John Lithgow, The Sunny Side of the Street - 36m 55s

Tracks & Durations

1. Getting To Know You	2:56
2. On The Sunny Side Of The Street	3:06
3. Pick Yourself Up	2:22
4. Bab	2:57
5. Be Human	1:50
6. Ya Gotta Have Pep	1:59
7. Everybody Say I Love You	2:35
8. Inka Dinka Doo	4:08
9. I Always Say Hello To A Flower	3:44
10. The Laughing Policeman	2:45
11. Song Of The Sewer	2:49
12. I'm A Manatee	2:42
13. Lullabye In Ragtime	2:55

Note: The information about this album is acquired from the publicly available resources and we are not responsible for their accuracy.

Review

The world hardly needed more evidence, but The Sunny Side of the Street proves unequivocally that there's nothing John Lithgow puts his name on that doesn't secrete charm by the bucketful. This particular CD, his third for kids, is fairly well drenched in it. The spirit of the disc is captured handily by the cover art, which pictures Lithgow as a bumbershoot-toting dandy skipping along Broadway amid an animated coterie; a few songs in, you can practically hear him soft-shoeing it in front of a sweet-sounding kids' chorus on the gently encouraging "Pick Yourself Up." Guest stars abound--the vocal marvel Madeleine Peyroux on the title track, cabaret star Maude Maggart on the lively "Baby!," and Seinfeld's Wayne Knight on "Inka Dinka Doo"--but as on previous discs, Lithgow shines brightest when the spotlight is aimed squarely and exclusively on him. "I Always Say Hello to a Flower" allows him to cut up to such bent-minded lyrics as "I always say bonjour to a lilac/Bonjour bonjour bonjour/But I'm absolutely mute with a bully in a suit/And I never talk to fruit, heaven knows," while "The Laughing Policeman" features him guffawing unstoppably--not to mention contagiously--for a good two minutes. "Be Human," on which the sage advice to "have a tender word for every animal and bird" is doled out repeatedly before a kicky Dixieland band, benefits from a particularly astute ending: "A toucan can't be human," Lithgow speak-sings with characteristic clear-eyed bonhomie before letting out a squawk, "but you can!" Few screwballs make such sweet-sounding sense. --Tammy La GorceFirst, know this: A mystery lurks within the innocence, goofiness, and star-filled songs on John Lithgow's latest album for children, and his first for Razor & Tie, The Sunny Side of the Street.

It doesn't sound mysterious. Consider, for example, the easy-going opener, "Getting to Know You"; the breakneck, cartoon-energy acceleration of Betty Boop's "You've Gotta Have Pep"; the squawks and shrieks of "I'm a Manatee"; the sly banter with Wayne Knight (who starred with Lithgow on 3rd Rock from the Sun and played Newman on Seinfeld) throughout "Inka Dinka Doo"'; the stylish jazz of Madeleine Peyroux, the Broadway styling of Sheri Rene Scott, the teasing interplay between Lithgow and cabaret legend-to-be Maude Maggart, and of course those kids from the United Nations School, singing along and stealing the spotlight more than once …

Undeniably, The Sunny Side of the Street is a perfect album for children.

Other Versions

Albums are mined from the various public resources and can be actually the same but different in the tracks length only. We are keeping all versions now.

The Sunny Side of the Street

Tracks: 14 (+1 tracks), Disk length: 45m (+8m 5s)

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