Speaker 1: Hello, my friend. Is this month marching in like a
Speaker 1: lion in your little corner of the world. What's your prediction?
Speaker 1: Will it go out like a lamb? I think so.
Speaker 1: Spring officially arrives on March nineteenth. Easter is on the
Speaker 1: thirty first this year. That's a good sign. The world
Speaker 1: sacrifices a lot in the harsh winter months, and then
Speaker 1: life returns fresh and new in the spring. The lamb
Speaker 1: is an important symbol of purity, goodness, sacrifice. Regardless of
Speaker 1: the weather, the clouds unleash, the lamb will be with us.
Speaker 1: March holds another significant date to today's podcast. March twentieth
Speaker 1: is the birthday of Fred McFeeley Rogers. Fred mcpheeley Rogers
Speaker 1: mister Rogers to millions of us that were once children
Speaker 1: frolicking in the neighborhood of make Believe with he and
Speaker 1: his pals on PBS. He was the creator, the showrunner,
Speaker 1: the host of the preschool TV series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Speaker 1: It ran from nineteen sixty eight to two thousand and
Speaker 1: one through the antics of King Friday the Thirteenth ex
Speaker 1: The Owl, Daniel Tiger, and others, and of course through
Speaker 1: the songs Fred Rodin performed like won't You Be My Neighbor,
Speaker 1: It's You I Like, and you Can Never Go Down
Speaker 1: the Drain. Young viewers found a safe and calming place
Speaker 1: where they learned about civility, tolerance, inclusion, sharing, self worth,
Speaker 1: and mostly unconditional love. Years later, two time Grammy and
Speaker 1: Emmy Award winning composer and producer Dennis Scott, whose songs
Speaker 1: have been recorded by such an artist is Ray, Charles, Allison, Krause, Sugarland,
Speaker 1: Crystal Gale, Amy Grant, the Muppets, and many others, has
Speaker 1: taken a library of Mister Rogers tunes and created a
Speaker 1: tribute album with new arrangement and a who's who list
Speaker 1: of recording artists and performers, like the theme song Won't
Speaker 1: You Be My Neighbor performed by The Cowsills. Sometimes People
Speaker 1: Are Good by my friend Rita Wilson, Oh How I
Speaker 1: Love Her? Many Ways to Say I Love You is
Speaker 1: sung by Vanessa Williams. This is My Home with Jim Brickman,
Speaker 1: Let's be Together Today, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Junior.
Speaker 1: It's such a good feeling. Kelly Pittler recorded that one
Speaker 1: and half a dozen more that we will get to
Speaker 1: hear about during our conversation. Today. I'll be welcoming Dennis Scott,
Speaker 1: producer of Thank You, Mister Ros Music and Memories, to
Speaker 1: the podcast after I've extended a warm welcome to one
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Speaker 1: at Laurageller dot com. That's Laurageller dot com. Welcome to
Speaker 1: Love Someone. Dennis Scott, my sister who produces our podcast,
Speaker 1: sent me notes earlier about this, and I got so
Speaker 1: excited in my spirit because I started thinking back to
Speaker 1: all the times in my life. I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: older than most of the kids who grew up with
Speaker 1: mister Rogers, but I have a son who's a police
Speaker 1: officer now that did and I was thinking back to
Speaker 1: all the times that after the show was over, we
Speaker 1: would have really important conversations about what he had just watched. Oh,
Speaker 1: really re touching conversations because I was a single mom
Speaker 1: and we have a very different family dynamic than a
Speaker 1: lot of people. And it was through the Mister Rogers
Speaker 1: neighborhood that opened up a lot of those really important conversations.
Speaker 1: And I thought, I wonder how many millions of children's
Speaker 1: lives were touched by the words and the music and
Speaker 1: the love, because it really boils down to love of
Speaker 1: mister Rogers.
Speaker 2: Yes, And I can verify what you're saying, because in
Speaker 2: the process of working on these albums of his music,
Speaker 2: I got to be in touch with tons of people who,
Speaker 2: like you say, grew up with him and whose lives
Speaker 2: were directly affected with him. The most incredible stories from
Speaker 2: people who were either in the hospital or things were
Speaker 2: happening in their lives, and he took the time out
Speaker 2: of being an on ear personality and producing his shows
Speaker 2: and writing the music and writing the scripts and directing
Speaker 2: the shows, he would write letters, I mean by hand.
Speaker 2: He would write letters and take the time to address
Speaker 2: what was going on in their lives. In some cases,
Speaker 2: there's a story of one girl who I hate to
Speaker 2: put it this way, but she had a disease. She
Speaker 2: had half her brain removed. Mister Rogers got on a plane,
Speaker 2: didn't even really know these people, got on a plane,
Speaker 2: went to her hospital room and just sat with her
Speaker 2: and brought his puppets and entertained her. And her life
Speaker 2: was changed and she's better now. And I mean, you
Speaker 2: can't make up this stuff.
Speaker 1: No, Nope, you can't. You can't. And the music that
Speaker 1: just poured out of him. I met a woman years
Speaker 1: ago who was married by mister Rogers. A lot of
Speaker 1: people don't know he was an ordained minister, right, and
Speaker 1: she and her husband were married by mister Rogers.
Speaker 2: Oh how cool.
Speaker 1: But she was talking about at the ceremony, the same
Speaker 1: sweet simplicity and the same genuine love that you saw
Speaker 1: on television. She said, that's him twenty four to seven.
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't an act, it wasn't a script. He
Speaker 1: truly genuinely was that kind.
Speaker 2: Yes, and that I hear from people all the time
Speaker 2: as well. He he was the real deal. He walked
Speaker 2: the walk, talk the talk. In fact, when I started
Speaker 2: these projects, like you, I was a little beyond the
Speaker 2: a's of age of watching him growing up. But in
Speaker 2: the process of working on them, I learned more about him,
Speaker 2: and I was a skeptical too. I said, oh, this
Speaker 2: can't Nobody would do this, nobody would take the time.
Speaker 2: And he really was the way he was, and good golly,
Speaker 2: we're lucky to have had him.
Speaker 1: So what's the backstory? How Dennis did you decide one day,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think we need a little more
Speaker 1: mister Rogers neighborhood, and I think we need these artists
Speaker 1: to record these eclectic, sweet, unique songs. I mean he
Speaker 1: had unique arrangements when you think about it, and when
Speaker 1: you listen to music as much as I do, very
Speaker 1: unique arrangements that he created. What propelled you into this project,
Speaker 1: I guess is what I'm asking.
Speaker 2: Well, I have a background in producing and writing children's music,
Speaker 2: and I've worked with Sesame Street people like that, and
Speaker 2: I've had experiences working with celebrities putting their takes on
Speaker 2: other people's songs. So one day I was in the
Speaker 2: kitchen just eating a sandwich and I had the TV
Speaker 2: on and they were doing a rerun of mister Rogers' show,
Speaker 2: and he was singing this charming song called It's You
Speaker 2: I Like And I just had to stop chewing and
Speaker 2: listen to the song and said, this is a great song.
Speaker 1: And wasn't there written for the little boy that was
Speaker 1: in the wheelchair? I remember, the child that was a
Speaker 1: regular on his show. Came more than Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think it was written before he was there, but
Speaker 2: it came to be associated with him because mister Rogers
Speaker 2: developed a relationship with him throughout the years. But as
Speaker 2: I'm sitting watching him, it occurred to me, I wondered,
Speaker 2: has anybody else besides mister Rogers recorded these songs, because
Speaker 2: the problem is, you get a little pigeonhole you think, oh,
Speaker 2: it's on a children's show, so it must be a
Speaker 2: children's song, and it's not something that an adult would
Speaker 2: listen to. But being a songwriter as well, I could
Speaker 2: tell that this was a well crafted song, well thought
Speaker 2: out both lyrically and musically, and after researching, I found
Speaker 2: out that really nobody else had ever covered his song.
Speaker 2: So I said, this is an idea, and I was
Speaker 2: just compelled to do it. I just felt I had
Speaker 2: to do this, and I'm glad I did. It changed
Speaker 2: my life too, because at the first it was, oh,
Speaker 2: I wonder if I can make something of the song,
Speaker 2: and how I can change and how I can arrange
Speaker 2: it and get different artists to put their stamp on it.
Speaker 2: So at first it was a challenge, but in the
Speaker 2: course of the first album and a second one, that's
Speaker 2: when it became part of my spirit because I felt,
Speaker 2: I am really, I'm really working with treasures. These songs
Speaker 2: are all gems.
Speaker 1: They are national treasures, they are international treasures.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you asked for a backstory. At first, when
Speaker 2: I approached mister Rogers company. He had already passed, but
Speaker 2: they were very protective of his material and they said, well,
Speaker 2: we don't care how many Grammys you've had, you know,
Speaker 2: this is mister Rogers' stuff. And I said, please give
Speaker 2: me a chance. And I pursued them for a year
Speaker 2: and finally they said, okay, if we say yes, will
Speaker 2: you go away, which is what most people say to me,
Speaker 2: And so they handed me the keys to the kingdom
Speaker 2: and we got started on the song. And the first
Speaker 2: album had bj thomas On and Amy Grant and it
Speaker 2: was just.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: The most special moment for me was when the album
Speaker 2: was done and I turned it into mister Rogers' people,
Speaker 2: including Missus Rogers, who was chairman of the board of
Speaker 2: his company, and I got a phone call from her
Speaker 2: and I was biting my teeth, sinking, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: what if she doesn't like it? And she got on
Speaker 2: the phone said, Dennis, I just listened to the album.
Speaker 2: I want you to know I loved it, and Fred
Speaker 2: would have loved it. I said, that's it.
Speaker 1: That's it, that's all I need. So you did the
Speaker 1: entire thing before they heard a single song.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, I guess that's a leap of faith.
Speaker 1: That's a huge leap of faith, because I if i'd
Speaker 1: been his wife, I would say, Okay, I'll let you
Speaker 1: record one half of one song and then I will
Speaker 1: listen to it carefully and dissect it. I don't know
Speaker 1: that I would have given you the keys to the kingdom,
Speaker 1: but thank god they did.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it turned out to be the thing I'm
Speaker 2: most proud of of anything I've done.
Speaker 1: Wow, that says a lot, given how many projects you've
Speaker 1: been involved with.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 2: The thing is, most of the time people call me
Speaker 2: and say, hey, I need an album about Wales. Can
Speaker 2: you write me thirteen songs about Wales? And I'll say, sure,
Speaker 2: what color. I'll have it on your desk by nine
Speaker 2: thirty tomorrow morning. But in this case, it was something
Speaker 2: that came out of me from watching mister Rogers. I
Speaker 2: didn't expect it, I didn't ask for it, but it happened,
Speaker 2: and it really has changed my life too.
Speaker 1: I have watched pretty much everything I can find about
Speaker 1: mister Rogers, and I have yet to see anything except
Speaker 1: good wittiness about this human being.
Speaker 2: He understood people, and he understood the human heart, and
Speaker 2: he knew how to deal with it and his ability
Speaker 2: just to listen to other people. I've been told by
Speaker 2: people that they would go into his office, come out
Speaker 2: an hour later, and whatever was on their mind, whatever
Speaker 2: was going wrong, they were cured. And then as the
Speaker 2: musical side of it, which also acts in a different way,
Speaker 2: sort of like music therapy for people, because he was
Speaker 2: able to get his message across as only he could.
Speaker 2: And that's where the challenge was. Because mister Rogers delivered
Speaker 2: his songs as only he could, and of course he
Speaker 2: had the great Johnny Costa working on arrangements with him.
Speaker 2: But the question is, how do you take a mister
Speaker 2: Rogers song and make it into something that's more accessible
Speaker 2: to an adult or at least more in the pop
Speaker 2: vein that were all accustomed to listen to. And it
Speaker 2: was a challenge, but it was also a delight to
Speaker 2: see how well it worked out. And when the artists
Speaker 2: would hear it, I gave them the autonomy to go
Speaker 2: ahead and pick out a favorite mister Rogers song and
Speaker 2: I'd narrow it down for them because he wrote over
Speaker 2: two hundred songs, and then we'd go over it together.
Speaker 2: And growing up with some of these artists like Marion
Speaker 2: Luku and Billy Davis and the Costles, whose style I
Speaker 2: was familiar with. I wanted to do honor to their
Speaker 2: style at the same time do honor to mister Rogers.
Speaker 1: So that was going to be my next question, and
Speaker 1: you just kind of let into it. The people that
Speaker 1: are recording these songs are people that would have heard
Speaker 1: them during the time that mister Rogers was on TV,
Speaker 1: you know, Amy Grant and the Cowcils. Vanessa Williams. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. As I'm reading the list of artists, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I remember I was on the station in Seattle when
Speaker 1: her song was a hit. Oh I remember I was
Speaker 1: on the station in Reedsport when it was you know,
Speaker 1: the Monkeys. Oh I remember when. For me, my memories
Speaker 1: are tagged to songs that were hits based on what
Speaker 1: station I was at, which then identifies what relationship I
Speaker 1: was in, or what child I was raising or whatever.
Speaker 1: And as I'm going through the list of artists, they're
Speaker 1: all such amazingly talented musical greats.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I mean for me too. I mean I
Speaker 2: was a big Monkeys fan, maybe a little bit bigger
Speaker 2: Beatles fan, but.
Speaker 1: Well, the Beatles had more commercial success. But the Monkeys
Speaker 1: were cuter.
Speaker 2: Well, hey, people say sometimes they say I look like
Speaker 2: Davy Jones a little bit, And I said, okay, that's
Speaker 2: a compliment. You can't see, but I'm just as short
Speaker 2: as he was.
Speaker 1: He's adorable.
Speaker 2: But to be standing next to some of these people,
Speaker 2: it's really hard sometimes to keep your producer hat and say, okay,
Speaker 2: we got to record this and get over the fact
Speaker 2: that person right there, that's Mickey Dolan's He was the Monkeys,
Speaker 2: and I've listened to them. It was, you know, it's
Speaker 2: a strange thing, out of body experience, a.
Speaker 3: Perfectly beautiful day to say and hello, go welcome. It's
Speaker 3: a perfectly beautiful and high neighbor. The Monkeys. Our demographic
Speaker 3: was older ten to twelve, fourteen year old. Mister Rogers,
Speaker 3: of course played four six eight years old, and I
Speaker 3: watched the show with my child Amy, and he made
Speaker 3: little kids feel safe and happy and warm and fuzzy
Speaker 3: and cozy, like a you know, like a Teddy Bear
Speaker 3: or something like that. The name of the song is
Speaker 3: perfectly beautiful day, and very typical of him and his
Speaker 3: personality and his show. He just made you feel really
Speaker 3: comfortable of you close.
Speaker 4: Shame.
Speaker 1: When I do these podcasts and I get to, you know,
Speaker 1: look in the eyes of people that I have admired
Speaker 1: for years. It is an out of body experience, and
Speaker 1: sometimes I'm like, what do I say? I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm tat tat. I got to do a podcast a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago with Gloria Gaynor, and oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: you know her song was the anthem of my life
Speaker 1: when I was a young person, and you must have
Speaker 1: had a lot of those just out of body experiences
Speaker 1: with the list of these people. I'm Sandy Patty, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love Sandy Patty. Lee Greenwood, Oh my gosh, I
Speaker 1: feel like putting my hand over my heart and standing
Speaker 1: up when I hear Lee Greenwood's name mentioned.
Speaker 4: When the day turns into night, neighbor and you're weavy,
Speaker 4: my said mister Rogers. Neighborhood carved out a piece of
Speaker 4: American culture that was extremely important, not just in the
Speaker 4: sixties or seventies, but even today. I mean, we need
Speaker 4: to reflect on those things. It took you to a
Speaker 4: place that was soft, it was gentle, and it wasn't
Speaker 4: just for the kids. Because I kind of like watching it.
Speaker 4: All of the songs that we're singing recapture part of
Speaker 4: the generation that I lived through. When I'm singing on
Speaker 4: the album, it's memory, like.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I remember this.
Speaker 4: You know too, No, my dear, thank you, mister Rogers.
Speaker 2: We love to be in your neighborhood, you know. And
Speaker 2: the great thing is when when the people who you admire,
Speaker 2: who you live with were part of the soundtrack of
Speaker 2: your lives, when you're actually with them and they turn
Speaker 2: out to be just regular nice people who live, breathe
Speaker 2: and eat and everything else. I mean, that's so gratifying.
Speaker 2: Just when they put you at ease already and say, hey,
Speaker 2: let's make some music together. That's when it gets special.
Speaker 1: So what was one of your favorite moments of putting
Speaker 1: together the mister Rogers projects? What was one of your
Speaker 1: like that you will cherish in your heart forever?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, where do I start? Good golly, it's
Speaker 2: like picking your children, you know what. I think, As
Speaker 2: strange as it may sound, I loved working with the
Speaker 2: Castles because they were just so down to earth and
Speaker 2: they were genuinely interested in getting mister Rogers' song, and
Speaker 2: they were so thrilled when I told them, Okay, you're
Speaker 2: going to be singing the theme song, and they said,
Speaker 2: we get to sing that, oh, And they were so
Speaker 2: genuinely excited. And when you see things coming together, when
Speaker 2: people don't always know that, you just don't snap your
Speaker 2: fingers and all of a sudden you're in the recording studio.
Speaker 2: It took months and months and months to coordinate schedules
Speaker 2: and get past contracts and managers and things like that.
Speaker 2: So when it finally happened, I walked in and there
Speaker 2: they were, and we just hugged each other. We're just
Speaker 2: also happy to be there. Susan Cassel, she had some
Speaker 2: really interesting experiences watching mister Rogers because they had some
Speaker 2: people may know that they had a kind of a
Speaker 2: turbulent life growing up in their household, and mister Rogers
Speaker 2: was a safe place for them. And they say, he
Speaker 2: put on that sweater and all of a sudden they
Speaker 2: felt good.
Speaker 1: That is the quintessential moment of peace, when he puts
Speaker 1: on the sweater.
Speaker 5: That's right.
Speaker 1: So what are you hoping that this collection of music
Speaker 1: will do for us? I mean, you didn't go through
Speaker 1: all those hoops and jump through all those hoops and
Speaker 1: all those contracts and all that just for somebody to
Speaker 1: be able to listen to music. What is your hope, Dennis,
Speaker 1: that this will do? And I don't want to put
Speaker 1: words in your mouth, but I know what my hope
Speaker 1: for it is. So tell me what you're hoping to
Speaker 1: birth here.
Speaker 2: Well, it's a great question because I never dreamed that
Speaker 2: I would be an advocate of mister Rogers's music. I
Speaker 2: knew I could record it, and I know we could
Speaker 2: do some wonderful things with his music because it started
Speaker 2: out as being wonderful. But now I'm kind of on
Speaker 2: a campaign to make sure that his legend and his
Speaker 2: music does not get lost. I feel that some of
Speaker 2: the new productions that are coming out they're forgetting his music,
Speaker 2: they're not incorporating it into the show. And it's like
Speaker 2: we said, it's a treasure trove of wonderful things and
Speaker 2: the messages that are built into the music. So I'm
Speaker 2: on a campaign to get mister Rogers inducted into the
Speaker 2: Songwriters Hall of Fame. And I truly believe that, along
Speaker 2: with the Gershwins and the coll Porters and people like that,
Speaker 2: he is so much a part of our lives and
Speaker 2: the music is worthy of that. And you would think Oh,
Speaker 2: that's a no brainer. You know, of course we'll put
Speaker 2: him in there. Well, no, it's not. It just doesn't
Speaker 2: happen quite.
Speaker 1: That way, Dennis. What can people do if they want
Speaker 1: to help motivate the powers that be to induct Fred
Speaker 1: Rogers into the Music Writers Hall of Fame? Like, what
Speaker 1: can I do? What can I personally do?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So if they go to change dot org, you
Speaker 2: can sign the petition and by getting mister Rogers into
Speaker 2: the Songwriters Hall of Fame, we'll kind of solidify his
Speaker 2: position in the history of American music and the Great
Speaker 2: American Songbook.
Speaker 1: Change dot org and then sign the petition.
Speaker 2: So I kind of feel that I want people to
Speaker 2: listen to his music, and I think by creating these
Speaker 2: arrangements of it, it gives it another chance because a
Speaker 2: lot of his shows are not being rerun on TV anymore.
Speaker 2: So even though the movies that came out they're really helpful.
Speaker 2: But you know, music is powerful.
Speaker 1: It is so powerful, and I think his lyrics they
Speaker 1: heal our soul. I mean, if everybody around the world
Speaker 1: could sing won't you be my neighbor once or twice
Speaker 1: a day and believe it? Think of the problems that
Speaker 1: we would solve in the world if we had that
Speaker 1: notion of I want you to be my neighbor. I
Speaker 1: want to get to know you. I wanna I want
Speaker 1: to break bread with you. I want to share your experiences.
Speaker 1: I want to hear what makes you happy.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So mister Rogers was quoted as saying when people
Speaker 2: ask him, well, what is the secret to a successful
Speaker 2: life and a good life, and he said, be kind,
Speaker 2: be kind, be kind, And that was the rallying cry
Speaker 2: of his messages and talking about how the music gets
Speaker 2: involved in our lives. When I heard Vanessa Williams do
Speaker 2: her rendition of a song called there Are Many Ways
Speaker 2: to Say I Love You, which is also this jewel
Speaker 2: among his collection of songs. I find myself now when
Speaker 2: I you know, when I make a sandwich for my
Speaker 2: wife and she's not expecting it, that's that's a way
Speaker 2: to say I love you. There, and mister Rogers hit
Speaker 2: it right on the head. Doesn't always have to be
Speaker 2: you know, getting down on one knee. It's like, you know, here,
Speaker 2: here's a flower.
Speaker 1: Here's a sandwich.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're a sandwich.
Speaker 5: There are many ways to say I love you, my neighbor,
Speaker 5: just by being there when things are sadden scary. I'm
Speaker 5: Vanessa Williams. I'm a singer, I'm an actress, I'm a
Speaker 5: mother of four, and I'm a huge Fred Rogers fan.
Speaker 5: He made you feel as a child that you were
Speaker 5: in a place of just pure gentleness. That's how to say.
Speaker 1: I love you.
Speaker 5: The song that I'm doing for the Mister Rogers project
Speaker 5: is the Many Ways to Say I Love You, which
Speaker 5: is perfection. As a child, you appreciate the music, but
Speaker 5: as a musician, you really appreciate the music. If Fred
Speaker 5: were here, I would give him a big hug and
Speaker 5: tell him that he's always in my heart.
Speaker 1: My husband and I have a very unique marriage, and
Speaker 1: that we don't live together. He lives in another state
Speaker 1: because his life was established there and my life was
Speaker 1: established here, and the time has not come yet when
Speaker 1: we have accomplished what God has called us to do
Speaker 1: in both places. But we talk umpteen times a day,
Speaker 1: and then he comes up one week out of the
Speaker 1: month usually, and we have this little thing between us
Speaker 1: where he'll look at me and you'll say, I told
Speaker 1: you today how much I love you, And then mentally
Speaker 1: I reel off all the times he made me a
Speaker 1: sandwich or brought me a cup of tea, or because
Speaker 1: his love language is acts of service, and then he'll
Speaker 1: do the same to me. And I think that song
Speaker 1: in particular really helps us to realize that you don't
Speaker 1: need a fancy card or a dozen roses. You need
Speaker 1: to recognize when the people you love are showing you
Speaker 1: their heart, are showing you their compassion, their kindness.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, his music is now not just something that
Speaker 2: I did, It's something that I live now because of
Speaker 2: these messages that just permeated and are now in my brain.
Speaker 1: So if we can have everybody in my listening audience
Speaker 1: fine and listen to although I got to say, I've
Speaker 1: got the most awesome, amazing listeners in the universe. So
Speaker 1: maybe we could, I don't know, get it into schools
Speaker 1: so that young people could hear these messages. Absolutely, I mean,
Speaker 1: if we could have won't you be my neighbor? Or
Speaker 1: let's be together? It's such a good feeling. If we
Speaker 1: could have these played in the hallways of grade schools,
Speaker 1: what do you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think if people listen to them, I mean,
Speaker 2: some of them will say if you tell them, well,
Speaker 2: who wrote that song? They would have no idea, But
Speaker 2: once you make the connection that it's mister Rogers, it's
Speaker 2: not only a great sounding song, but it's a meaningful song.
Speaker 2: So you're killing two birds with one stone.
Speaker 1: It makes that heart connection.
Speaker 4: HM.
Speaker 1: I am so thrilled that Dennis decided to create this
Speaker 1: wonderful musical tribute to mister Rogers. There's so many people
Speaker 1: involved that it's worthy of a long conversation. We'll get
Speaker 1: right back to it once I've shared some information about
Speaker 1: another very important contributor to today's chat, my podcast sponsor,
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Speaker 1: your hopes in the future for this crazy world that
Speaker 1: we are, this planet that is spinning? Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I know that's a big question.
Speaker 2: I think mister Rogers has probably a better answer for that.
Speaker 2: You know. It's like you say about music, because the
Speaker 2: world has a lot of things going on and we wonder,
Speaker 2: you know, what can we do and is it always
Speaker 2: going to be like this? And mister Rogers one of
Speaker 2: his famous quotes when nine to eleven came out, people
Speaker 2: he said, look for the helpers, look for the helpers,
Speaker 2: for the helpers. And he was a helper and his
Speaker 2: music is a helper. So you know, I just encourage
Speaker 2: people Look, if you don't know mister Rogers, take a
Speaker 2: listen to some of these songs. Even if you don't
Speaker 2: stream them, you don't buy them. You know, that's okay.
Speaker 2: I've got a second job, or I'll get a second job,
Speaker 2: but I do. I just want people to listen to
Speaker 2: and I love seeing what they have to say about
Speaker 2: it afterwards, and having spoken to so many people. The
Speaker 2: reason this album is called thank You, mister Rogers is because, well,
Speaker 2: here's another backstory there. It wasn't even going to be
Speaker 2: a music album. I mean, I did a first album
Speaker 2: which was totally music, and then this one, which I
Speaker 2: had no financial backing for. I couldn't get a record
Speaker 2: label behind it. I couldn't get anybody to invest in it.
Speaker 2: And in fact, all right, you're the only person I've
Speaker 2: ever told this to online. But the new mister Rogers
Speaker 2: regime there, of which he is not a part of anymore,
Speaker 2: they called me up one day and say, and Dennis,
Speaker 2: we know about you, You've had done great things. We
Speaker 2: would rather you not be doing this album and don't
Speaker 2: call us. And that was a dark day, and I
Speaker 2: wrestled with it and I cried a little bit, and
Speaker 2: I said you know what, I just have to do this.
Speaker 2: I'm going to do this and so, you know, little
Speaker 2: help for my son's five point twenty nine fund. I
Speaker 2: made the album and I just want people to hear it,
Speaker 2: because I don't think without putting it out there, people
Speaker 2: will know about mister Rogers music. Now, there were times
Speaker 2: in the creation of this album, I said, really, I mean,
Speaker 2: there was one time I think I was supposed to
Speaker 2: go out to do a record the people in California,
Speaker 2: and there was a huge storm, a thunderstorm in Nashville,
Speaker 2: and they kept delaying the flight again and again. And
Speaker 2: the next morning is when we had our recording session.
Speaker 2: Now I want to say it was with Marilyn McCoo
Speaker 2: and Billy Davis. And at four am the flight left
Speaker 2: Nashville because there was finally a clearing and I got there.
Speaker 2: I was half asleep, but we went into the studio
Speaker 2: and we did it.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you, thank you for doing did us this
Speaker 1: tribute to mister Rogers. Thank you for not giving up,
Speaker 1: for not listening to the naysayers, and thank you for
Speaker 1: being with us on Love Someone. Now, we just got
Speaker 1: to get the word out so that people can be
Speaker 1: blessed and touched and inspired by the beautiful music mister
Speaker 1: Rogers created and the new life that you've breathed into
Speaker 1: it with these wonderful artists.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you and bless you for bringing it to
Speaker 2: everybody's attention, and mostly to the ears, because I think
Speaker 2: they're going to it's going to put a smile on
Speaker 2: their face when they hear it.
Speaker 1: Indeed, mister rogers Neighborhood emphasized young children's social and emotional needs.
Speaker 1: That was different than any other children's programming, which focused
Speaker 1: more on learning, school readiness ABC's one, two threes, Colors
Speaker 1: and Shapes. Mister Rogers embraced sensitive subjects like the fear
Speaker 1: of being flushed away, both figuratively and literally, bullying. He
Speaker 1: tackled divorce, He tackled moving, changing family dynamics, and all
Speaker 1: of it in an unhurried, deliberate, caring, sincere style that
Speaker 1: would be emulated countless times as children's programming took off.
Speaker 1: He had a song for everything, and even I, who
Speaker 1: am just a teeny bit older than kids, weaned on
Speaker 1: the neighborhood of make believe know them through our babysitting experiences.
Speaker 1: When we became parents, ourselves Dinnis and his musical friends
Speaker 1: have helped to bring them to life again with Thank
Speaker 1: You mister Rogers Music and Memories. It's now available at
Speaker 1: Thank youmister Rogers dot com. You can learn more about
Speaker 1: Dennis at Dennis Scottproductions dot com. Dennis has served as
Speaker 1: both musical director and the composer of over one hundred
Speaker 1: songs for the BBC children's series Nobody and most recently
Speaker 1: Bjay's Teddy Bear Club. He offers award winning musical and
Speaker 1: creative services from his Nashville, Tennessee studios. His talented team
Speaker 1: specializes in audio production, music composition, original lyrics, arranging, talent contracting,
Speaker 1: music supervision, sound design, scripting, and continuity. Thank You, mister
Speaker 1: Rogers Music and Memories is the album you didn't know
Speaker 1: you needed, but you do, we all do. It's the
Speaker 1: rebirth of something simple, something sweet, something profound that we've
Speaker 1: lost the lamb against the Lions. Happy Easter, happy Spring,
Speaker 1: happy happy everything, Happy birthday, mister Rogers. I hope you
Speaker 1: are experiencing some sunny days, some happy times, some moments
Speaker 1: of hope and joy. Thank you for spending time with me.
Speaker 1: Now go out there and love someone