The Hardy Boys - Here Come the Hardys RCA Victor LSP-4217 1969 Even fellow Bubblegum fetishists tend to give this album pretty short shrift, for some reason, but it is one of my favorites. In Filmation's Hardy Boys cartoon series, aired on Saturday morning for a single season in 1969, Frank and Joe Hardy and their bandmates Chubby, Wanda, and Pete were a rock and roll band that solved crimes in between the gigs they drove to in their way out, funky van. The show was apparently intended to compete with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? which debuted in the same year. Clearly, it didn't compete very successfully. The stories were based on actual, published Hardy Boys books, and the show followed the standard pattern of the TV music show aimed at juveniles: a bit of story culminating in a performance of a song (two songs per episode in the Hardy Boys, because the stories were rather light.) And, as wikpedia puts it, "these songs were sold at stores on records and audio tapes." Why yes, yes they were. And the band was basically a real band, whose members the cartoon images were obviously drawn to resemble. (I'm looking at you Chubby Morton.) Wanda Kay (real name Devon English, a classically trained pianist and Playboy bunny) was dead hot, both in live action and cartoon form, where they always showed her dancing from behind, though usually in silhouette. Frank Hardy was LA session musician Reed Kailing, a member of the Grass Roots who toured with Badfinger in their final incarnation. And "Pete Jones", believe it or not, was actually the great Robert Crowder of Art Ensemble of Chicago fame. These songs are terrific, and I consider this album a neglected gem. It brings joy to my sad little world. And that ain't hay. I don't recognize any names from the song credits outside of Loizzo, who must be Gary Loizzo of the American Breed, on several of the songs. For me the highlights are "Namby Pamby", "My Little Sweetpea", "That's That", and especially "Those Country ...