Birthdays were a big deal for my sister and I as kids. Every year we invited lots and lots of people over, had cake and ice cream, played lots of games, and did lots of other things. Our birthdays were celebrated with as much gusto as any holiday. We had overnight camping birthday parties in my backyard, and roller skating parties at the local skating rink. All the parties started out at our house, and each year my parents would put on our Captain Zoom birthday records. Each one was personalized with our own birthday greeting.
My name is Zoom,
and I live on the moon,
but I came down to Earth
just to sing you this tune,
‘cuz Robbie, it’s your birthday, today!
My sister’s said “Linda” instead, of course. In hindsight I’m sure there were tens of thousands of kids across the country who had personalized birthday records from Captain Zoom, but no one else in my neighborhood did, which made for a pretty awesome birthday experience. Hearing Captain Zoom sing his two-minute birthday jingle dedicated to me was a highlight, and is a treasured memory to this day.
It’s weird, the things that pop into your mind as you stare at an empty Google search bar. I don’t know why on earth the memory of that song popped into my head, but it did, and the first return I got was of, you guessed it, Captain Zoom’s website.
A sign of the times, Captain Zoom now delivers his birthday greetings from the Moon via casette ($10), CD ($12) or DVD ($18) — or, if you want to save on shipping, Captain Zoom will directly e-mail you an MP3 ($11). It may sound a little high for a two minute song, but then again almost three decades later, I hold those two minutes close to my heart. And, apparently Captain Zoom’s been pretty busy in his lunar recording studio — the website boasts over 3,000 unique names to choose from.
I had the same expierence as a child and 25 years later I bought one for my own daughter on cd and every year for her birthday we have to listento captain zoom first thing that morning. I never realized that other children had a specail message from the moon as achild and she doesn’t either it’s funny how a pliable child’s cd really means the world to someone. thanks for haring your story i still have my record. Julie
Here’s the best YouTube video of this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkOv7mO-CLg
My mother in law bought these tapes for my children and now that they are 23 and 26 they still here have a captain zoom message on their birthday. My son just called me to let me here the captian wish my 1 yr old granddaughter happy birthday! what a neat tradition now i am looking for a cassette or cd to wish my daughter in law happy birthday because i don’t want her to feel left out or unloved cause we love her very much!!!!
I had the little flimsy record of this and one day I accidentally spilled milk on it. I know you’re not supposed to cry over that, but I did anyway because I was convinced that when I played my record, Zoom would just keep saying, “Milk, Milk, Milk…” over and over again. I was stupid.