Sparky's Magic Piano
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Sparky's Magic Piano is the second in a series of children’s audio stories featuring Sparky, an original character created for Capitol Records in 1947. Sparky has also appeared in comic books as a side kick to Capitol’s other famous creation, Bozo The Clown.
Sparky is a little boy with an over active imagination. His adventures often involve objects that magically come to life and talk to him, as was the case in his first adventure on Capitol Records, “Sparky And The Talking Train.”
Sparky was portrayed throughout most of the series by Henry Blair. The character was later played by June Foray. The series was produced by Alan Livingston with orchestration by Billy May. Piano music on the Magic Piano album was by Ray Turner. The voice of the piano was generated by Sonovox, an early version of the Vocoder. The series also featured many voices familiar to fans of Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons, as well as notable Capitol music artists, such as Stan Kenton.
Sparky albums were originally released on easily breakable wax 10 inch 78 RPM records, usually with three discs in each album and sold in the book-like covers from whence the term “album” originates. These 6 sided record albums had a total playing time of about 20 minutes. In later years the series was reissued on vinyl 78’s, 45’s, LP’s, and CD’s. “Sparky’s Magic Piano” was the most popular album in the series. It has the distinction of being one of the few children’s albums from the mid 40’s to remain in print to this very day. And, because it remains in print, the original 78’s have a relatively low collectors value, even though it is not at all easy to acquire a complete set of the original wax records in a state of completeness. The wax records are distinguishable by their black Capitol labels. Vinyl 78 versions are more common, having purple Capitol labels and sometimes having a “Bozo Approved” logo in the corner of the album cover.
The unusual popularity of “Sparky’s Magic Piano” can be attributed to the fact that the album is not only an excellent work of children’s fantasy, it also has a useful moral that would have been inspirational to any child practicing a musical instrument or studying classical music. Thus the album is a practical teaching tool as well as entertainment.
Because of the success of this album, many of the subsequent Sparky albums also involved talking musical instruments who offered important lessons for music students, taking the series in a different direction than would seem to have been originally intended, given the distinctly unmusical nature of the first album about the talking trains, which was more dramatic than educational.
In 1987, “Sparky’s Magic Piano” was animated for a television special which was later released to video, but is now out of print. The animated version features an expanded story running 51 minutes. The pace of the story is greatly slowed down, Sparky is portrayed with less innocence, he has acquired a dog named Rags, his father is given a much bigger role, and a bumbling music critic has been added to the cast who is out to prove Sparky is a fraud. The voice cast includes Vincent Price, Coral Browne, Tony Curtis, Cloris Leachman, Josh Rodine and William Schallert, with orchestration by Lalo Schifrin and piano music by Leonard Pennario.
[edit] Plot Summary
Sparky is a young child who hates practicing the piano. One day, when he expresses his dislike for practicing, the piano talks to him, and tells Sparky that he will show him what it is like to play the piano well, and that all Sparky has to do is to run his hands over the keys, and the piano will play whatever Sparky chooses. Sparky then amazes his mother with his playing, and she calls his piano teacher. The two adults decide to book concerts across the country, with Sparky as a solo pianist. Sparky insists that he must take his own piano with him to all his concerts, and his mother agrees. Eventually success goes to Sparky's head, his snobbish behavior offends the piano and it refuses to play for him anymore. Suddenly unable to play, Sparky is laughed off the stage. He then finds himself at home, banging the piano with his eyes shut. The listener is then left unsure as to whether the entire experience was just a dream or not. But the experience leaves Sparky with a new appreciation of the piano, and he vows to keep practicing until he can play as well as he did in his dream.
