The ZOOMRecord album was recorded while I was still on the show but didn't come out until after my run on the show was over. That's why the cover shows us all wearing orange-and-yellow striped rugby shirts, which were the new colors being worn by the latest cast (the same holds true for the ZOOMdo book cover). This record was full of kid-friendly songs which had been done as production numbers on the show, and which kids had written in to request recordings of. They also included the show's theme song to start off and the "Send it to ZOOM" jingle at the end.

The highlight for me was the fact that I got to sing the intro lines of "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" as a solo - my first time hearing my voice alone on a recording. This was also my first time in an actual recording studio (Longview Farms - a state-of-the-art studio built in a huge turn-of-the-century horse barn and hayloft - very funky/cool) and I felt like a real recording artist.

Something else that holds true for both the book and the record is the fact that the corporations behind them didn't promote them. They both felt that the show itself was the perfect way to do that. WGBH didn't do promotions or advertising of any kind at the time, so both products kind of withered on the vine. You can't hear the album on my website and you can't buy it in any store (maybe E-bay has it) but you can print out the gatefold album jacket and tape it together to make a mini-version of the original 12" record.

You Will Need: -Plain white paper, (letter size - 8 1/2"X11") -A ruler and an X-Acto knife or a pair of scissors and a steady hand. -Clear 1/2" tape ("invisible" matte-finish tape is best)

1. Print four pages from this pdf (the inside and outside of both parts of the gatefold album jacket) on 8.5"X11" paper after setting the margins on your printer to 0.00 inches.
2. Cut away the excess white paper from all four pages and tape the outer edges of the front cover (page 1) to the backside of page 2 all the way around, back to back.
3. Tape the outer edges of the page 3 to the the outer edges of page 4 (the back cover) all the way around. Assemble the gatefold with a strip of tape as a "spine", so that the song lyrics are all on the inside when folded along the "spine".
4. Carefully slit open the tape on the far right edge of the gatefold and slip in an old 45 RPM record to enhance the illusion. (A CD is OK, but a black vinyl disk is better.)