Showtape Stock Music

Creative Engineering Inc tended to use pre-recorded music (usually instrumentals) for their showtapes in order to save time and money of producing it themselves.

The earliest documented is in the 1984 Santa Show - often called 'Uncle Santa'.

The Uncle Santa showtape contained the song instrumentals of 'Holly Jolly Christmas' and 'Jingle Jingle Jingle'. These were taken from the Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer album which was recorded by the Decca Concert Orchestra. Then, they just had the characters sing over it and programmed them to play to the song. The second santa segment had Holly Jolly Christmas in the background of the skit and was increased in volume when the song itself started.

They also used an extract from John Klein's 'Christmas Sound Spectacular Medley' which contained the cover of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. This was played in the first santa segment along with Jingle Jingle Jingle as the featured song.

In Segment 1 of the 1987 Homely For Christmas Showtape (rereleased in 1989 too) they used a selection of songs from Act 1 of the Nutcracker ballet. Act 1 Scene 2 (March) and Act 1 Scene 5 (Scene and Grandfather's Dance). The album they were from was recorded by Sir Charles Mackerras & London Symphony Orchestra.

In later years, CEI used karaoke tracks made by Midifine Systems and BFM Hits (along with various others depending on the source) for their karaoke shows which had the lyrics on the screens for participants to sing to, and also the main showtapes.