The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins
Encyclopedia
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...
composed by Charles Randolph Grean
Charles Randolph Grean
Charles Randolph Grean was an American producer and composer.-Professional life:Grean's first work was as a copyist in several big bands, including Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, and Charlie Spivak...
and performed by Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
, telling the story of Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the protagonist and titular character of The Hobbit and a supporting character in The Lord of the Rings, two of the most well-known of J. R. R...
and his adventures in J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
's novel The Hobbit
The Hobbit
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the New York Herald...
. The recording originally appeared on Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy
Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy
Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy is Leonard Nimoy's second album, which was released shortly after Music From Outer Space. It was released in early 1968 by Dot Records.-Background:...
, the second of Nimoy's albums on Dot Records. It was also released as a single (Dot Records Cat. #45-17028), backed with a "modern thought-image" folk song called "Cotton Candy".
A year before the recording was commercially released, Nimoy lip-synched to the recording during a guest appearance on the July 28, 1967 episode of Malibu U
Malibu U
Malibu U is the name of a short-lived American variety TV series that aired in the summer of 1967. Ricky Nelson starred as the dean of a fictional college called "Malibu U," where the biggest popular music stars of the 1960s performed once a week. The show lasted for only seven episodes, going...
, a short-lived variety television series. This segment survives as a "music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
" and shows Nimoy (wearing his Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
hairstyle as the series was in the midst of production of its second season at the time) and a group of color-coordinated young women, all wearing plastic pointed ears (elf
Elf
An elf is a being of Germanic mythology. The elves were originally thought of as a race of divine beings endowed with magical powers, which they use both for the benefit and the injury of mankind...
or Vulcan
Vulcan (Star Trek)
Vulcans, or sometimes Vulcanians, are an extraterrestrial humanoid species in the Star Trek universe who evolved on the planet Vulcan, and are noted for their attempt to live by reason and logic with no interference from emotion. They were the first extraterrestrial species in the Star Trek...
), singing and dancing on a beach. Since its rediscovery on the BBC2 documentary Funk Me Up Scotty and propagation over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, it has become a relatively well-known example of 1960s camp
Camp (style)
Camp is an aesthetic sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its taste and ironic value. The concept is closely related to kitsch, and things with camp appeal may also be described as being "cheesy"...
. An excerpt from the musical number is also included in the documentary Ringers: Lord of the Fans
Ringers: Lord of the Fans
Ringers: Lord of the Fans is a 2005 documentary film about the growth of Tolkien fandom. It won the award for Outstanding Achievement in a Documentary at the 2005 Newport Beach Film Festival and was nominated for Best DVD Release at the 2006 Saturn Awards.The film says a lot about the early days,...
about The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
fandom. The song was included in the Nimoy album Highly Illogical
Highly Illogical
Highly Illogical is an album which contains a collection of songs performed by Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy. Most of the songs were originally recorded in the 1960s. The collection includes "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins", which tells the story of J.R.R...
.
Fans of Nimoy were intrigued by the fact (revealed in interviews) that Nimoy had read Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and been exceedingly impressed by it. From approximately 1968 to 1973, several Nimoy and Star Trek fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
writers and editors (notably contributors to Regina Marvinny's Nimoyan Federation and members of the Leonard Nimoy Association of Fans) discussed the idea of a live-action The Lord of the Rings film, with Nimoy playing Aragorn
Aragorn
Aragorn II is a fictional character from J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium, one of the main protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. He is first introduced by the name Strider, which the hobbits continue to call him...
, and there was a brief letter-writing campaign.
External links
- The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
- Uncut version (in black and white) on YouTube