kid stuff records has been a major fixation of mine for like a year now. i'm so happy i finally get to share my love for it with you all. thanks for sticking with me!

This video feels like we came to your house to hang and now we're trapped listening to your pac-man records

I am 100% convinced that there was at least ONE poor mother in 1982 whose 8 year old was utterly obsessed with Pac Man who had to listen to this as many times as parents of 8 year olds in 2013 had to watch Frozen

“I am shadow…” I’m just imagining it saying “the hedgehog” and then transitioning into I am all of me

That Jack Stauber comparison makes me wonder if records like this inspired him - pieces like Lima Bean Man are pretty obviously inspired by mildly unsettling old kids shows, after all.

Donkey Kong being a sad, homesick ape who just misses his friends Pauline and Mario is making me more emotional than it probably should

Imagine being the audio engineer that did all of these.

just imagining being a parent and getting one of these for my kid thinking itll be maybe kind of annoying but otherwise reasonable kids music and then watching them inevitably become obsessed with and play it over and over again and how much that would drive me to total madness

"Pretzels aren't a fruit? ... well they liked Pretzels anyway" why is that actually so funny to me

pac-man sounds like a one-time homestar runner character

I feel like suggesting that Sonic is from Florida is equally terrifying as it is accurate.

You're right, it'd be crazy to think that Sonic is from Florida. Thank God he's from Hardings, Nebraska.

4:45 Fun Fact, the original unused character Bible of Sonic The Hedgehog said that he was born a regular hedgehog near a fast food place in Hardy, Nebraska so you’re not entirely stretching with that joke

The way that Shadow is mixed as if he's whispering directly into your children's ears when they are most likely forced to listen through headphones is perfect fodder for some kind of analogue horror series. Maybe there's something out there with a similar concept, but there's so much social commentary to be mined in looking back to an era where there was a mass hysteria about hidden messages in rock music corrupting children and teenagers, only for it to happen through a series of novelty records that exist solely to cash in on something popular with kids.

From humble pizza girl to Mayor of New Donk. Pauline’s leading a full life.

The "I am shadow." feels like it's from a completely different piece of media and was added in like a YTP and I had to pause the video for a good four minutes because of how hard it made me laugh

The Pac-Rat is also called The Neighborhood Rat because he is the one giving the secret information, not just because he is a literal rat who is in the neighborhood.

I need to use "the wettest fart in the bathtub" as a phrase more often

love how the guy voicing Mario can't decide whether to do an Italian accent or a French one

I wasn't ready for pacman ghost ASMR today but it sure happened

Never let Pac-Man cook again. Donkey Kong, however…

When I first heard Pac-man going "I'm Pac-man, I'm number one, I'm Pac-man, I'm so much fun" I went CRAZY. It was so familiar. Little did I understand that it's very very similar to the intro to Gorillaz song, Clint Eastwood. Thank you KK, for making me go absolutely insane trying to find it.

you have given so many new rare and undiscovered samples to weirdcore music producers, lemon demon fans are gonna be all over this

My favorite part of the albums is that it sounds like they were recorded at 1:00 am in a crowded home so everyone had to sortof whisper-shout instead of actually singing

"Hey CIA, new torture methods just dropped"

The Donkey Kong album existing and being actually licensed by Nintendo feels like I've somehow entered an alternate universe just by knowing that it exists.

22 seconds in when i see kid stuff records i know this is going to be incredible. My partner also collects kid stuff records, specifically the Raggedy Ann and Andy ones, and i am prepared for how wonderfully awful these are going to be

“I’m Speedy!” “I’m Pokey!” “I’m Bashful!” “👹I’M SHADOW! 👹”

the bit where the pac man theme gets higher and higher genuinely fills me with stress and rage in a way i can't articulate and makes me physically squirm, and frankly i'm not sure i can forgive you for playing it twice

Man i cannot wait to see the next pacman LP "Pacman sings the divorce papers"

Need to hear someone sample these and turn them into funstep music

Vinny and Joel NEED to hear the donkey kong record, it's gonna melt them

10:25 dear god I really want Jack Stauber to make a song cover of this

pacman album intro song is a modern masterpiece, it deserves to be played at the start and end of every album ever.

I had The Pac-Man Album as a kid. I was coming off the Pac-Man Fever album which had a number of great songs that, for a little kid, put you right in the arcade action. I can say that The Pac-Man Album was the single most disappointing record I had as a kid. I don't think I ever listened to more than once.

“Mario Delivers” is misleading given the context of the album. Mario cooks the pizza, Pauline is the one who delivers it. I know I’m nitpicking but they literally state it at the beginning of the record and it’s all I can think about.

Fun fact: Kid Stuff also made a bunch of public domain VHSs, full of classic famous cartoons. They also included “games” in between the cartoons that basically had viewers draw on their TV screen to solve them. Most of those tapes are lost and the only one available online is one for Bugs Bunny.

Pac-Man’s narration on the first record scares me. It’s the kind of fear I felt as a child digging through my Grandparents old toy closet and suddenly finding a creepy old doll. It’s a cruel nostalgia for something I never experienced.

Not going to lie, this is cursed in such a fantastic way. Ive never been so enthusiastic and dreading the rest of a video.

Pauline being a name in the DK Record is extra interesting, because it might be one of the earliest times she's actually called that, instead of Lady, in 1982. Likely not the first, but before it was standardized- like the reverse of a Sally (as Flicky Names were not standardized for Sonic).

Not me thinking records as in achievements or speed running times 💀 As a lover of obscure trinkets and bobbles I am ashamed of myself

the "I am shadow" whisper is kinda spooky, but not in a "OOOOoooOOooh spooky monster" but in an out of place way.

I'm always fascinated to hear about how the Mario IP was treated before he became established as the Nintendo mascot. I'm sure that there's an alternative universe where he never became Super Mario and he's still bouncing around a bunch of different blue collar jobs.

4:45 the old Sonic the Hedgehog Bible (which was exclusive to the west and not at all used anymore) actually says hes from nebraska, in case that amuses you

I like to imagine the voice actors for these characters disappeared, but never died. They’ve ascended to an eternal void where nobody else could ever reach, besides them.

My Dad owned the second one back when it released in the early 80s- he's still obsessed with the 'Take the Fruit and Scoot song.' I remember when he found a rip of the album online and excitedly showed my brothers and I... and we were all THROUGHLY disturbed by the insanity of the Narrator's and Shadow's voice acting. It's genuinely so hard to listen to, who could've thought that that was OK to release? Even so, some of the songs are cute. I'm just glad my Dad's childhood was made even a little bit better by these goofy albums.

I have a record from this label in my collection that I found in a 99 cent bin at a record store, it's all about stranger danger. If I remember correctly it's just a guy acting out various creepy things a stranger could say to a kid in a stereotypical creepy voice to a generic 80's sounding backtrack, then a female voice says something like "now what do we say in this situation?" and the music pauses for a crowd of kids to shout "NO!!!" then the music starts again and they do another one. One that I remember specifically was like "heyyy come check out my new camera. Sayyy, you're such a pretty little lady, how 'bout you pose for some pictures for me?" Very bizarre stuff.

Whats funnier to me is I don't even think those are the ghosts' actual names. They have like completely different names and the album just makes up random names for them 😭

when I first discovered the pac man album I was really obsessed with it for a night because it was just so fucking shitty. that night I was staying on a campground and couldn't sleep and I felt slightly like I was going insane and the pac man album didn't help

ngl this feels like your trolling us and this isn't whats actually on the records. this shit is just too insane

This is ridiculous. shadow ghost needs to figure out he's the one carrying this project. time for Shadow to go solo and hit the charts.

Starting your Pac Man record off with a purposely uncommercial opener is honestly so avant garde and experimental. People say Nirvana were on a fine line with releasing In Utero but truly, this took balls

I think I vaguely why the opening and closing Pac-Man themes sound so detuned. It sounds like the synthesizer used for this record was 'monophonic', which means it's unable to generate more than one 'voice' (sound) at the same time. In short, the only way to play more than one note together was to program the synthesizer to play multiple pitches with every key press. The theme seems to be going for a ragtime-piano jazz type style, which - as you might imagine - requires the use of frequent and changing chords. But these are no ordinary chords: rather than being simultaneous, notes are often 'rolled' by pressing fingers onto the keybed in sequence (think a finger-based mexican wave, but going down instead of up) , meaning that the notes would not start together and the programming solution I mentioned beforehand would not work. There are many techniques you can use to make up for a lack of available 'voices'. The cheapest and easiest one (and the one they seemed to use on this record) is to create the illusion of chords by rapidly playing one chord note at a time (usually ascending in pitch). You may remember this technique being used in the soundtracks of many NES games. But those usually sound alright. And you would thing rapidly switching between chord notes fits hand-in-hand (pardon the pun) with the 'rolling' motion I mentioned earlier. So what's wrong? Well many synthesizers have a capability called 'portamento', which makes it so that instead of each keypress starting a new pitch from scratch, the pitch of the previous note instead 'slides' up or down to match the pitch of the new note. This helps for imitating instruments like strings or woodwinds. For some ungodly reason, whoever programmed the synthesizers on this record decided to play rolled piano chords this way (maybe to simulate the out-of-tune sound of an old piano?). Not only that, but the portamento time is set so slow that by the time the pitch reaches its intended value, the note is almost done. So it is true that analog synthesizers (especially old ones) are prone to detuning due to issues such as overheating. But I don't think that's the problem here. *The problem is that, for so much of the time the synth is playing, the notes are literally wrong because it's taking its sweet time to get to the right ones.*

That Pac-Man album is absolutely wild... I need someone to sample it to make some ridiculous electronic music.

Mario did have another voiced appearance in 1983 in the Saturday Supercade cartoon. Since the release date of the record is unknown either of these could be the first voiced appearance for the character. Still the record is never talked about so it is very cool to see.

*Headphone user warning* Shadow's voice is like the most creepy unnerving ASMR I have ever heard.

"I'm the Pac-man" has a strong energy to it I cannot describe

It's criminal that Jake the Watchman didn't make it into the Mario Movie.

My headcannon is that "Jump up superstar" from Mario Odyssey is the official sequel to "jump up" from the donkey Kong record.

WE’RE MAKIN IT OUT OF TOYS R US WITH THIS ONE 🔥💯🗣️

In the second track, shadow sounds like an asmr creator gone insane.

I see kids’ records and I see Pac-Man and I think of is: “I got pac-man fever! (Pac-man fever) it’s driving me crazy!” I enjoy the switch your channel made to just talking about things you like.

Given Bally-Midway was in charge of the Pac-man license in America (and famously lost it for stiffing Namco with unlicensed spinnoffs) I wouldn't be surprised if Namco didn't see a cent from the reccords, funny enough.

imagine going over to kkclues house seeing shelfs full of idogs and pacman vinyls

You gotta love when they can make a good concept album with a complex and gripping story

Dang, you are super right on that pac man song sounding like jack stauber. Obviously it's since he takes inspiration from this era of music but I've never heard one sound so similar.

For some reason I fully expected you’d look like a small purple cat with glasses

The actress for Ms. Pacman sounds like a bootleg version of Ellen Greene's Audrey from Little Shop of Horrors.

ok but now I need a small community theater to put these on as stage musicals asap

When I was a little kid I had a record with just that insane intro/outro tune on it!!! I have no idea where I got it from (it might have been from a promotional offer or something, I remember that it was VERY flimsy), but I very clearly remember constantly putting it on my parents record player and then switching it back and forth between 33 and 45 RPM until someone told me to knock it off. I haven't thought about it in years!

"This sounds like a voice Jerma would do" Are we sure this isn't Jerma? Surely he'd be willing to go back in time to do these albums.

All of these records really just feel like elaborate Jerma bits

i'm 5 minutes in and have already had to pause the video several times because of how viscerally horrible these songs are. i love it

I know a lot about “Kid stuff.” In 1986 they stopped making records and switched to make videocassettes. A weird winky dink and you one from 1988 can be found on my channel. Lje the makers of this record become gametek and maybe become Ljn too. Kid stuff’s winky dink video is probably lost media, and it’s public domain, so maybe check that out. Also have more information about Kid stuff, in around 1988-89 kid stuff maybe switched or filed for bankruptcy. These records are actually pretty weird considering their other output. The kid stuff vhs is public domain which is weird considering all these records are lincensed. Notes: “Oddity Archive,” did one of the Christmas sing along tapes. The winky dink tape features bugs bunny and the winky dink aspect is these weird characters like bugs after one of the cartoons has a girlfriend and I think he has a maze. Just check it out, love this stuff.

10:30 the jack stauber sounding part is making me wanna binge listen all his tracks its like the most vibest part of the song lmao

finally someone who's as obsessed with kid stuff records as i am!!! it was so fun to be on the recieving end for once lol. as i only collect the raggedy ann ones (and ive recently completed my collection of the lps!), i loved hearing what they've done with other licenses. i'm curious where you found the names of the voice actors-- that's something i haven't been able to find yet in my research. i definitely heard raggedy andy's voice actor in the second pac-man record. and i must thank you for sharing welcome to mcdonaldland. i need it. i must have ronald mcdonald's terrifying face spinning on my turntable.

They also did the infamous "Strawberry Shortcake Live" record in which Strawberry LEAVES HOME FOR THE DARK COKE-SPOON DENS OF NEW YORK. Don't believe me?? It's on You Tube.

God your content has evolved since I first started watching you. I remember when you were making Animal Crossing singing videos and one time you even visited my ACNH Island! But I absolutely am in LOVE with the way your channel had been going the past few years. Thanks for providing us with some awesome content :)

I love nothing more on this earth than seeing people become fascinated with some weird, confusing, and hyper-specific thing. Thankyou for sharing this with us it's amazing vbfhdnskl

Slight correction: as far as I'm aware, the first voiced appearance of Mario was in the Donkey Kong Cereal commercials. Other than that, great video. I love arcade-era promotional material. Especially when it comes from Donkey Kong.

Thanks for playing the out of tune pacman theme at the end, it was the real cherry on the top.

"I wanna trade" makes for a powerfull TF2 micspam weapon

I actually started digging around on the internet after i watched this video to see if that really was Mario’s first voice, and so far, i can’t find a concrete date of release for Donkey Kong Goes Home, only a release year. This actually matters because there’s a TV show called “Saturday Supercade” which had segments based on Donkey Kong and credits a voice actor for voicing Mario. Saturday Supercade first aired September 17th 1983. I want to hunt for a full release date for the Donkey Kong Goes Home vinyl so I can solve this mystery, what a rabbit hole I have fell into.

6:39 god i cant help but see shadow as just a discount shadow the hedgehog idk if it's just my bias with series and names or the incredible voice he has dmsjebtnsbdb

"I'm having so much trouble picturing a person being this attached to a gorilla" like anyone here didn't lived through Harambe

- Some of the songs on the Pac-Man albums sound like bad songs off Magical Mystery Tour. - “[T]he idea of Nintendo letting some random record company have creative influence on their IP seems unthinkable.” - kkclue, forgetting the Phillips CDI - The opening melody in “The Climber” sounds like “At Doom’s Gate.”

Funny how we had a very similar phenomenon in Eastern Germany in the 1980s, and I doubt the creators knew about “Kid’s stuff”. There were the “Geschichtenlieder”, story songs, basically children’s songs telling little stories with small acting parts in between, forming one overarching story. They were arranged very similarly to the ones you show here. The concept was created by then famous musician Reinhard Lakomy who was also one of the electronic music pioneers in the GDR. He was friends with Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream, and IIRC got his Moog from him. So it was no wonder that the story songs were heavily using synths. However our versions didn’t tie in with popular media and surprisingly also contained no socialist propaganda but pictured a peaceful unpolitical world which just felt good with small conflicts being resolved by diplomacy and being smart. Some songs are up to date even today like the song about the pet mouse who stepped in for a policeman usually controlling traffic who was absent one day. The mouse causes a traffic chaos but is having fun, because he thinks he is conducting an orchestra of honking cars. This is a great song fitting today’s car infested cities with little breathing room especially for children. The most popular story song albums are “Der Traumzauberbaum” (roughly: the magic tree of dreams) and “Mimmelitt, das Stadtkaninchen” (Mimmelitt, the rabbit of the city). Even if you don’t understand German you should give them a listen.

I have a pacman record, but it's not from kid stuff records. It's called Pac-man fever and it was released in 1982 right before the crash. The music on it sucks and I found it for 2 bucks at a goodwill. Now that I know there's more than just the one, I will be looking for more >:)

8:44 This song is literally accurate to [CHARACTER OWNED BY ATGAMES]’s current fate.

this is so funny. shadow not only whispers but also so close to the mic that he just speaks in asmr. the discordant pacman theme sends me into hysterics

I know you said the mayor of Pacville was like if Jerma did a bad voice, I feel like the whole record is secretly a Jerma shitpost. Maybe he listened to these as a kid, which would explain a lot.

I collect strange records that end up in dollar bins or goodwill and now I'm going to have to keep my eyes peeled for these out in the wild.

Funnily enough, my mom dug up a bunch of old records from somewhere a few weeks ago- the first Pac-Man album included. Listening to the most drunk-at-the-wheel Pac-Man theme was a trip.

honestly so glad you showed the donkey kong album last because its such a breath of fresh air comparatively. i feel like it restored my sanity

These records kind of remind me of the EP that came with The Beach Boys' Holland album. Mount Vernon and Fairway, what a lovely story that one is.

4:44 "That's like stating that Sonic the Hedgehog is from Florida." Yeah, it's definitely ridiculous. He's actually from Hardly, Nebraska instead, according to the Sonic Bible.

Probably the holy grail of video game records is a song called Atari by Elmer Farris. You can look it up. It's probably one of the funniest novelty songs I have heard. It's absurdly rare so good luck getting your hands on it.

We’re making it outta pacville with this one 🔥🔥🔥

holy crap that DOES sound jack stauber-y

Because this was an Old Thing I expected it to lean more orchestral than electronic, so the very first track punched me in the face. It sounded like something from the modern era crafted under three layers of irony.