Cool Stuff: It's Time For Animaniacs, And Their Zany New Vinyl Soundtracks
Warner Bros. has been in the news quite a bit this past year. Between talks of possible industry-shaking mergers and the current chaos surrounding "Coyote vs. Acme," it's starting to seem like the best course of action might be to call up whoever it was that let Ryan Gosling do a photoshoot on top of the Warner Bros. water tower, and kindly ask that they let the Animaniacs loose to cause a little chaos and release the movie.
For the somehow uninitiated, the Animaniacs consist of the Warner Brothers Yakko (Rob Paulsen), Wakko (Jess Harnell), and the Warner Sister, Dot (Tress MacNeille), who ruled the '90s with their animated variety sketch series which included shorts centered on equally beloved characters like Pinky (Paulsen) and the Brain (Maurice LaMarche). What separated "The Animaniacs" from its contemporaries wasn't just the biting satire and classic 1930s animation style for the main characters, but also the ridiculously catchy earworms that infected numerous episodes.
Original music was a fundamental tenant to the success of "The Animaniacs," with songs ranging from the educational to the nonsensical — but every song was a guaranteed bop. Despite the popularity, the music of the original run of "The Animaniacs" has never been released on vinyl, but the record mavens over at iam8bit have joined forces with WaterTower Music to bring the songs to the masses. And the best part is that if you're a completionist, they're also releasing the music from the series reboot for Hulu as well. We're talking over 30 years of "Animaniacs" music available on vinyl for the very first time, people!
What to expect from the Animaniacs soundtracks
The "Animaniacs" music is so good we've even ranked some of the best tunes from the original run, but both eras of the show are chock-full of all-time greats.
The "Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs (Soundtrack from the Original Series)" comes on vintage black wax, featuring album art by Dan Haskett, Tony Craig, and Roman Laney. Side A features the songs like the show's opening theme and these favorites:
- "Yakko's Universe"
- "Schnitzelbank"
- "What Are We?"
- "Yes, Brothers Warner We"
- "Yakko's World"
- "Wakko's America"
- "Video Revue"
- "I Am the Model of a Cartoon In..."
Meanwhile, on Side B, here's the roster:
- I'm Mad
- The Planets
- The Etiquette Song
- I'm Cute, The Senses
- Be Careful What You Eat
- Let the Anvils Ring
- Animaniacs – End Title
The soundtrack from the 2020-2023 series is on translucent black wax with art by Gabe Swarr, Craig, and Laney. As this is a bigger release, this is available as a 2xLP. I'll avoid providing the tracklist here since it's so huge (but it's all available on iam8bit's website), but rest assured the new standouts like "Reboot It," "Yakko's Big Idea," "Flora Dora," "Warner's Ark," and "D.I. Why" are all there.
If you've not yet tapped into the new "Animaniacs," you're seriously missing out. The music still has educational funnies like "A Brief History of History," but some of the newer songs gleefully skewer the current trends of the 2020s. It's all great, and certainly something worth adding to your record collection.
As a wise little sister once said, "We like you. We have no taste, but we like you." Pre-order the albums (due to ship out during Q3) from iam8bit here.