A few years ago, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (or was it the Metropolitan Museum? So many mail order catalogs, so little money...) offered a paperback reprint edition of H. Frasier-Simpson's settings of the Hums of Pooh and Fourteen Songs from When We Were Very Young in one volume. It may still be available; I'll check my copy for the publishing info at home. Frasier-Simpson actually worked with Milne when he did the settings, so they really work well.When I was young, my parents gave me an album of Jack Gilford (the actor who played Hysterium to Zero Mostel's Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum) singing some of the Fraser-Simpson songs. It's got Pooh songs on one side, and Christopher Robin songs on the other and it's INFINITELY better than the ersatz Disney crap that is circulating today. (Grouchy digression: Did you know that the Disney Corp bought the rights to all the original Ernest Shepherd (sp?) illustrations from the Pooh books and licenses them now as "Classic Pooh" as opposed to their own animated versions? The Chutzpah of the Disney megalopolis never ceases to amaze and depress me).
Anyway, I found a copy of this record in a used record bin (my childhood copy having fallen victim to the record-eating Magnovox long ago) and immediately bought it. I can make a tape of it for you, Joe, if you would like.
My favorite song from the collection is
. "Missing"
Has anyone seen my mouse?
I opened his box for just a minute
Just to make sure he was really in it,
I lifted the lid and I looked inside
I tried to catch him - I tried, I tried
He must be somewhere about the house,
Has anyone seen my mouse?Uncle John, have you seen my mouse?
Just a small sort of mouse, a dear little brown one
He came from the country, he wasn't a town one;
He's sure to be lonely on a London street,
Oh, where will he find something good to eat?
He must be somewhere, I'll ask Aunt Rose-
Have you seen a mouse with a wuffley nose?
He's somewhere about...
. He just got out...
. Has anyone seen my mouse?
(I make transgenic mice for a living...)