Mystery Science Theater 3000 could be a very musical series when it wanted to be. Nothing too lavish, but more in that Sesame Street kind of way. The simplistic nature of the show gave birth to simplistic songs that were often very funny. Best Brains capitalized on their surprisingly abundant musical nature by releasing three VHS tapes in 1991, 1994, and 2000 that compiled musical host segments together. And in 2017 Shout Factory transferred these musical compilations to DVD as a limited bonus disc with their Volume XXXVIII set. I'm going to review these as one entity, since splitting them up into separate sections seems redundant. While I am an attention whore seeking as many page hits as possible, that would be a bit too transparent even for me.
The first volume covers seasons two and three of the series (I don't believe there were any songs during KTMA or Season 1, though I could be wrong) and it features some fan favorites such as Creepy Girl, Clown in the Sky, and A Patrick Swayze Christmas. If I were to single out any under-the-radar personal favorites in this batch, I've always felt an attachment to the Wild Rebels Cereal jingle and Sidehackin'. Michael Feinstein's music is a fairly quality segment as well.
Full list of songs featured in Volume 1:
"Sidehackin'" (The Side Hackers)
"Creepy Girl" (Catalina Caper)
"If Chauffeurs Ruled the World" (Ring of Terror)
"Wild Rebels Cereal" (Wild Rebels)
"Tibby, Oh Tibby" (Gamera)
"Clown in the Sky" (Pod People)
"Sandy Frank" (Time of the Apes)
"A Michael Feinstein Gamera" (Gamera vs. Guiron)
"Slow the Plot Down" (Mighty Jack)
"The Many Tunes of Gamera" (Gamera vs. Zigra)
"The Waffle Song" (The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent)
"A Patrick Swayze Christmas" (Santa Claus Conquers the Martians)
Volume 2 relies heavily on the Mike years, with the only piece of music from the Joel era being Crow's off-key ode to Kim Cattrall. It might be noteworthy that "Master Ninja Theme Song" is skipped between this volume and the last, but it can be argued that it's barely a song at all, so it's not a huge loss. However, since this volume is the last to cover songs from the Comedy Central years of the franchise, the most glaring omission is Dr. Forrester's song from Samson vs. the Vampire Women, Who Will I Kill? The primary reason for it not being here is that this compilation was released before the episode was filmed, but it leaves a void in this collection of songs that Volume 3 didn't rectify.
I think most will agree with me that the highlight of this compilation is The Greatest Frank of All, which was used in a show as an ode to TV's Frank but also doubled as a tribute to Frank Zappa, who had recently passed away. It's a step above most songs featured on the show and it's definitely one of the best. Songs I also quite enjoy: The Janitor Song, My Wild Irish Ireland, Whispering Christmas Warrior, Cosmic Freight Train, and Square Dance.
Full list of songs featured in Volume 2:
"Oh, Kim Cattrall" (City Limits)
"The Janitor Song" (Teen-Age Strangler)
"My Wild Irish Ireland" (Alien from L.A.)
"Tubular Boobular Joy" (Outlaw)
"TV's Frank & Dr. Forrester" (Outlaw)
"Whispering Christmas Warrior" (Santa Claus)
"Merry Christmas, If That's O.K." (Santa Claus)
"Doughy Guys" (Teen-Age Crime Wave)
"Mystos" (Teen-Age Crime Wave)
"The Greatest Frank of All" (Village of the Giants)
"Cosmic Freight Train" (The Dead Talk Back)
"Nummy Muffin Coolcol Butter" (Colossus and the Headhunters)
"Square Dance" (Bloodlust)
As said above, Volume 3 completely skips Who Will I Kill? and chooses to concentrate on music from the Sci-Fi era of the show. While to an extent I understand why they would feel the need to, the problem is that a lot of these songs are barely songs at all. The mutants singing to the bomb, AM County in Space, Digger Smolken, and the song about the Hobgoblins are technically music, but are obviously used as filler as opposed to actually being actual songs. Also filler is the Band that Played "California Lady" segment, which isn't a song at all but rather a segment about a song from the movie. The removal of any of these segments and inclusion of Who Will I Kill? would have been more than welcome.
With all the filler of "Songs that are not really songs" in this volume it's definitely the longest of the three volumes. The first two ran about 25 minutes each, while Volume 3 runs closer to 40. Despite wading through some "Why is this here?" material some of the best songs of the entire series are in this collection, including favorites of mine such as Where Oh Werewolf? and To Earth. Most will be dying to watch The Canada Song and When Loving Lovers Love at their leisure without watching an entire episode to get to each. I also have to give shout-outs to fun numbers such as When I Held Your Brain in My Arms, Please Staaay, and Air on a Delta Knight.
Full list of songs featured in Volume 3:
"The Bomb Song" (The Deadly Mantis)
"AM Country in Space" (The Deadly Mantis)
"The Best of Digger Smolken" (The Undead)
"When I Held Your Brain in My Arms" (Terror from the Year 5000)
"The 70's Song" (Riding with Death)
"Sodium!" (The Horror of Party Beach)
"When Loving Lovers Love" (Overdrawn at the Memory Bank)
"Where Oh Werewolf?" (Werewolf)
"A Sonnet for Lady Hargrove" (The Deadly Bees)
"Please Staaay" (The Deadly Bees)
"Hobgoblins" (Hobgoblins)
"The Canada Song" (The Final Sacrifice)
"Air on a Delta Knight" (Quest of the Delta Knights)
"The Rain Song" (Girl in Gold Boots)
"The Band that Played 'California Lady'" (Track of the Moon Beast)
"To Earth" (Diabolik)
In conclusion these compilations are great to have for those who treasure the music featured on the series. The downside is that Who Will I Kill? is completely skipped, making this far from a complete collection of songs. While not quite as big an omission, Master Ninja Theme Song is a bit of a disappointing absence as well when you consider the other segments that made the cut. But these are fun compilations to have if the mood strikes you.
The DVD
As mentioned above, Shout Factory released these three volumes as an online exclusive with their Volume XXXVIII. Each transfer seems mastered from their VHS source as opposed to being straight from the episodes, though the audio is pretty swell. There are no bonus features.
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