Our Dinosaur Friends – For The Early Years by Art Barduhn

We often overlook old educational material, and sadly, a lot of stuff only survives in memory. It is important we don't let it all be forgotten because maybe it still has something it can teach.

Kids love dinosaurs. They can be awe-inspiring and frightening while still being far enough in the past to not be a real threat. I fell under the spell of dinosaurs when I first saw them in reruns of the TV show Land of the Lost, but it was an educational cassette recording about dinosaurs that really fired my imagination.

It was a spring day in NJ, and I was seated near a window next to a brand-new industrial-looking cassette player that had shown up in my classroom. This was some new attempt to making learning fun. So twice a week we were given time to pick a cassette and do what they called “free learning.” I really just wanted to stare out the window, but my teacher insisted I pick something and once I saw the dinosaur tape, it was easy.

While I didn’t know the name of the tape at the time, it was Our Dinosaur Friends – For The Early Years by Art Barduhn. An entertaining and educational album about dinosaurs, it quickly won me over and for the next month I listened to it exclusively till the songs were entrenched in my head.

The tape, like most, has two sides. Side A is 7 tracks and contains 6 songs with lyrics and one track that is just narration. Side B is just instrumental with the 6 tracks. The hope is that you would learn the lyrics on Side A and then sing along with Side B. I didn’t know it at the time, but that would be an important part of my learning.

Here is the track listing:

A1 My Name Is Stegosaurus

A2 Pterodactyl

A3 Brontosaurus

A4 Triceratops

A5 Tyrannosaurus Rex

A6 Our Dinosaur Friends Song

A7 Narration

B1 My Name Is Stegosaurus (Instrumental)

B2 Pterodactyl (Instrumental)

B3 Brontosaurus (Instrumental)

B4 Triceratops (Instrumental)

B5 Tyrannosaurus Rex (Instrumental)

B6 Our Dinosaur Friends Song (Instrumental)

The record was produced by Art Barduhn who started his entertainment career on Seattle TV with the “King of Scandinavian Humor,” Stan Boreson. He would eventually move to Los Angeles, continuing to perform and make music. He was the creator of the successful Teddy Bear Series for Stepping Tones Records. But it was his work on this dinosaur album and its follow up in 1978 that put his name and music in my head.

The music and lyrics were provided by Barduhn and Pam Johnson. Johnson, according to the album sleeve, was an elementary school teacher and the director of music at a Methodist Church in Pasadena, CA. So, both brought musical skill to the record, but Johnson brought her background in education. Johnson sings on the record and is joined by Eric Miller and Wayne Parker would also add their voices to the record.

This album is filled with earworms, just give it a listen and hear it for yourself:

I don’t believe these songs would hold up to the scrutiny of modern paleontology, but for a kid in eighties New Jersey, they were irresistible. I found myself singing along constantly, but when it came time for my teacher to “test” me on what I had learned, I clammed up. It is not clear why, but I just couldn’t properly take the songs and explain these dinosaurs to her. So she did something I didn’t expect. She flipped the tape over and asked me to sing along with the album.

While my singing might not have been great, my retention of the information was complete, and I was awarded a positive grade for the assignment. Sadly, this would be the only time we did this style of learning in my school, but the memory of it has survived in my ongoing appreciation for this album. That is why I wanted to write about it.

Educational material is a timely genre. Its passing is often overlooked, buried under heaps of more commercial or personal nostalgia. How we teach and what we teach changes rapidly. While some things are probably okay to forget, an effective and entertaining teaching aid should not be. This not an album you pull out to teach kids about what is cutting edge in dinosaur science. But maybe we can learn something from its presentation, or just appreciate its charming simplicity.

Online, these albums can range in price from $10 to as much as $80, depending on condition. If you are lucky, though, you might find a copy in the discount bins at your local thrift store. So keep your eyes open.

For those who are willing to skip physical media, the album, and its follow-up, has been posted online repeatedly in video format. If you want the album in a more portable digital format, it was shared by the sphinx back in 2014, and it is still available there for download.

I want to leave you with my favorite song from the album, Tyrannosaurus Rex. Click the video to listen to the track and follow along with the lyrics below.

Every story seems to have a villain.
Ours will be the reptile they call T. Rex.

Chorus:
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Tyrannosaurus Rex means tyrant king.
He terrorized the countryside
And made the giant reptiles hide.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Tyrannosaurus Rex was a very mean king.
If it wasn’t for him, we’d have a happy ending.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Mean and cruel was Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Caught his victims by their necks.

Repeat Chorus

Walked on his back feet, for they were big and strong.
Used his short front feet like we use our arms.

Repeat Chorus