Readers Who Need Readers: Tom Glazer

A reader has sent me this request:

"As a kid my sister and I had many of Tom Glazer's records ("Music Ones and Twos", "Let's Sing Finger Plays" and a few others) but I have been unable to find any CDs by Tom Glazer for my twin daughters. I know he is dead now. But who owns the rights to his old recordings and are they available?"

I really only knew Tom Glazer as the performer on three of the Singing Science records from the late 1950's/early 1960's. (If you are a They Might Be Giants fan, you must immediately click on the link above.)

I've ordered a couple of the disks off eBay, and got something which was, well, it didn't look like it was a fully authorized version. (Whether it did or did not pass intellectual property requirements I will leave to other, more qualified kids' music writers to determine.)

This guy may be able to help the reader, but how about you... any thoughts?

(Bonus link: Time magazine's recommendations for the best in kids' music... in 1960.)

Comments

[Kathy O'Connell]

This will shed no light on how to get Tom Glazer cd's.But I can shed some more light on Tom Glazer. His place in musical history is secure because he's the man who wrote "On Top of Spaghetti."He also scored the movie "A Face in the Crowd," which has nothing to do with children but is a brilliant movie about the corruption of media power in the 1950's.I interviewed him for "Kids America" back in the 80's. A bit of a curmudgeon, if I remember correctly. But that's probably in comparison to Pete Seeger, who was a saint to interview.People...he wrote "On Top of Spaghetti"!!!

[Mrs. Davis]

Another place to check is Kiddie Records Weekly:http://www.kiddierecords.com/

[David Bonner]

As far as I know, only one Glazer CD remains in print: LET'S SING FINGERPLAYS. I checked the website of the Educational Record Center, and they have it in stock. His family owns the rights to all of his recordings that were available on the CMS label in the 1970s and 1980s. I assume that the rights to the "Singing Science" records are still held by Hy Zaret or his assigns, because he owned the label that put them out.