Alan Reed -- Christmas is My Fav'rite Time of Year/Dino the Dinosaur

 

Last week's Reminiscings of Youth article was on Shirley Bassey's immortal "Goldfinger" which was released in the United States on December 22nd 1964. Three days later on Xmas Day itself, this special episode of the famous cartoon "The Flintstones" came out known as either "Christmas Flintstone" or "How the Flintstones Saved Christmas". 

I never knew the title of the show or even when it first aired. I only know that the episode lines up with my memories of Christmas animation which includes any of the Rankin and Bass classics and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" which wouldn't air for the first time until a year later. "Christmas Flintstone" was something that we watched every year since we got to see good ol' Fred Flintstone actually use his loud personality for something that wouldn't actually get him into trouble. He got to be Santa Claus for about 24 hours.

Original Fred Flintstone voice actor Alan Reed was also behind the two songs used in "Christmas Flintstone". The overarching one was "Christmas is My Fav'rite Time of Year" which is about as sugary and as Christmas as any Yuletide cookie and has remained in my head since I was a little kid, always to pop up during this time of year. According to blog "YOWP: Stuff About Early Hanna-Barbera Cartoons", a fellow named John McCarthy was the one behind this song which is the highlight of the episode.

McCarthy was also behind the other song performed by Santa Freddie, "Dino the Dinosaur" which actually has the Flintstones' pet painted in a heroic light instead of comic relief, albeit anecdotally, as the lizard gets a Christmas tree for some kiddies and somehow has the wherewithal to trim it correctly, too. Good ol' Fred and Dino! Saving the day for Xmas...in the prehistoric age.

So, that was the final Xmas-based ROY article for 2023, but this will be a continuation of the Flinstones' saga on KKP. I already have an article out for the famous theme song and I've realized that there are a few more songs from the original series alone that deserve mention as a ROY. Anyways, as with last week's "Goldfinger" article, I will be picking a couple of more prize winners from the 1964 Japan Record Awards to display as what was getting the accolades at around the same time when the Flintstone Christmas special was out.

Best New Artist: Teruhiko Saigo -- Kimi dake wo（君だけを）

Best Songwriting: The Peanuts -- Una Sera di Tokyo （ウナ・セラ・ディ東京）