''Wombling Songs'' is the first album released by the Wombles. "The Wombling Song" was released as a single. The album was written, arranged and performed by

Mike Batt Michael Philip Batt, LVO (born 6 February 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. Having achieved substantial ...

, with vocals credited to "the younger Wombles, assisted by Mike Batt".

History and reception

According to Batt, the album is a simple compilation of character songs and background music for the television series. It has garnered a small

cult following A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

in the 21st century, with music journalist Bob Stanley calling it "something of a kid-rock masterpiece, a pre-teen '' Odessey and Oracle'', chock-full of woodwinds, harpsichords, and minor-key

McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

-esque melodies". Staff writers of ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' noted the album's "glimpses of pop sophistication – the clarinet figure in the theme tune, the wistful pop of Orinoco's song "Dreaming In The Sun"...". In 2022, Batt revealed he destroyed the

master tapes Mastering, a form of audio post production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device (the master), the source from which all cop ...

of ''Wombling Songs'' and the three subsequent Wombles albums, so "people can't fuck with them after I'm gone...if I wanted to go back and change it I would. They aren’t perfection but they are a faithful representation of what I offered to the world in 1974 and 1975."

Chart Performance

The album spent 17 weeks in the UK album charts, peaking at number 19 on 2 March 1974.

Track listing

All tracks are written by

. # "The Wombling Song (Television Version)" - 1:40 # "Wombles Everywhere" (3:20) # "Exercise Is Good for You (Laziness Is Not)" - 2:30 # "The Wombles' Warning" - 3:25 # "Tobermory" - 3:35 # "Dreaming in the Sun (Orinoco's Song)" - 4:10 # "Madame Cholet" - 3:48 # "Great Uncle Bulgaria's March" - 3:28 # "Wellington Womble" - 3:50 # "Bungo's Birthday" - 2:30 # "Wombling Along (Link Piece)" - 0:48 # "The Wombling Song (Full Version)" - 2:25

References

{{Authority control The Wombles albums 1973 debut albums Albums produced by Mike Batt