What Am I Gonna Be For Halloween? (Ronald McDonald song)

[yoshibug100]

I was a werewolf, and the moon was out. People were saying cool things to me :) the next time youre gonna see a full moon on halloween is 2020. Im gonna be a werewolf that year :)

[AtomicFAILMediaTV]

I LOVED THIS WHEN I WAS A KID

[sundrop805]

@dogman15 Okay I'm sorry I was shouting out. I was not thinking straight when I put that comment. I just don't like Ronald McDonald that much and I'm really negative sometimes. So I'm sorry. I will get rid of the negative comment if you want me to.

[dogman15]

@sundrop805: No worries, I'm glad you took the time to apologize. You can leave your original comment up if you want to; it's up to you. There's no swearing, for one thing.

You know, free speech and all that. It's perfectly all right to not like Ronald McDonald, but personally, I think this CD was very well-put-together and the music arrangements are fun to listen to, even if it is intended for kids. (That's just my opinion, though.)

Again, thank you for apologizing. Not many people do that.

[dogman15]

@sundrop805: What are you trying to prove by shouting pseudo-nonsense on my video? Is there a point to what you're "saying"?

[Freehugs21]

i have these.. they were awesome.. i still have them..

[500RedDog]

i cant belive i used 2 have dis silly shit when i was lil

[calihomi]

I still have these cassettes! I swear I gotta track them down!

[dogman15]

@calihomi: That would be a good idea!

[dogman15]

@jbrady2007: [hyperbole] THERE WAS A CASSETTE?!? [/hyperbole]

[richseidelman]

oh yeah, besides the character toys in costumes, there were some cassette tapes in the 1995 halloween happy meal that had 'what am i gonna be for halloween?' on one of the cassettes.

[dogman15]

@richseidelman: Thank you so much for all of your answers!

[richseidelman]

@dogman15 hey,..guess what? you can find our first Ronald CD on eBay. it's called "Ronald Makes it Magic" and that's were we establish his radio station. The CD only costs $2.99. (there are 2 available). it will come up on eBay if you type in Ronald McDonald CD or Ronald Makes it Magic.I  Barbara and I wrote all of the storyline copy and words to the songs (original or parodies.) then we handed 'em over to Gary Fry to compose the music an and record the character voices.

[richseidelman]

"what am i gonna be for halloween?" was one of our original songs. we even created a two part tv commercial with the mcdonaldland characters, using a condensed version of the song. we did a :15 second commercial that asked the question. then a :30 second commercial in song that answered the question. then there was a set of 4 happy meal toys that matched the characters in costumes. happy day. rich.

[dogman15]

@richseidelman: That is *really* cool.

[richseidelman]

wait just a moment. we wrote many of the songs as original tunes, but i think that we had some public domain songs in there that we rewrote some of the words. it was awhile ago. foggy memory. we worked on all three albums. ronald makes it magic, travel tunes, and silly sing along. we even did a 4th one that never got produced as an album, but played on united airlines in flight children's station. it was about outer space. you'll find our names on the cds somewhere. thanks. rich.

[dogman15]

@richseidelman: I saw your name(s) on in the CD credits. I really wish I could find those other two CDs somewhere. My dad found "Silly Sing Along" in a bargain bin at a store somewhere... Moby Disk?

Most of the songs on the album were covers of existing public domain or licensed songs. The only original ones (melody) were "Wake Up, It's Silly Day", and "What Am I Gonna Be For Halloween?" (this song). Still, a great CD, in part for the story!

[richseidelman]

Look for our names as composers for the music. Fallon, Seidelman, Fry. Jack Doepke was a great TV Ronald for 10 years from 1990 until 2000. he brought a bunch of fun to the recordings. CW Wolfe was the voice of Hamburglar. Larry Moran Larry Moran was the voice of Grimace. He also was the voice of the Microphone on the CD Magical Radio. We recorded in the Chicago Area, where Gary Fry's recording studio is located. Whew! that's a lot of info. glad you enjoyed the music. rich.

[dogman15]

@richseidelman: I thought Frank Welker was the voice of Grimace? That's what it says on the CD. Russi Taylor did Birdie.

I wonder why they keep replacing Ronald every few years? It's not as they die like the Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny actors.

I also recall reading on the CD booklet information about the recording studio: "Additional Vocals Recorded at Juniper Studios & Live Oak Studios."

[richseidelman]

@dogman15 hi. you are correct about the voices. gary fry did go to california to record the voices. sometimes we would use larry moran in chicago to play grimace's voice if frank was busy. ronald mcdonald was created in 1964, and there have been 7 actors who have played ronald on tv.

don't forget to see my previous posting about the "Ronald Makes it Magic" cd on eBay. hope you buy a copy.

happy day. rich.

[richseidelman]

Kid Rhino Records and the folks at McDonald's (advertising and marketing department) wanted to create a few music cd's and tapes. Kid Rhino hired the music group The Turtles to write the music. barbara and i were supposed to supervise since we were experts on the mcdonaldland characters. The Turtles did a demo, and it got trashed cuz it was so bad. that's when barbara and i took over. some of gary fry's kids are singing on the tracks.

[dogman15]

@richseidelman: I do recall seeing kids with the last names of Fry and such in the CD booklet credits.

[dogman15]

@dogman15: You're a goldmine of information! Thank you so much!

[richseidelman]

I was an art director at the Leo Burnett Advertising Company and worked on creating ronald mcdonald and happy meal commercials for 22 years. Even though i was an art director, i didn't design the cover artwork. that was done at a promotions agency or rhino. anyway. i was co-writer of the songs with my writing partner, barbara fallon. and then we hired our music composer gary fry to create the melodies (with out guidance) and then record all of the character voices singing.

[richseidelman]

my writer parter barbara fallon and i wrote this album with our music composer, gary fry. rich seidelman, art director.

[dogman15]

@richseidelman: !!! That's amazing! If you really are who you say you are, then I would like to personally thank you for your work on this album. However, looking at my actual CD booklet, it lists Coco Shinomiya under "Art Direction"

How did the McDonald's corporation approach you about this? What was the story behind its creation? Whatever happened to Jack Doepke? Who are CW Wolfe and Larry Moran?

[gannon1op]

omg i had this effing tape!

[dogman15]

@gannon1op:

And I have the CD! (present tense)

[surfingtosaturn]

thank you so much for uploading this!!! hahaha this is awesome. I used to have the cassette and we lost it :(

[dogman15]

@surfingtosaturn: If I have time, I'd like to get the whole album on YouTube. I've already uploaded about two other songs from this CD.

[20080962]

Idk where yall are getting the CD thing from but since I was one of the voices on it let me just say that the original version was on cassette

[dogman15]

@20080962: That is really cool; I remember talking to you on another one of my videos. (You said you were friends with the Fry family.) You're Axelle F., right? Did you have any spoken lines on the album? Or a character name?

And I don't doubt that this was released on cassette tape as well as a CD.

Last question for now: Do you remember getting to meet and talk with Jack Doepke, Russi Taylor, Frank Welker, Larry Moran, or CW Wolfe? Russi and Frank are still very active in voiceover work.

[Lishy1]

Someone ran ranru this

[dogman15]

@Lishy1: Uh, how? There's no animation. It's just a song. Eventually, I'd like to get the entire CD on my channel, with all the songs and the full story. (Yes, there's a story on this album.)

(And yes, I know what the "Ran-ran RU!" meme is.)

[TheCheezWizz]

@dogman15 the song, you idiot. You don't know the meme at all or else you wouldn't be saying you need animation to do ran ran ru shit to a song.

[dogman15]

@TheCheezWizz: Please don't call me an idiot, or swear in the comments of any of my videos. I'm still not 100% sure what you're getting at, in terms of the "Ran-ran Ru" meme.

Maybe Lishy1 meant for someone to take the audio of the "ran ru"s and pitch-correct them to make Japanese Ronald sing the melody of this song with Rans and Rus?

[Twilightertaylor]

I'm not going to lie. I remember the casset tape of this song when I was little. x)

[dogman15]

@Twilightertaylor:

Whoa, cassete tapes. I still have a few of those: Radio Disney, Animaniacs Variety Pack, The Donut Man, Psalty, Colby, The Disney Collection, Radio HALO, the first Arthur album...

But McDonald's? This was on a cassette tape too? I just didn't know that. I guess that makes sense, since it was 1995.

[Twilightertaylor]

@dogman15 Haha. Yep. I really had the cassette. My sister and I would beg my mom to play it. Lol.

[dogman15]

@Davey647: Like I said to Modernmidwestfemme, I think this is a case of "So Bad It's Good", as TV Tropes would say. Due to the fact that I listened to this CD as a kid, I don't find this song to be that bad.

[modernmidwestfemme]

Whoa! This is like a car wreck...only in this case, I can't stop listening!

[dogman15]

@modernmidwestfemme: "So Bad It's Good"? (a trope)

Personally, I kinda like this song. Maybe that's because of the nostalgia factor.

[20080962]

it's actually not unkown it was just put into Happy meals in the mid 90s

[dogman15]

@20080962: Really! Is that true? Well, then, that's news to me. I don't remember how I got my CD, but your claim sounds super-plausible. For a CD that was slipped into kids' Happy Meal bags, its production values were quite high. I'd like to eventually get all of its songs up on YouTube.