I don't know how the Shrine went this long before posting this...it's a bona-fide Aquaman theme song! Despite the graphic used in the video, this theme song did not appear on the 1975 Songs and Stories About The Justice League of America LP, which I had and played over and over again until it warped. The material from that record was cribbed from an earlier 1968 release, with some material--like the Aquaman theme song--cut out.
As a kid, I was confused why other characters that got solo audio adventures (Plastic Man, Metamorpho, Wonder Woman) were bestowed with custom theme songs, but Aquaman didn't. As far as I can tell, there isn't any material on the 1975 release that doesn't appear on the 1968 one, so why anything had to be cut at all is a mystery (as are a lot of things concerning the Power Records). In any case, it's two and a half minutes of goofy fun, so enjoy!
This is a super-cool, hard-to-find Power Records "Gift Set" that includes seven 45" records featuring the biggest stars of Power Records, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, The Flash, Metamorpho, Plastic Man, the crew of Star Trek, and of course Aquaman, all rendered by the man, Neal Adams.
I had heard of this set, but had never seen it (even on eBay), until my pal and F.O.A.M. member George Rears handed it to me over lunch a few weeks ago (that's right, ladies--a Power Records Gift Set), which was, as usual with him, extraordinarily generous.
There isn't anything in this set that Power Records hadn't released before (they were the king of re-purposing long before Kenner), but its still a fun little set, and it was nice to see the Aquaman record get included, as opposed to other Power Records' stars, like Wonder Woman, the Hulk, or Conan, by Crom.
I just recently shuttered my Power Records Blog, having pretty much done everything with it I had planned to do (and then some).
Having now scoured every inch of (almost) every Power Record ever made, I got very familiar with all the different pieces of art they used, and re-used, and re-re-used, and...
This snappy back cover was run a few times on the back of some 45" DC Book and Record sets, featuring Neal Adams doing what he does best--exciting heroic action poses, with Aquaman looking quite smashing, I'd say.
This piece is such a prominent part of my Aquaman obsession over the years I can't believe it took me this long to get to it--Power Records' Songs and Stories About the Justice League of America, with smashing sleeve art by Neal Adams, Aquaman front and center!
It wasn't until just a few years ago that I learned this record's contents are taken from the 1968 Tilton record of the same name; that record also featured theme songs for Flash and Aquaman, which were omitted here(for running time?). I don't have a personal copy of that record(yet), but once I do you can be sure it'll show up here, as well(and of course the Aquaman and Flash stories were separately released on a Power Records 45").
As a kid, I must have listened to this record a thousand times--the songs are catchy yet totally goofy; and the stories are well done and yet very idiosyncratic, with little touches that still surprise me were included. This thing could've been seen as just a kid's record and made as dull as dishwater; instead we get very specific characterizations for each hero. Plus the Aquaman story features Mera!
I'm currently featuring the entire record's contents over at my Power Records blog today, but here we'll just feature Aquaman in..."The Defeat of the Dehydrator!":
This is a very odd album of all-new, full-cast recordings of the origin stories of Aquaman, Flash, and Green Lantern. It's funny to think about how Aquaman is the selling point here; Flash and GL are playing back-up. My, how times have changed.
I call this album odd because of its contents. The Aquaman origin is pretty much the one we all know from the comics, but the Flash one is a hybrid of the origins stories of both Jay Garrick and Barry Allen. And the Green Lantern one is flat-out the Alan Scott GL origin story--so why in the name of Qward is Hal Jordan pictured on the sleeve? And shooting a yellow beam from his ring, no less!
My pal and F.O.A.M. member Craig Wichman--who not only knows all things Old Time Radio but actually participates in new audio drama recordings for the web--tells me these were "full cast" shows featuring actors who had extensive experience with classic radio. Even with the confused origin stories, this album is still a whole lot of fun to listen to!
Update: I had done a previous post concerning a display box of Super Friends pencil sharpeners that featured Aquaman as one of characters. Having never seen an Aquaman sharpener per se, I wondered if it actually exists.
A few weeks ago, I found this picture accompanying another seller's display box auction, with some of the sharpeners thrown in. As you can see, there were at least two each for Superman, Wonder Woman, and one Captain Marvel. The Supermans are clearly traces of Neal Adams, and the good Captain looks to be by Kurt Schaffenberger.
The search continues for Aquaman... __________________________________________________________
One final thought: A number of you were kind enough to say something nice about my attempt at an April Fool's Joke yesterday, transforming The Aquaman Shrine into The Sub-Mariner Shrine.
I had originally intended to go all the way, and get rid of all the Aquaman content and replace it with Subby stuff. But I ran out of time, as well as barely being able to find enough Namor stuff to fill a page! So I had to go with my very stripped-down version, which I still thought worthy of doing.
One of my favorite blogs, Chris' Invincible Super-Blog, did go all the way with the same idea and the execution was flawless. Maybe next year I'll turn this into The Pirana Shrine (with his two sidekicks, Bara and Cuda!).
One of my favorite, most beloved items--a 45" record featuring Aquaman and Flash stories from the good folks at Power Records!
I absolutely loved those Power Records, and spent many an afternoon sitting by my parent's record player (that was the size of a small car), reading comics listening to these dynamic audio adventures. They were exciting, fun, and look at that cover art--Neal Adams! Over the years, I've managed to find them all again and even ones I didn't have (they did a Shazam! one? really?), and I play them every so often when I'm a particularly retro mood.
The Aquaman story in question, "The Defeat of the Dehydrator" concerns a race of aliens stealing Earth's water, because all theirs has dried up (or something like that). Aquaman, with the help of Mera, stops them of course. But it ends really grimly, where one of the head aliens yells "Aquaman! You have defeated us! I have failed my people! And now they are truly doooomed!"
Aquaman and Mera, clearly not caring about the billions of people soon to die a slow, lingering death due to thirst, congratulate each other on a job well done! The last thing you hear is the sound of lapping water, clearly a last kick in the pants to the soon-to-be-dead alien water thieves.
