The Raccoons Music Returns: Remastered Albums, “Run With Us” & Behind-the-Scenes Stories

The Raccoons Music Returns with 604 Records

Hi Everyone,

As you may know, we have just announced an exciting new partnership with 604 Records to release all the music from The Raccoons series and specials. It covers 3 albums of songs and 2 storybook albums. All beautifully remastered by João Carvalho – a brilliant recording and remastering engineer.

The Story Behind The Raccoons Music

When I started to think about writing a piece about the music of The Raccoons, I didn’t know where to start. There are so many stories about how music became such an important part of our series and specials. Stories like… how we came to the idea of incorporating songs into a family prime-time animated series. No one was doing that at the time… how would it be received?

There are fun stories about the recording sessions with stars like Leo Sayer, Rita Coolidge, Lisa Lougheed, Rupert Holmes, Dottie West, Curtis King Jr. and more; or how we ended up having our songs mixed by Ed Stasium – the legendary producer of The Ramones and Gladys Knight and The Pips; or how the songs ended up becoming a critical part of the script-writing process; the behind-the-scenes music moves and choices (and luck!) that gave shape and distinctiveness to a Canadian series that was seen in over 180 countries around the world and incredibly has endured for more than 40 years.

Lisa Lougheed and the great Moe Koffman. The Raccoons recording session Sounds Interchange Studios (circa 1987).

A New Series Exploring the Music

So, I have decided that I will write a series of stories focusing on the songs and music aspect of The Raccoons. They probably won’t be sequential but there will be a few in-depth stories that I think you will enjoy.

Remastered Albums and New Recordings

604 Records (owned by Nickelback and Jonathan Simkin) is going to be releasing the remastered albums and songs for the very first time since 1987! They are also recording new versions of some of the songs by well-known guest artists and bands to be included as bonus tracks on each album.

Oh, and we discovered several tracks that were never released! Some of those will be included in the bonus tracks too! Booyah!

The Return of “Run With Us”

The first release will be Lisa Lougheed’s iconic version of the theme, “Run With Us”. Although it has been covered by almost 30 different artists in several languages and styles, this is the exclusive original master and the version that hundreds of thousands of our wonderful fans have requested over the years.

Evergreen Nights original album cover (circa 1987)

What’s Next for The Raccoons Music

There are many surprises to come and I hope you continue to keep reading our newsletter to stay tuned to some of our exclusive behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes. And please let us know if you have a question or subject you’d like to have us cover.

Thanks – warm wishes,

Kevin 🎶 ❤️🎶