Free to Be... You and Me
| Free to Be… You and Me | |
|---|---|
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| Cast recording by Various artists | |
| Released | November 1972 |
| Recorded | 1972 |
| Label |
Bell Records (original issue) Arista Records (reissue) |
| Producer | Carole Hart, Stephen J. Lawrence, Bruce Hart |
Free to Be… You and Me was a children's entertainment project, conceived, created and executive-produced by actress and author Marlo Thomas. Produced in collaboration with the Ms. Foundation for Women, it was a record album and illustrated book first released in November 1972 featuring songs and stories sung or told by celebrities of the day (credited as "Marlo Thomas and Friends") including Alan Alda, Rosey Grier, Cicely Tyson, Carol Channing, Michael Jackson, Shirley Jones, Jack Cassidy, and Diana Ross. An ABC special, also created by Marlo Thomas, using poetry, songs, and sketches followed two years later in March 1974. The basic concept was to encourage post-1960s gender neutrality, saluting values such as individuality, tolerance, and comfort with one's identity. A major thematic message is that anyone—whether a boy or a girl—can achieve anything.
The original idea to create the album began with Marlo Thomas, who wanted to teach her then-young niece Dionne about life, in particular that it is acceptable to refute or reject the gender stereotypes expressed in children's books of the period. In an Emmy Legends interview Thomas explains:
I told my sister Terre `it would take Dionne 30 years to get over it (traditional stories) the same as it took all of us. We need to find her some different books to read' and she said `You go and find `em'. Well there weren't any. And not only that, I was in the bookstore one day looking around and found this one (picture book) that showed a pilot on one page and a stewardess on a facing page (with a caption) that said `Boys are pilots, girls are stewardesses.' Well I nearly had a heart attack right there in the bookstore, so I said `We'll make a record for Dionne'.
Produced by Carole Hart, with music produced by Stephen J. Lawrence and Bruce Hart, with stories and poems directed by Alan Alda, the album sold nearly a half a million copies right away after label executives had an original sales expectation of maybe selling 15,000 copies tops. Since then, the title has nearly doubled that figure and is well on its way to being a platinum seller as of 2016 according to Soundscan. It has never been out of print.
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Wikipedia