Classic Jonny Quest
"Jonny Quest in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"

As with the "Shorty" Rogers single of the theme song, there was a promotional copy of this LP.

I listened to the album and was quite surprised to discover that the "story" was actually a new Jonny Quest adventure! The intro mentioned that Jonny was reading Verne's classic tale, and was very excited by the story of the giant squid, etc., but the rest of the story tells how Jonny, Dr. Quest, and Race get a call from a government official about a sub that went down in deep waters not too far from where they were testing Dr. Quest's diving bell. During the course of their subsequent search for the sub, they ... well, let's just say it would've made a good TV episode, with science and mystery and excitement and danger!

Gary Karpinski provided much of the following information (as well as these images of the LP's front and back covers) based on his copy of the LP. I've added some information based on additional research.

  1. 1965, Hanna Barbera Productions
  2. Album is 28 minutes in length (14 minutes each side).
  3. Side I:
    1. Song: "Jonny Quest": a different version by Hoyt Curtin, misspelled as "Curtian." (see note under item 11 below)
      Gary writes: "Not even half as good as the Cartoon intro music. Sounds a little bit like "James Bond" music. I said a little bit!" After listening to a copy of this album, I must agree - this "jazzed-up" version of the familiar theme misses the mark.
    2. Story: "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" Part I
  4. Side II:
    1. Story:"20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" Part II
    2. Song: "Jonny Quest"
  5. Warren Tufts and H.C. Pennington signatures on the bottom left corner of album cover
  6. Based on the Jules Verne Classic "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea"
  7. Additional note from Gary: Although the theme song is different, music from the cartoon series plays during the story.

Oh, all right, if you must know the details...
Here's a transcript of part 1 of the story on the LP. And here's part 2 of the story transcript. And finally, here's a transcript of the 45 RPM version.
Thanks to "inachan2" for providing the original text for these transcripts!

Credits
  • Stories - Charles Shows
  • Art Direction - H.C. Pennington
  • Layout - Warren Tufts
  • Cover Art - H.C. Pennington
  • Hand Lettering - Robert B. Schaefer
  • Editor, 35mm Track - Milton Krear
  • Song: Hoyt Curtian
  • Voices
    1. Jonny Quest - Tim Mathieson.
    2. Dr.Quest - John Stephenson
    3. Race Bannon - Michael Road
Notes:

The music composer's last name was misspelled on the album cover but not the labels. It's supposed to be, "Curtin."

Gary writes:"Tim's voice had definitely changed when they recorded this 1965 album. It's a lot lower sounding than his JQ cartoon voice."
Further research reveals that the record was indeed made after the series, in 1965, which explains Jonny's lower voice. And speaking of name changes -- I'd been aware that Matthieson (from the TV credits) eventually became Matheson, but the Mathieson seen on the LP's cover is probably just a typographical error.

Don Messick wasn't available to voice Dr. Quest.

After careful listening to the audio, I believe Mike also provided the voices of the narrator and the government operative calling via DC-O37.

And thanks to Mark Meschino who sent in the following MP3 files for the tracks on the LP!

"Jonny Quest in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" LP
 
Feel free to download the MP3 audio files so you can listen offline:


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