from the series . . . making it truly the product of a '90s love affair with the Internet," he says.
It is an international love affair. Hours after Rhino's CD hit the racks, one could dial a friend in Melbourne or London and be greeted by the "Itchy & Scratchy" theme - or Tony Bennett, singing along with The Simpsons.
Bennett told Billboard magazine, "I still love the show and I still watch it. They make a lot of good social statements. I'm suprised (Fox owner Rupert) Murdoch lets them get away with it."
Perhaps one reason is Groening's resilient humility. He still works hard, still gives credit to all contributors, still comes up with ultra-subversive gems. "Matt's philosophy," says Alf Clausen, "is that `The Simpsons' is not a cartoon, but a drama whose characters are drawn." Groening says he asks Clausen to "score emotion, not action."
But wait, there's more
So far, their joint formula has been foolproof - and Rhino hopes to issue several sequels. "It takes a while," says Rhino spokesman Tom Muzquiz, "because we clear the rights with so many guest stars." While you wait, you might try another item: Rhino's "Toon Tunes," 50 cartoon theme songs. On it you can hear those seminal Groening favorites, "The Bullwinkle Show" and "The Jetsons" - as well as vintage hits like "Yogi Bear" and "Top Cat."
Side by side with numbers like "Who Needs the Kwik-E-Mart?", they spell out a history of "The Simpsons." Which, as series composer Clausen puts it, has become "a global institution, a monstrous cult hit - and a cultural icon." Not to mention the hottest answering-machine item on earth.
(c) 1998 Seattle Times Company