back in the 80’s or 90’s it was pretty much assumed that if your television show was successful, there’d be some sort of tie-in musical act. urkel had his own dance, baby dinosaur had a best selling pop album, and the ninja turtles’ “out of their shells tour” sold out in fifteen different cities in the summer 0f ‘91. so it’s not really hard to understand why the young ones would have gotten a record at the height of the show’s popularity. especially considering the fact that the show was so linked to the music scene of the early 80’s. what is hard to understand is why it revolved around the shows most hated character.

neil’s really heavy concept album revolved around the young ones’ most despised character, a self loathing hippie who was encouraged to kill himself every episode. in loony tunes terms, it would be like surpassing bugs and daffy and giving an entire album to yosemite sam. what’s more, the type of music it showcases, 60’s psychedelic, was grossly unpopular at the time. vyvyan’s head-bashing punk album or even rick’s new wave dance party would have made a million times more sense.

but the strangest thing of all is how well the album sold. the single, “hole in my shoe,” topped the the uk record charts for a few weeks. what can we surmise from all this? well, maybe should have been giving more unpopular characters their own chances at musical success. would the world have smiled upon “the cosuin larry dance” or carl winslow’s “dancing with my sandwich tour?” we may never know.