"Almost Good" and "The Green Door"

I was thinking of this 45 I had when I was about six. It came from a garage sale, and on one side was "Almost Good" and on the other was "The Green Door." I love both of those songs. "Almost Good" was jazzy and mainly instrumental but at the end of a measure a guy who sounded like Ray Charles (to me) would say, in a speaking voice, "Hey, that's almost good!" and he would say it a different way each time he came to the end of a measure (or whatever that musical unit is called). Sometimes it would seem like encouragement, sometimes like a Beat Poet line, and sometimes like an exclamation. I enjoyed the fun the singer was having with the concept of 'the critic,' even though I couldn't think conceptually at that point. It might have been almost good but it was definitely enjoyable.

And "The Green Door" was such a mystery. "Who's that knockin' on the green door? Sure a lot of fun goin' on behind the Green Door! etc." I imagined the "green door" and knew that whatever it was, it was kind of a secret and a lot of fun. What a great question for a kid. Who is knocking on the green door?

So today I tried to trace these tunes because I don't have the 45 anymore and I came up with this! There WAS a real green door! Who knew?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/sep/08/popandrock1