'Family Guy' 25th Anniversary Celebration Now Has A Freakin’ EP
All you need is a new EP to keep you worry-free!
If I had a nickel for every Seth MacFarlane creation to have its music celebrated this year, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot because I’d still need $7.89 just to buy Family Guy’s new EP from Hollywood Records. The Family Guy 25th Anniversary EP was released on very short notice Friday, on all your typical digital marketplaces just three weeks after the release of the American Dad! Greatest Hits album.
Being an EP, it’s shorter than the American Dad! album by about half at eight songs. All of them are at least a minute, nothing as short as the “Mail Song” or the theme song (nor the theme to Top of the Steve). Of the eight songs, the one rerelease, “Christmastime is Killing Us” from season 9’s “Road to the North Pole” gets a remaster, though it doesn’t end the album like “Daddy’s Gone” does. The one consistent singer in all chosen songs is who else but series creator Seth MacFarlane, in large part due to just the wide swath of characters he voices. It is a very Peter-heavy album, though not quite dominant due to several choices being sung by large groups. It’s also worth noting that these songs’ spoken parts are in no way disposable and are just as important as the sung. None are removed, as it should be.
“You Have AIDS” is from the fifth episode of the fourth season “The Cleveland-Loretta Quagmire” where Peter and his barbershop quartet deliver a grim prognosis to Mr. Devanney in his hospital room in such an upbeat manner. In addition to MacFarlane, the song is wiki-credited to Bob Joyce, Jon Joyce, Randy Crenshaw, and Rick Logan. The sequence is revisited in the 11th season episode “Yug Ylimaf” where time is reversed that they return from having done it before they’ve done it, and in the 19th season episode “Cutawayland” where Peter finds himself in the medicine storage room on the other side of the wall. “This House Is Freakin’ Sweet!” is easily the oldest song on the release, from the second season premiere “Peter, Peter, Caviar Eater”, which as a reminder is only the eighth episode in the entire series. In this parody of the song "I Think I'm Going to Like It Here" from the musical Annie, the late Marguerite Pewterschmidt’s Cherrywood Manor staff (wiki-credited as just “Studio singers”) tease all the luxuries they have to offer the Griffins at this newly-inherited mansion. However it turns out they were only paid through the end of said number so they leave the family to their own devices. That is until Peter keeps them paid out of his own pocket. It was the first Family Guy song to be Emmy-nominated for Outstanding Music and Lyrics, but it lost to "Up to You" from the Nickelodeon millennium documentary Nickellennium.
“Me and Jesus” comes from the second episode of the seventh season “I Dream of Jesus”, the episode that introduced “Surfin’ Bird” by the Trashmen as Peter’s favorite song. “Me and Jesus” does not appear in the aired version of the episode, only the DVD version. It therefore has the distinction of being the second cut song to get a commercial release. “I’ve Got a Little List” from season 6’s “Lois Kills Stewie” is one of several songs to be released as a single, and was the first such cut song. In it, Peter and Jesus Christ (voiced by Alec Sulkin) sing about their friendship. The next two songs on the EP come from the fifth season, just two episodes apart. “Prom Night Dumpster Baby” from “Airport ‘07” is sung right from the soul by abandoned newborns about their predicament. Written by Kirker Butler, Seth sings this too and you can tell. Then comes “My Drunken Irish Dad” is essentially Peter’s victory song, having just discovered his birth father Mickey McFinnigan and beaten him in a drinking contest so he could finally be seen as his son, and so they, Brian, and O’Brian jig together. It too was nominated for the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics, but lost to Saturday Night Live’s "Dick in a Box".
“Shipoopi” is the first genuine cover from either effort, and of course comes from the 1957 stage musical The Music Man and its 1962 film adaptation. In season 4’s 20th episode, “Patriot Games”, Peter, then a New England Patriots running back, showboats and turns his touchdown dance into an elaborate “Shipoopi” victory tune, getting the crowd involved. This ultimately…somehow…gets him traded out of the NFL to the London Sillynannies of an independent European football league. Come on, NFL Europe was right there. Family Guy has seen all sorts of covers like “Rock Lobster”, “Criminal”, “Never Gonna Give You Up”, “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”, “Mr. Booze” and so much more. As mentioned earlier, “Christmastime is Killing Us” is remastered here, having originally been released as a single when “Road to the North Pole” originally aired, along with the other major number “All I Really Want For Christmas”. It is Santa Claus (voiced by Bruce McGill)’s desperate plea to Brian and Stewie about just how horrid things are at the North Pole just trying to keep up with the ever-growing yearly demand of Christmas presents, and what it’s done to him, the elves, and the reindeer physically. It is the show’s last nominee for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, with “You’ve Got A Lot to See” from season 3’s “Brian Wallows and Peter’s Swallows”, the show’s sole winner in the category, and “Down’s Syndrome Girl” from season 8’s “Extra Large Medium” receiving releases as singles some time ago. Since it’s about to be Christmastime again, it makes sense that this got the remaster and the inclusion at all.
The EP’s final song is “It’s A Wonderful Day for Pie” from the eighth season premiere “Road to the Multiverse”, sung by, well a lot of the cast’s Disney-style universe counterparts. It means that it’s the only appearance for the likes of Quagmire, Joe, Cleveland, voiced by MacFarlane, Patrick Warburton, and Mike Henry as usual, and those with far fewer singing opportunities across the series like Mayor Adam West and Tom Tucker. The song is also wiki-credited to Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis, and the Joyces, Crenshaw, and Logan as the quartet show up as bees. It utilizes the cast well, but certainly beckons more varied involvements on the EP itself, something like “Come On Home”, what the wiki calls Peter, Joe, and Cleveland’s K-Pop song from “Candy Quahog Marshmallow!” or something.
Songs that were previously released as singles that haven’t already been mentioned thus far and probably wouldn’t have made it onto the EP because of said previous release include “You and I are So Awfully Different” from season 3’s “Road to Europe”, “The FCC Song” from season 4’s “PTV”, “A Bag of Weed” from season 7’s “420” and “Friendship Is the Best Thing Ever” from season 8’s “Hannah Banana”. These (and the already-mentioned non-Christmas singles) were done by 20th Century Fox TV Records in the fall of 2016 and then appropriately backdated. While Family Guy has been light on episodes this year, this EP works as a celebratory release, even if its scope is not ultimately as wide as one might expect. The show’s 13th Christmas episode “Gift of the White Guy” will premiere exclusively on Hulu on Monday, November 25, as likely the last mark of the anniversary.
Sources: Film Music Reporter (1, 2), Family Guy Wiki (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)