The Impossible Dream The Story Of The 1967 Boston Red Sox A record album narrated by Ken Coleman

The Impossible Dream The Story Of The 1967 Boston Red Sox A record album narrated by Ken Coleman

A WHDH Radio production.
A Boston Herald Traveler Corporation custom recording.
Produced by Fleetwood Recording Co. Inc., Revere, Mass.

Arranged By – Robert Way
Conductor – Bill Green
Coordinator – Ken Wilson
Engineer – James Barker
Illustration – Dick Hamilton
Narrator – Ken Coleman
Presenter – The Boston Herald Traveler Corporation
Producer – Carlo Lagrotteria
Vocals – Jess Cain
Voice – Mel Parnell, Ned Martin
Written-By, Edited By – John Connelly

The Impossible Dream is the story of the 1967 Boston Red Sox. A season after finishing in ninth place, and pegged as 100-1 longshots, the Red Sox won the American League pennant on the final day of the season, bringing baseball back in New England and capturing the imagination of the country.

The Impossible Dream record album chronicles the exploits of Carl Yastrzemski, Jim Lonborg, George Scott, Rico Petrocelli, Reggie Smith, manager Dick Williams and the rest, in verse, song, narration, and radio highlights.

The record sprang from a half-hour radio show produced and aired by WHDH-AM just before the 1967 World Series. WHDH was the Red Sox flagship station and was hoping to sell ads.

Set to the theme of "The Impossible Dream" from "Man of La Mancha," a hit musical of the time, the record is a classic from a different era. John Connelly's lyrics may be considered corny by some, but I lived it and I find them to be extremely well-written, spot-on not only in a poetic but a baseball sense. The narration by Coleman, one of the team's play-by-play men, is perfect.

The record also includes the "Yastrzemski Song," sung by Jess Cain, a morning drive-time disc jockey on WHDH at the time. Cain later said he camped up his voice to hide it because he wasn't sure about how the song would go over, but many people of a certain age in New England can still recite most, if not all, of the lyrics.

The response to the radio show was overwhelming, and the Boston Herald Traveler Corporation, which owned WHDH and the Herald Traveler newspaper, decided to turn it into a record. I was 7 and still remember my mother buying the album for me at a suburban Boston gas station. I told her I'd listen to it all the time, and I have, at least once a year since then ... with the memories of an incomparable season always flooding back!

Copyright Major League Baseball, or any second or third party. I didn't create, don't claim the rights to, and don't profit from, this recording. I posted it because I hadn't seen both sides on one YouTube video, for historic and educational purposes, and for those who will enjoy it as much as I did. Sorry for the lack of anything visual. I wanted to post the front cover for Side 1 and the back cover for Side 2, but have yet to figure out how!

Link to a great article with even more about the record by Jim Shea of the Hartford Courant on Oct. 9, 1992, 25 years after its release, parts of which I used above:
https://www.courant.com/news/connecti...

1967 Red Sox statistics on Baseball Reference:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/te...

And plenty of 1967 Red Sox audio and video on my channel!