Power Records

Today Rob's Aquaman Shrine offers us a look at memorable merchandise from Power Records, an album released in 1975 featuring audio adventures for the Flash and Aquaman! The forty-five offers two separate superhero stories: the Flash takes on "The Three Faces of Mr. Big" and Aquaman stars in "The Defeat of the Dehydrator." The album also features some beautiful cover artwork from Neal Adams. As Rob already knows, nothing brings a smile to my face more than seeing my two favorite superheroes racing into action together--even if it is hard to reconcile the fact that the Flash's powers lie in land speed and Aquaman works best in the ocean depths. (In the depths of my forever childish imagination, this is not a problem for such a dynamic duo.)

The Power Record seen in Rob's collection uses stories first recorded for Songs and Stories About the Justice League of America (1966), the third in a series published by Tifton Records following the delightful Children's Treasury of Superman Musical Stories (1966) and, naturally, The Children's Treasury of Batman Musical Stories (1966). The Justice League record features a song and a story each for Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, Metamorpho, Aquaman, and the Flash. ( The scarlet speedster's theme tune is particularly catchy. "The Flash! The Flash! The Flash! Meet the mighty Flash! In a fight he'll smash, crash, mash a whole gang of crooks or snooks. Hey, he'll just clobber any kind of bad guy, thief, or robber. The world's fastest human. Yeah, man, the Flash!" In the past I've seen this ditty attributed to songwriter Arthur Korb, though I have absolutely no way of confirming that.)

Using the link above you'll find the entire albums available for download at Way Out Junk, a brilliant blog devoted to offering such nostalgic wonders online. This stuff is solid superhero fun of a type you just can't find anymore; the songs and stories are more than a little silly, but they're imbued with the sort of entertainment and innocence that pervaded all of the Silver Age. I can't tell you how much it delights me to have these albums on my iPod, especially during tedious commutes when I'm in, as Rob describes it, a retro mood. Be sure to seize upon that final download link before it too becomes unavailable!