The Holker Family - Feelin’ Good
Posted on June 23, 2008 by FourDayWeekend
I instantly fell in love with The Holker Family - endlessly coming at me in their gym shorts and tube socks. It only got better when I opened the gatefold to find The Holkers engaged in all manner of recreational activities. (Is this a private home gym? Why is there wainscoting in the basketball court?) And here they are, just relaxing in the den on an enormous sectional. And here they are - what? Performing in black face?
Thank heaven, there’s only one song about Jesus, and it’s a Ray Stevens cover. A ridiculous vanity family album, though the patriarch is conspicuously absent from the credits. I like to imagine he hired a guy to write and produce and push his agenda: The title track implores that "exercising is the only way."
And of course “Hawaii’s Great But We Love Minnesota†is a spine-tingler.
"Feelin' Good"
“Hawaii’s Great But We Love Minnesotaâ€
Filed under: Bonerz, Incredibly Strange, Kids / School Bands
26 Comments to “The Holker Family - Feelin’ Good”
This entire nation needs to be re-Holkerized.
They call it “Feelin’ Good”, but after listening to it, I threw up.
Hey, my mom was on that album! (Her name is Tami) She sings, “I’m mad”. Check it out! lol!!
Hmmm….I’m pretty fond of #32 on the cover…nice. I would have to agree with Whit…the whole nation could use a little more “Holker”.
OK, I am the mother on the cover.My daughter sent me this and told me not to cry. OK, so we weren’t the Osmond’s. We went around the country doing a little family show to encourage people to do things together as a family and be the best you could. We sang the song,”Feelin Good” at our company meetings and it was a song written for people in the vitamin industry. These were the only songs we had at the time. I assure you, the kids improved. This was recorded right after they started singing. They were young kids. What do you expect? We never marketed as a great album, mostly gave them away at schools where we sang many songs for kids. We donated our time and money it took to put this together to kids and schools for their assemblies. We were always greatly accepted. We gave enough albums away for each student and the schools loved our efforts and we got many many letters from young kids wanting to be like our kids. Just so you know, our family is all grown, in their 40’s and 30’s and they are still very close to us and each other, I think a lot because of what we did together as a family. We also played basketball, went to church, and did a hundred other activities as a family. This is just something we did and had great times for 6 or 7 years when they were growing up. Our kids have been all over the country and many places around the world as a result. Sorry, but you had to be there. To judge it by professional recordings of today some 35 years later is not fair. I don’t know where you even found the album. They haven’t been around for many years. Send it to me, I will buy it from you!
Oh one more thing, my husband isn’t a singer so he was behind the spotlight at our shows. He was a great motivational speaker and thousands would actually show up to see this “vain” family as you called us. We did have a music arranger, a friend who came to us and offered to travel with us, do our arrangements and play the piano. He actually wrote the two songs you have on this website.Yes, he was black, so that would have been the only face you would have seen. He is also a brilliant concert pianist, has played on the largest organs around the world, even now in his 70’s still leads the choir and produces a Sunday televised show for his church. Our family loves people of color, always have, have members of our family of many nationalities. We have never preformed in black faces, so I have no clue where you got that from. We would not disrespect our friends and family that way. This album was originally made for people in our business who kept asking us to record some of the songs that the kids sang in our shows that we put on in our business. We would travel to areas where we had distributors, the kids would sing, and my husband would speak. We never had anything but good results. So I am sorry that you feel you have to put it down, I assure you it was never meant to be out their as a #1 album. It was never even sold in stores. Hope you can rethink and be kind. Thanks
Don’t worry mom, this guy is just one of the many thousands of people who tried to put our family down for dad being so sucessful, and our family having money, sucess, and being nice to others. Obviously he has nothing better to do with his time, than attack a 30 year old “family” albumn. I laughed at his comments. We never even sold it, we gave it away to people. We did free concerts and hundreds of schools, and yes, they all did really enjoy the shows and had us back. Maybe this guy is someone who lost out of some musical talent show. Does he know we played with Bob Hope? Hey, this guy gave me a great idea what to do with the extra boxes of 8-tracks i still have, ask him what he think they might go for on craigs list or ebay? After all, were only in it for the money!!!
Hello, Holkers!
I really never meant to put you down. I still love and celebrate your album.
“The vanity press†is just another way of saying “private press,†or “self-published.â€
The inside cover has a photo of the family in white suits – I wasn’t sure if it was deep Hawaiian tans or blackface. My mistake!
It’s interesting to learn the context for this recording. Thanks for writing. It’s a product of the time, a curiosity. We celebrate that sort of thing here. Be proud of your record!
Is this the same Holker family mentioned in this article…
can I get an amen, brother?
nice article, because it was in the paper or on the internet, it must be true, right? Everyone knows that everything printed is always true. You guys really dont have anything better to do, do you?
hahahahahahahahahahahaha
God told you where to find gold. I wish I could find my favorite blue underwear. Will you ask him for me?
Gurney this is God speaking, you can find your blue underwear over at Jose’s house. He hid it in the toilet bowl so his wife wouldn’t find it. The wife will be at work from 10 pm to 8 am, please avoid her.
God
Jose’s wife never shits? No wonder he took up with me!
Brian, there is gold in them panties! Go forth and seek gold my son and I will reward you with 70 virgins and life time supply of vitamins.
God
PS Isn’t it time for a revival tour!
clearly you volkers are misunderstanding where the reviewer is coming from. perhaps if you learned to laugh at yourselves a little bit you might be able to relax this ultra-defensive stance of yours. no-one is criticising the kids for not being able to sing professionally. bragging about singing with bob hope? please.
Oh, Holkers. Please know that you are loved. Nobody hates on the Holkers. The tracks posted here are strange and other-worldly, especially when contrasted with the album title and the perky family on the cover. Your musical director took things in a… curious direction. Minor key workouts bedazzled with spacey, dark synthesizers? I love it. We all love it.
Thank you for commenting, but please lighten up. Why not throw on your record, and start Feelin’ Good?
Jesus loves you, like Vitamins (Special K)!
bob your a tool and don’t flatter me, I know what you are doing. You are no better than the rest of these yahoo’s that go after innocent family’s. For godsake we were kids and this was for a sales pitch. cocknut thats it your just a cock and I want to kick you in the nuts. I’m not defensive, Im just pretecting my good family name. And yes it was a big deal that we sang with bob hope, nutsack. You all can go to hell and this blog is kind of rediculous and stupid adn all you are wasting your time. Go dig for gold or something.
Well said Brian, Im so proud of you. Want my muffin!
“Want my muffin”.
Are you suggesting incest?
Hey does your muffin contain weed?
contains what ever you want it to contain….HOT!
Damn, The Holker’s sure have a lot of pent-up-anger… Take it out in the gym guys, not here.
I think these tunes were played in a couple of my flicks. You can tell with the tune.
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Damn, I need this album!