Gossamer Wump is a children's record, published in 1949 by Capitol Records

Capitol Records

Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

, about a boy who learns to play the triangle

Triangle (instrument)

The triangle is an idiophone type of musical instrument in the percussion family. It is a bar of metal, usually steel but sometimes other metals like beryllium copper, bent into a triangle shape. The instrument is usually held by a loop of some form of thread or wire at the top curve...

. The story is narrated by Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan

Frank Morgan was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the title character in the film The Wizard of Oz.-Early life:...

, Hollywood actor best known for his role as the Wizard in the classic film The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

, with music by Billy May

Billy May

William E. "Billy" May was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music, for The Green Hornet , Batman , and Naked City and collaborated on films, such as Pennies from Heaven , and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return among...

, and written by Hollywood screenwriters Roger Price

Roger Price (comedy)

Roger Price was an American humorist, author and publisher, who created Droodles in the 1950s, followed by his collaborations with Leonard Stern on the Mad Libs series...

 and Helen Mack

Helen Mack

Helen Mack was an American actress. Mack started her career as a child actress in silent films, moving on to Broadway plays, and touring the vaudeville circuit. Her greater success as an actress was as a leading lady in the 1930s...

.

The story is of a little boy named Gossamer Wump (a boy "with red hair, one blue eye, one green eye, and freckles all over - even his face")who learns to play the triangle to start a musical career. He makes unsuccessful musical attempts at Gaylord Gout's dance club, and then again with Stanislav Hudnut's Orchestra. His rather disastrous debut with the orchestra leaves Gossamer defeated and confused, until a certain man gives Gossamer a very important job - the job of playing the triangle on the ice cream wagon.

Gossamer Wump was one of the first children's records to be issued on a 12 inch 78RPM vinyl disk. The standard format at that time was a 10 inch disk.

Dealers of antique records report that Gossamer Wump is one of the most popular collector's items today - one dealer reports that it is in the top three. However, it is difficult to know how popular the record was when it was issued, as there were no charts maintained by Capitol Records at the time. The record has been reissued by EMI in New Zealand.

The main theme of the record is an adaptation of the "Dance of the Hours" by Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli

Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...

. The theme was also used by humorist Allan Sherman

Allan Sherman

Allan Sherman was an American comedy writer and television producer who became famous as a song parodist in the early 1960s. His first album, My Son, the Folk Singer , became the fastest-selling record album up to that time...

 for his popular song "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah", and in Walt Disney

Walt Disney

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...

's film Fantasia

Fantasia (film)

Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The third feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are...

.

In 1960, Mel-O-Toons made a cartoon called Gosomer Wump, using a slightly abbreviated version of the recording.

John Fogerty

John Fogerty

John Cameron Fogerty is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a #1 solo recording artist. Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest...

 dedicated his 1985 album Centerfield to Gossamer Wump