Here are comments from Children's Vinyl Record Series visitors. Do you have comments of your own? Write to tales126 at artsreformation.com .

03-May-2010 from MP I found the Children's Records site a couple of days ago and have been genuinely thrilled and fascinated to be able to hear again so many of the stories there. I haven't heard most of these for getting on for 50 years, since they entertained us on rainy days at the boarding school for the blind I attended here in England. Many of these I knew almost word for word at the time, and I have been amazed at how quickly I begin to remember what is coming as I listen, and to realise and think about what I understood and what I didn't all those years ago. I loved these stories and am extremely grateful to you for having collected them and for me to be able to hear them again. I have been spreading the word about the site and the others you link to, and several other people have already been taking a look and been delighted to rediscover their own particular favourites.

13-Apr-2010 from DN I just had to write and tell you how much I have enjoyed the audio downloads you have provided so graciously. I can only imagine how much time and effort went into cleaning up the audio on those records. I know in the grand scheme of the universe this seems terribly trivial, but please accept my wholehearted thanks for bringing back a couple of very dear memories from my childhood. The only bad thing to come out of my exposure to this as an adult is that I positively weep openly for what passes as children's entertainment these days. Maybe a youngster will stumble across these, listen to one, and realize that once upon a time (pun intended) there was a form of children's entertainment not centered around selling you everything in the world.

06-Apr-2010 from JR Whoever you are, you are an amazing person. The vinyl record site is what I have been seeking for 30 years!

31-Mar-2010 from PM I just had to write and thank you for posting the Tale-Spinners for Children series online. I grew up listening to their composers series, and loved them. Unfortunately all of the records except The Story of Mozart ended up getting lost over the years, and that one was moldering in my parents' basement; none of us had an LP. I'd collected as many of the old classic albums for children that I could, to play for my son. But it seemed that I'd never be able to get or copy the Tale-Spinners LPs. Fast-forward to last month. My wife bought me a USB turntable for my birthday. I ordered a record-cleaner, and tried to clean The Story of Mozart. It had been stored directly in the jacket, and was very, very dusty. It looked clean, but as it played balls of dust were plowed up out of the grooves. The recording sounded terrible. I worked the results over with the software that had come with the turntable, and the results were much improved, but still pretty poor.

I was about to make the mp3 available online anyway, because as far as I knew I was the only person who remembered that series and I thought it deserved to reach a new generation. I started to annotate the mp3 before posting it. But neither the jacket nor the label on the LP included the year that it was recorded! So I Googled "Tale-Spinners for Children", and immediately ended up at your site. Your recording of The Story of Mozart sounds MUCH better than mine. And I can't believe that you have all the other records in the series! I've been trying to think of how I could possibly get copies of The Story of Beethoven and The Story of Bach. Now I can play them for my son (who's named after Bach, by the way) before he's too old to appreciate them properly. Thanks SO much!

21-Jan-2010 from AM I grew up listening to these stories as a kid and have not heard these in what feels like a lifetime.  We were moving from one military location to another when some of our goods were lost and never heard of again.  This treasured record (Danny Kaye Tells 6 Stories from Faraway Places) was one of the things that disappeared. Finding this has brought me much joy and I will let my siblings know of it as well as I am sure they will also appreciate hearing these tales again!

05-Jul-2009 from AE You made me so so happy today! As a child, we listened to Danny Kaye Tells 6 Stories from Faraway Places many many times, memorized 'Wooangalaima' and tried to make soup from a nail. And when my girls were born, I could not find a tape or CD, or even our old record, to let them hear it. Now I have it, and sent it to my sister, nephews and nieces, and we are all happy!

18-Jun-2009 from KV I just wanted to write a note to say thank you so much for taking the time and effort to make the Children's stories freely available - and with the album covers too! My Mom (born in the late 50's) used to listen to Fairy Tales told by Danny Kaye, and so did I whilst growing up. A few years ago, I took my Mom's old record with the intention of putting it onto a CD. but not really knowing vinyl, I left it on the front seat of my car in the sun and ended up with something that resembled a chip bowl. I eventually managed to find the record on ebay in Canada, but it never arrived. I would love my own children to grow up listening to these fabulous fairy tales - and now you've made that possible. So a BIG thank you!

02-Jan-2009 from GO Just a quick note to say thank you so much for making these recordings available on your website. I spent my entire childhood listening to the LPs hundreds of times, to the extent that I had memorized each of them. We couldn't afford to buy the entire collection, so it's only now that I can really enjoy the series all over again. About 10 years ago I did try to contact the producers, but they are of course no longer in business. I also scoured the internet to find people selling off their old LPs and managed to track down about 20 in all and record them onto minidisk. I even worked on a plan to re-make these stories (and others) and publish them on CD, using a London orchestra and - for new stories - original compositions and arrangements. But I didn't get the funding, so maybe I'll revisit this idea in my old age. Thanks to you, a whole new generation of kids can enjoy these stories - and of course the music. As a teenager, I indentified many of the famous classical pieces thru Tale Spinners: "Oh, that's the music from Robin Hood. or The Pied Piper.!" My own kids are entirely brought up on cartoons and sophisticated animations. But I'd like to get them to appreciate just listening and using their imagination, like us (not so old) people did in the days before television and videos.

16-Sep-2008 from CL What a kick it was to be able to find AND download this wonderful gem (Alec Wilder's Child's Guide to the Orchestra) again after all these years! My first exposure to this was as two 78-rpm records as a little kid in the early 60's, but they only contained the ones for the woodwinds and brass - minus the instrumental solo parts at the end. I loved them and played them by the hour. Some of my favorites were "Antoinette the Clarinet", "Bobo the Oboe" and "Mike Malone the Slide Trombone." Sadly, though, when our family moved to another town in the mid-60's, the 78-rpm record player - and all my records - were left behind. I thought I would never hear them again. Just the other day, I decided to Google-search "Bobo the Oboe" and "Antoinette the Clarinet" and came across this website. You can only imagine my absolute joy and delight to be able to listen AND download them! And they are just as wonderful as I remembered! Not only are the singers and instrumentalists top-notch, but the lyrics are very informative in a fun sort of way. The real highlight is at the end where the listener is prompted to find the theme and variations in the orchestral piece, and identify some of the instruments. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for this blast from the past!

28-Aug-2008 from DC Thank you, thank you, thank you for your wonderful site. I have been looking high and low for The Children's Introduction to the Nutcracker Suite and having no luck. My mother had borrowed it from the library when I was a little girl, and made a copy on cassette. Over the years we've lost the cassette, but the words have stuck in my head and every year I try to surprise my mom and sister the the recording. After much web searching I stumbled upon your sight and was elated to find not only the original cover that I remember, but the mp3. You have made me SO happy and I can't wait to share this rediscovered treasure with my family. I can't wait to check out the rest of the site to find other gems that I've missed. THANK YOU!

15-Dec-2007 from JW I just wanted to say that your site is PHENOMENAL! I can't believe you have the Let's Pretend series. I grew up with those and now that I am planning to have a few kids of my own, I was so excited to find these as MP3s because my old records didn't age well. I am putting them all to CD. I can't tell you how excited I am!! I called my brother (who is a cop) and told him what I had found and he, too was amazed! I'm glad you run a site like this...where we can find some classic stuff with good moral fiber in it. Kudos!

09-Dec-2007 from AA I have tried to explain to all of my friends the wonder that is A Child's Introduction to Jazz with Bob Keeshan. I guess I thought everyone my age had heard it. I am now understanding that this was my mother's record from when she was a child, since she was born in 1955 and I was born in 1977. I'm sure if I play it for my friends now, they will think it is silly, but I am extremely happy to hear this album again. I also LOVE Danny Kay and can't wait to listen to him reading all the wonderful children's stories. Finding this site has been like a fabulous early Christmas gift. Thank you, thank you!

06-Dec-2007 from LW My father passed away 7 years ago this week. When my sister and I were children, he bought us all the Danny Kaye LPs. We listened to them constantly. I have been searching for decent copies for years. I stumbled on your site quite by accident. The first story I opened sounded so good and brought back a flood of memories. Thank you for helping me keep a little bit of my dad with me.

15-Nov-2007 from MR In 1963 or 1964, I listened to an album in my elementary school library about South America. I don't know why so many of the songs never left my head, but it was probably because of catchy lyrics like "I'm going to spend / Some time with a friend / Who Lives in Nicaragua / How do you spell Nicaragua? N-I-C-A-R-A-G-U-A" There was also a song about a copper mine, the name of which was not spelled in song, one about various South American explorers ("Balboa! Who was that?"), and one about traveling from Laredo Texas on the Pan American Highway ("How'd you like to go - Down to Mexico?"). You had a lot of similar albums on your site. Do you have any ideas where I might find this? I don't remember the title or label, but I would love to buy the album to finally play it for my husband and family. I appreciate any help you can give me.

31-Oct-2007 from IW I just found your website while poking around on a break at work and will wonders never cease! You have mp3s of Bob & Louise Decormier's Songs Children Sing in Italy!! This was one of my favorite records as a child (I'm in my 50s now) and I look forward to hearing it again. I might as well check out the Songs Children Sing in Germany and Songs Children Sing in France. I'm totally excited! I hope I can figure out how to open the files when I get home.

22-Oct-2007 from MR Thank you so much for putting this site together. This is a great example of the power of the internet and it really will change us as a species as dramatically as any great invention/discovery ever has. Generations of these great children's stories are no available to us and our children. How wonderful it was to discovery your site and hear for the first time in almost 40 years Goldlocks and the Three Bears and the Tortoise and the Hare. I loved that record and played it countless times as little boy. Now I can share it with my children. I never thought I would have found it, but even more astonishing, there are not just a few more of these types of records, but scores of them. It's as if I had just discovered a beautiful treasure. Thanks for your time putting this together. You're helping to pass on the enjoyment that we found as children to future generations.

17-Oct-2007 from SW I am SOOO excited to just have downloaded the Child's Guide to the Orchestra. I am nearly 40 and still know all the words to Antoinette the Clarinet and Pooba the Tuba and I have been looking for these  songs in preparation for the son I am expecting. I had to laugh outloud with delight at finding your resource!

07-Sep-2007 from JC I'm crying as listen to Danny Kaye tell my children about the tree called Oowongalema!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have given us such a simple beautiful gift! Nostalgia we can share!

21-Aug-2007 from KY I am so glad I found your site -- thank you! I have so many fond memories of these records playing on my twinkling record player (the lites twinkled with the sounds)  -- especially The Red Shoes. It's amazing how much I remember (and wax nostalgic in my older age!). In the days of the iPod, XBox and Cable-TV, I only hope my children enjoy these as much as I did. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

23-Jun-2007 from CH I cannot believe that I just found the Tale Spinners Aladdin and the Magic Lamp recording that I grew up on! I nearly wore that record out - it had already been passed down from older relatives by the time I got it! Now that I have my own son, I want him to have the same experience of the beauty of these tales - the rich language, the music, the imagination they inspires. These stories are so pure - no cartoon sidekicks and disney-fied endings. I will be enjoying the whole collection with my little one!

10-Apr-2007 from CW I'm writing to say that I can't thank you enough for your wonderful site! I have been searching for years for the Sleeping Beauty tale I remembered from childhood but I couldn't remember the exact title or any details of the narrator. It turned out to be the Introduction to Ballet with Moira Shearer version, which I downloaded from your site.  I have just listened to the entire story with tears in my eyes as I quoted the few bits of dialogue I remembered to my family! I am so happy to have this story again - it is just as I remember it.  Now I just have to track down the Peter Rabbit story I used to listen to as well. Thank you once again!

27-Mar-2007 from MB Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! This is the MOST wonderful website I’ve EVER found!! It is totally amazing to be able to listen to all the wonderful recordings of my childhood – and to be able to share them with my kids – priceless! Keep up the wonderfulness!

09-Mar-2007 from MH I continue to enjoy your wonderful growing mp3 list.  (My favorites are still The Story of Bach and Treasure Island, with The Story of Beethoven running a close third.)  For some time I have been trying to remember the title of a record that I thought was from the Tale Spinners series, but I guess I was wrong; it was about various composers, including "the three B's  -  Bach, Beethoven and Brahms"  -  and I am almost sure it was a Camden release.  But it's been at least 35 years since I heard it as a child, so I'm not sure.  I recall there was a American voiced narrator, but can't recall too many details. Possibly there was some Tchaikovsky on it, too. The other album I remember listening to was Jimmy Stewart's wonderful narration of Winnie the Pooh stories: the Heffalump, and (I think) the arrival of Kanga and Roo. All the characters' dialogues were spoken by different actors, Stewart supplied the connecting prose.  Also from Camden, perhaps. I recommend your site to everyone! Too little is done to ignite children's imaginations in this video oriented age. We need those albums!

10-Feb-2007 from DA I loved all of the Mercury Storyteller records - any idea why they are so hard to find? I can tell from the recordings that Agnes Moorehead (of various radio shows fame and the mother on TV's Bewitched) was a cast member on many recordings. I have no confirmation - just a hunch based on listening to lots of audio performances.

12-Jan-2007 from KA You can't know how excited I was to find the Let's Pretend stories! Growing up, we had a few of the LP's and listened to them so much, that my sisters and I can still recite them line by line! We wore them out, and they became too scratched to listen to. I found your website just before Christmas, and made copies of your available stories for my seven surviving brothers and sisters. It was the hit of Christmas! Now our kids are listening, and loving every minute! 

02-Jan-2007 from EG Thank you so much for posting Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales on your website. I had some time ago gone looking for these stories without any luck. I just recently found the old 8 track containing them and had been considering trying to find someone who would transfer them to CD. Now I don’t have to. I love the story "The Tinder Box".

02-Jan-2007 from JN Happy New Year!!! Tonight I had the random idea to begin looking on the web for information about some wonderful records that I had as a child. Of course I'm talking about my beloved Storyteller LP's by Mercury. After searching for a while I found a couple of links and then I found your site. Thanks for putting the info and mp3's online. *This is a real treat for me* and I can't wait to share these with my kids. You have provided the pathway for a very long-overdue jaunt down memory lane that I have been hoping to take for decades. At this very moment I am listening to Jack and the Beanstalk.../Fe Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman/... Thirty five years ago I had nearly all of the albums in the Mercury Storyteller SLP series. Might have actually had 'em all, don't remember. As a six and seven year old boy I listened to these records for hours with my Grandma. What special memories these are indeed.

29-Dec-2006 from LK Hello, I am trying to write, but I have tears in my eyes at the moment and so it's a little difficult. My sister and I used to listen to our favorite Golden Record of Danny Kaye's readings of Grimm's Fairy Tales when we were children. We never would have guessed that we would ever find them again. Your site changed all that. There are no words to describe how grateful, overwhelmed and excited we are over this amazing discovery. Now our children's children can hear these amazing stories told by one of the great masters of story telling!

24-Dec-2006 from KJ Finding your website was the best Christmas present I could receive. I have been trying to find The Children's Introduction to the Nutcracker Suite for ages. Listening to this album was one of my fondest Christmas memories. When my sister mentioned tonight that it was Bob Keeshan narrating I thought it warranted another Internet search. I was so excited to find the mp3 files on your site. This really was the best Christmas gift I could have received. Thank you so much for putting this record on-line. P.S. This record is such a part of my childhood, that no one will go see the Nutcracker with me, because I sing along.

23-Dec-2006 from SJ Hi! Just wanted to drop a line and let you know how very very much I appreciate listening to the Let's Pretend stories once again.  My whole family listened to them when we were kids, and my dad has been looking for them for years. I can't tell you how much this means to me--and my dad! I was wondering if Dick Whittington & his Cat/How Six Traveled Through the World will ever be available?  That one, along with King Thrushbeard, was our absolute favorite! Once again......THANK YOU !!

02-Dec-2006 from RS I just wanted to send you a note in thanks for creating this web site. Records were a big part of my childhood. My parents forbade extensive TV watching and, when I was five, got rid of the only one in our house. I therefore spent a great deal of my young life reading and listening to records. So many of the ones on your site were favorites of mine, particularly the Danny Kaye recordings. Unfortunately, the majority fell by the wayside over time, lost during moves, broken from careless handling, or simply worn out or scratched beyond playability. Criminally, many of these audio treasures have yet to be transfered to CD, so your turning them into mp3 files is therefore truly wonderful. I plan to turn them into CDs and share them with my five-year-old daughter, who I hope will enjoy them as much as I did (even if we do let her watch an hour or two of TV a day, if she requests it). Thank you again. You have no idea what this means to me, but rest assured that you've made my year! :-)

17-Oct-2006 from AZ Just wanted to thank you for having so many of the "Let's Pretend" records available! I had a few of them as a child, and listened to them often. I remember looking at the pictures of the other albums and wishing I could hear them. Well, I'm an adult now, and I'm thrilled to have the chance to hear my old favorites and some of those I yearned to hear as a kid.

01-Oct-2006 from PS When I was a child, I spent hours upon hours listening to some of the records you have found and reclaimed!!  My father was in the Army so, of course, we moved a lot.  I was also very shy and had a hard time making new friends, then leaving them because we moved to a new duty station. From the age of 5 until about 8 or 9, I listened ENDLESSLY to The Sleeping Beauty and the Snow Queen, coloring and getting completely lost in both the story and the beautiful music.  I remember very carefully balancing a penny on the head of my record-player's needle because - despite the care I took of these records - they had gotten scratched in our travels.  The records got lost in one of our moves when I was about 9 years old, and I had pretty much completely forgotten about the joy they'd given me until I found them on your site!  I had started googling for The Sleeping Beauty, hoping to be able to buy it in CD form, several days ago after my husband and I went to a local Tchaikovsky concert.  I did not, of course, want just any old 'Sleeping Beauty' - I wanted the one I remembered from my childhood!! Thank you SO MUCH for finding and preserving these wonderful stories!!  I am going to download all of them as quickly as I can ... and I may even have to buy a coloring book and crayons!

28-Sep-2006 from NG I can't thank you enough for making these albums available. I have been searching for A Child's Introduction to the Orchestra for years, as it was a childhood favorite. It is what made me want to play the oboe. Thanks again for making this website.

28-Sep-2006 from GR Thank you SO much for making available the Danny Kaye 6 Stories From Faraway Places LP. I spent many happy hours as a kid listening to that record.

21-Sep-2006 from RG Just wanted to thank you for your website. I've been a big fan of the Let's Pretend record series and have always wanted to share them with my kids, but couldn't find them anywhere.

29-Aug-2006 from EM Thank you so much for putting these wonderful recordings online! I had the Alice in Wonderland recording as a child and I played it to death, memorizing all of the dialogue and the accents and the funny voices. It was wonderful to go back and hear it again. Thanks as well for making it downloadable, it's wonderful to have it again to listen to! I do wish I knew more of the cast. I'll be listening to some of the other recordings too, now, that my parents didn't buy for me!

27-Aug-2006 from RT Thank you so much for making available The Elephant's Alphabet on your website... it was by far my favourite album as a child, and I'd begun to think I'd never hear it again despite constant searches on the net. Finally, today there your page was! Thanks again.

18-Aug-2006 from MC I´m writing to thank you for putting the Tale Spinners series on the internet. I s´pose you get this a lot, but thank you so much! My parents had some of these records when I was a kid and I think that´s where I got a lot of my appreciation for music (my favorite is the Ugly Duckling). I´m 38 now and have four young kids. I will be playing these stories to them in the hope that they get the same out of it as I did. The records that my mum and dad had are all cracked, scratched, broken or worn out. I thought my kids were going to miss out on these brilliant stories.

15-May-2006 from PP Just wanted to say that as a classroom teacher I love your site.  Just found it the other day and the kids love listening to the stories.

10-Nov-2004 from DM My kids were raised on Talespinners records. I have quite a number of the originals and all are well worn despite the care taken of them by me, their father. Their favorite was Rip Van Winkle.  My kids, by the way, are now in their thirties and each son has two children (one has 2 girls and the other 2 boys)  Both boys gained an appreciation of classical music from listening to these records....which carries into their music appreciation today.

25-Sep-2004 from CK I believe it was my sister who may have gotten the Tale Spinners records for me when I was four. I spent about 20 years hunting down the classical music featured on the three records I had and am sure that "Tale Spinners" is primarily responsible for my enjoyment of classical music as no one in my family encouraged that otherwise. I was overwhelmed by Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast and my all time favorite, The Little Mermaid!

20-Sep-2003 from AO We had Pinocchio for our two sons many years ago and both loved them, as did we, their parents. I can't tell you how delighted we are to hear that wonderful production again. When my first grandchild arrived fourteen years ago I looked for the record and couldn't find it. Couldn't find it anywhere and couldn't imagine what I ever would have done with it. I hunted desparately, but it never turned up. With each new grandchild I anguished again over the record and hunted for it anew. My fourth grandchild is now six months old and she has a four year old brother. Both of them will now have the joy of hearing all these wonderful Talespinner productions from an early age. I know that the fourteen year old and the eight year old will love them also. It is also wonderful that we have so many more Talespinner productions that I was unaware of. We are going to enjoy them just as much as the children.

11-Mar-2003 from SR I was in the process of converting my vinyl copies of Treasure Island and the 3 Musketeers when I found your website. I have two sons, and I have a dream that they will treasure the recordings as much as I do. The Talespinners albums were a real treat of my childhood. When I would be sick and home from school, my mother would sometimes surprise me with a Talespinners tale. Perhaps I got sick a bit more often because of them. In my collection as a child, I remember Treasure Island, 3 Musketeers, Robin Hood, King Arthur, The Nutcracker Suite, Robinson Crusoe, and William Tell. 30 years later, I still have most of those. During my re-recording of them, I was surprised to find that I remembered phrases and voices that I hadn't heard in decades. I also remember that I loved the classical musical interludes. Those made the recordings seem all the more rich.

06-Jan-2003 from DG I was really jazzed to see your Tale Spinners website! I and my brothers and sisters spent hours listening to the Tale Spinners records; over and over again as children do. The wonderful stories and great classical music were an important part of our childhood. We must have had about a dozen; I remember that Robin Hood was one of our favorites, along with Alladin's Lamp, Gulliver's Travels, Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, etc. I seem to recall that for a while they were available sequentially at the grocery store where Mother shopped, and if the story looked like a good one and she had a little extra money she would buy us one during the weekly shopping trip. We played them for many years (and pretty well wore them out) but alas when all of us had grown and gone Mother packed them up and gave them to a neighbor's children. We (her children) were all horrified when we eventually heard; with all the things she saved we just assumed that she would keep those! But, no such luck. I now have small children of my own, just getting to the age of enjoying recorded stories, and so I did a web search on Tale Spinners just on the off chance that someone might remember these old stories and still have copies around. I'm very pleased that others remember them with as much pleasure as my family!

26-Oct-2002 from SL I was very interested to discover your website, and pleased that there are people around who remember the Tale Spinners. Actually I'm only really familiar with one of the titles, but it was very important to me. On my sixth birthday (in 1964), I received Gulliver in Lilliput, which became my all-time favorite record (now, alas, scratched beyond playability). I credit this record with having made a significant contribution to my love for English music, literature and drama. I loved the story, I loved the sound of the actor's English accent, and above all I loved the music played on the album, the sources of which I only gradually discovered in my twenties and thirties from hearing them on classical radio. The music was taken from Henry Purcell and William Boyce, two great English masters of the Baroque period. It's probablly not too much to say that my musical development can be ultimately traced to my love for this record (I am a professional classical musician).

02-Feb-2002 from MM The Rip Van Winkle Tale Spinners UAC 11034 record is one of my most vivid childhood memories. I have a few other Tale Spinner LP's but I can't listen to Mendelssohn, Symphony no.4 (which is the background music for the Rip Van Winkle record) without imagining the sound of the narrator for this old record.

20-Jan-2002 from SJ I loved these records as a kid and listened to them everyday after school. When I hear these classical music pieces I equate them with the stories. I especially loved Treasure Island and the Count of Monte Cristo.