Jingle Cats

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Jingle Cats is a series of Christmas novelty music

Meowy Christmas, the Jingle Cats debut, was released on CD and cassette in 1994. It featured mainly public domain holiday standards such as "O Christmas Tree", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen", and "Deck The Halls". 1995's follow up, Here Comes Santa Claws, co-released by BMG, capitalized on the success of Meowy Christmas to present an assortment of 20th century Christmas compositions including "The Christmas Song", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", and naturally, "Here Comes Santa Claus". Here Comes Santa Claws also notably contained an original composition, "A Kitten's Story". In 2002, Rhythm and Mews was released. The album abandons the Christmas music focus of previous releases, and presents a musical program of 'year-round' favorites as disparate as "Over The Rainbow", "Dueling Banjos", "The Star Spangled Banner", and "Happy Birthday to You".

Although the phrase "Real Kittens" is prominently displayed on all Jingle Cats releases, the melodies are in fact played on a sampler. The albums typically feature a short story in the liner notes, explaining how the cats were discovered (in the case of Meowy Christmas, that a litter of kittens appeared at Santa Claus' doorstep at the North Pole, and their caroling formed the basis for the release).

Jingle Cats music has appeared in such films as The Long Kiss Goodnight and Mixed Nuts. Additionally, Sony released a role playing game for Apple computers titled Jingle Cats: Aito Yujono Neko Monogatari, Love Para Daisakusen. The objective of the game was to care for and breed cats, once mating had successfully occurred, the cats sang, becoming Jingle Cats.

Jingle Dogs, first guesting during the "Jingle Cats Medley" on Meowy Christmas, were committed to disc on 1995's Christmas Unleashed album.

The band Guster used a similar premise and technique for their 2003 online album The Meowstro Sings - Guster's Keep It Together, and the 2004 holiday single "Carol of the Meows".