Pop Goes the Kiddie Record Market

Move over, Mickey and Minnie. The children’s record market is growing up.

It wasn’t all that long ago that the kiddie market consisted merely of sweetly chirped renditions of nursery rhymes and hits by such “manufactured” studio creations as the Chipmunks and the Archies.

Things are different now.

Some of pop’s biggest selling acts--including Billy Joel, Huey Lewis and Bette Midler--will be featured on the sound track to “Oliver & Company,” a new animated feature from Disney that is aimed at children. The album is due Friday on Walt Disney Records.

An even more diverse and surprising cast can be found on A & M’s just-released “Free to Be . . . a Family” album, a sequel to a 1973 album (“Free to Be . . . You and Me”) that sold more than 500,000 copies. The new LP features rock singer Pat Benatar, rap trio the Fat Boys, John Hiatt and South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Actress Marlo Thomas, who assembled both of the “Free to Be” albums, said one reason for the adventurous cast on the new LP is that children have become much more sophisticated.

“The music on this album is way more hip,” she said. “The other one (featuring general show-biz personalities such as Carol Channing and Alan Alda) had more of a childlike, sing-songy feel. And we used a lot more comedy pieces this time, where before we had more fairy tales.

“Kids today are much more aware of what’s happening in the world. When we did the TV special (also titled ‘Free to Be . . . a Family’ and set to air Dec. 14 on ABC-TV), we were just amazed at what these 8- and 11-year-old kids thought was passe and what they thought was hot.”

Equally important in the evolution of children’s records, industry observers believe, is a change of attitude on the part of recording artists, who no longer feel their careers could be damaged by the “stigma” of doing a kiddie record.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said the children’s market used to be treated as the stepchild of the music business.

“It was relegated to a less-than-stellar position in terms of the level of talent one could attract,” he said. “But in the last couple of years we have found a great willingness by some of the most popular entertainers of our time to lend their talents to the children’s music market.”

One reason: Many of today’s top pop stars are parents themselves and look forward to making records that their kids could enjoy.

“A lot of mainstream American pop stars have had kids in the past few years and they can identify with this very readily,” said David Steffen, senior vice president of sales and distribution for A & M.

There’s also money to be made.

Steffen said that A & M expects to sell 2 million kiddie records and cassettes this year--thanks largely to kiddie superstar Raffi. That’s roughly equivalent to number of albums sold in the past year by Sting, the label’s hottest act.

Marlo Thomas, star of the popular “That Girl” TV series in the ‘60s, got into the children’s music business by accident. She simply wanted to make a tape for her niece, Dionne.

“My sister Terry and I grew up with children’s albums,” Thomas said by phone from New York, where she was working on the “Free to Be” TV special.

“They still make (traditional children’s albums), but the stories often aren’t geared for children to think in a new way. I thought it would be nice to put out a little record for children that rewrites children’s stories and makes them non-sexist and non-racist and pulls them up to date.”

The original “Free to Be” album was released on Bell Records 16 years ago, and remained on the pop charts for more than a year. It led to a 1974 TV special which won an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award, and to a best-selling book.

If “Free to Be . . . You and Me” reflected the ‘70s preoccupation with self; “Free to Be . . . a Family” addresses the ‘80s emphasis on family.

“The face of the American family has changed totally and we wanted to do something that would make children feel comfortable with who their family was, because every family no longer is Mom and Dad and Junior and Sis and a dog named Spot,” she said.

This time around, the book came first: Bantam first published “Free to Be . . . a Family” last fall.

The TV special will feature Robin Williams, Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Carly Simon, all of whom are also on the new album. Bon Jovi will also be on the special, which is scheduled to be broadcast via satellite to the Soviet Union.

All of the “Free to Be” products benefit the Free to Be Foundation, which has raised more than $2.5 million to date for homeless and abused children, children with AIDS, child care and equal education programs.

“I don’t see it just as a kid album,” Thomas said. “It really plays on many levels: Kids can enjoy the music by themselves and listen to the stories. Or parents can play it with their kids and use it as a starting place to talk about certain things. Or teachers in school can do school activities around the issues raised in the book.”

Peter Schneider, senior vice president of feature animation for Disney, said it was easy to get top stars to work on “Oliver & Company,” a film about a clever kitten named Oliver and a likable group of misfit mutts.

“They all have kids of their own, and they want to do something for them--as opposed to just working on their careers. I would say none of these are career moves.”

Billy Joel, who contributes the voice of a dog named Dodger in the film, said in the production notes that the fact that he has a daughter made the assignment special for him.

“I wanted to be a hero to her more than I wanted to be a star in a movie,” he said, adding that if the movie becomes a Disney classic, there is a chance that it could outlast his records.

Disney chief Katzenberg noted that the high-powered musical lineup was right for “Oliver & Company” because the film has a contemporary street sensibility. He added that Disney’s next animated feature, “Little Mermaid,” will have a more traditional score and will probably not feature top recording stars.

Carole Childs, who worked as music supervisor on “Oliver & Company” and who is now a vice president at Elektra Records, said the movie was a break for the performers from having to worry about hit singles and chart numbers.

“It wasn’t about having to be commercial,” she said. “There was nothing heavy about it. In fact, there was a lightness to it. I think everybody had fun with it.”