Butterfly Ball (sung by Ronnie James Dio)

When we first saw this bizarre cartoon in the mid-80’s during Night Flight’s “Cult Classics” we swore it was Sabbath’s Ronnie James Dio singing… and it took us over 20 years to confirm the fact. A very trippy cartoon that was very fitting for USA Network’s late-night stoner programming… back in those days we would finish our night shifts at Friendly’s and then rush to the liquor store to buy cheap cases of RWB — “Red, White and Blue” beer. We would then ingest all sorts of goodies, legal and illegal and topped off with 6-foot Wawa subs affectionately known as “babies,” hunkering down in a hazy bliss for another weekend Night Flight all-nighter. –Scott Huffines

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8 Responses to Butterfly Ball (sung by Ronnie James Dio)

  1. Jeremy B. says:

    It’s strange. I was a child of the 80s, and I watched my fair share of the USA Network, yet Night Flight escaped me. I remember watching “USA Up All Night”, and Rhonda Shear’s massive bosoms helped get me through puberty in style, but I never saw Night Flight! The more I learn about it online, the more depressed I get. It sounds like the greatest show on earth. Let us hope that one day it will get a decent DVD release.

    Keep it coming Huff!

  2. HolyOutlaw says:

    Well well well old leather lungs singing on a cartoon. I just sat and watched it in amasement. I been watching dio/sabbath vids and then I see this WHOA. so cool guys

  3. Anonymous says:

    I remember that cartoon from back in the 70’s. The Song is called “Love Is All You Need” from the Roger Glover (Bassist from Deep Purple) release called The Butterfly Ball.
    There was supposed to be an entire Animated movie for the record – but they ran out of funding for it according to Glover. That was right before Ronnie James Dio helped Ritchie Blackmore form Rainbow.

    Jeremy, Nightflight was indeed utterly incredible. I periodically flip through the channels – I rarely watch Television because to me most of it is crap – and I’ll think to myself – “God! Why can’t they have something like Nightflight on again!?!?!” But there are some current programs/shows that would have been run on Nightflight – such as ROBOT CHICKEN. That would have definitely been on it.

    jaxmetalATyahooDOTcom

  4. DanO says:

    Boy this is coincidental. I just found out about this album recently [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alienor/bflyball.htm].

    That led me to this: [http://www.djdchronology.com/butterflyball.htm].

    This: [http://www.impossibilities.com/blog/store/details.php?asin=B0000070IC], and here’s the original poem: [http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1747.html].

    There’s a torrent of the album out there…

  5. Chris Sobieniak says:

    Just to add my two cents, the animation was supposibly done by Halas & Batchelor in London, the same people who were responsible for the feature “Animal Farm” in the 1950’s.

    here’s a URL featuring the production credits…
    http://www.halasandbatchelor.com/page/butter.html

  6. ham says:

    (=o _ o=)/

  7. purplesage says:

    My son was born in 1983, and I remember this cartoon/song from Nickelodeon. There was a morning kids show called Calliope, and they used to play this occasionally. I loved it then, and I can’t believe I found it after all of these years!!!!! I can’t wait to e- mail this to my son, Brian.

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