Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 2, 1995 TAG: 9511020030
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But friends of the 74-year-old Charlotte musician like to tease him about his one piece of music that defies categorization:
``Iiiiiiiiiiiiit's POTTY TIME!''
Parents of toddlers everywhere groan at the disgustingly cheerful soundtrack to this potty-training video. There's ``Tra-la-la-boom-de-ay. I push my pants away. And while I'm standing there, pull down my underwear.''
Driving to work, we catch ourselves humming, ``She is a super-dooper pooper. She can potty with the best. No more diapers to get in her way. We are very impressed!''
We try hard to dislodge lines like, ``Take a bow, she's a big girl now, she's the best pooper we know.''
We're so desperate to erase these insidious chants that we even consider listening to ``Candy Man'' or ``It's a Small World'' - for variety's sake.
But ``It's Potty Time'' has serious staying power. It's as cemented in our brains as the toilet is in our bathrooms.
Ask any ``Potty Time''-dependent toddler struggling to master the porcelain throne. Ask any mother desperate to ditch the diaper drudgery. Ask any father whose son's first complete sentence is very simple and very declarative: ``Watch Potty Time now!''
Ask even Loonis McGlohon, the master behind the madness.
I tracked him down last week at his home in Charlotte, eager to unearth his evil streak, desperate to talk to the MAN WHO MUST BE STOPPED!
But he defuses my rage immediately. ``I'm sorry,'' he says quietly into his telephone. ``I hope you won't have to hum it too long.''
Still, retribution must be exacted, I argue. A price must be paid.
Politely, he assures me, it already has.
After 50 years of performing his compositions across the globe, McGlohon's friends like to remind him, ``You are better known for `Super Dooper Pooper' than anything else.''
Yuppies rent the video to show at parties, he tells me. PEOPLE WHO DON'T EVEN HAVE KIDS, if you can imagine. ``They think it's funny,'' he says, incredulously.
Esquire magazine named ``It's Potty Time'' one of the Top Ten cult film classics of 1993.
McGlohon's own grandson almost drove him crazy reciting lines from the video. ``Every time he went to the bathroom, someone had to play the part. He'd wait for you to come to the door'' to portray the narrator sprite, Mr. Penders, who enthuses:
``Hey, sport, don't be in a rush! Did you remember? You always have to flush!!!
``It got to be pretty tiresome,'' McGlohon conceded.
Feeling somewhat vindicated, I let the jazzman off the hook.
Then I act on a tip from my neighbor, Betsy - who has not yet experienced the wonders of ``Potty Time'' but soon will, if I can wrest it from my son's grubby hands. Betsy suggests I call her co-worker, Sharon Barnes.
Barnes is a recovering Potty-Timer. Her 4-year-old son, Derrick, used the video - and used it, and used it - in his own successful quest to become a Super Dooper Pooper.
``My husband and I would catch ourselves singing the songs,'' she recalls. ``It was one of those things where you hoped you wouldn't start singing it out loud at the office.''
Barnes teaches music appreciation - of all things - at Virginia Western Community College. I figure she could write a 12-step program to help me kick the ``Potty Time'' habit, but her analysis falls short of self-help.
She knows music purists will scorn the idea, but here's her professional take on the topic: ``From a musical standpoint, whether it's `Super Dooper Pooper' or Mozart's `Eine Kleine Nacht Musik,' that catchiness is one of the hallmarks of a successful piece of music.''
She stresses, though, that she has not, does not and will not use the ``It's Potty Time'' soundtrack in her course syllabus. She's already done her time.
(Insert dirty-diaper expletive here)! I am left to fend for myself.
Not to worry, assures the receptionist for Video Distributors Inc., the Gastonia, N.C., company that distributes the Duke University Family Series of videos that include ``It's Potty Time.''
Their P.R. department wants me to try one of their sequel hits, ``It's Sleepy Time.'' Its theme song happens to use the same melody as ``Super Dooper Pooper.''
Only it's called ``Doozer of a Snoozer.''
I'll say.
That means we'll all be singing it in our sleep.
by CNB