Spike Jones
Encyclopedia
Mel Blanc
, the voice of Bugs Bunny
and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink" (reissued in 1949 as "The Clink! Clink! Polka"). The romantic ballad "Cocktails for Two
", originally written to evoke an intimate romantic rendezvous, was re-recorded by Spike Jones in 1944 as a raucous, horn-honking, voice-gurgling, hiccuping hymn to the cocktail hour. The Jones version was a huge hit, much to the resentment of composer Sam Coslow
. Other Jones satires followed: "Hawaiian War Chant," "Chloe," "Holiday for Strings," "You Always Hurt the One You Love," "My Old Flame," (referring to Peter Lorre
's voice [impersonated on the recording by Paul Frees
] and eerie scenes in contemporary movies) and many more.
's "Ghost Riders in the Sky" was performed as if sung by a drunkard and ridiculed Monroe by name in its final stanza:
The original version was pressed for the European market in 1949. Furthermore, a few pressings containing the first ending were mistakenly pressed on the West Coast and are a prized rarity. The official (and more common) American release used an alternative take, minus the dig at Monroe, because Monroe, an RCA recording artist and also a major RCA stockholder, demanded it.
", with a piping vocal by George Rock
, was a number-one hit in 1948. (Dora Bryan
recorded a 1963 variation, "All I Want For Christmas is a Beatle
".)
's Liebesträume
, played at a breakneck pace on unusual instruments. Others followed: Rossini's William Tell Overture was rendered on kitchen implements using a horse race as a backdrop, with one of the "horses" in the "race" likely to have inspired the nickname of the lone SNJ aircraft flown by the US Navy's Blue Angels aerobatic team's shows in the late 1940s, "Beetle Bomb". In live shows Spike would acknowledge the applause with complete solemnity, saying "Thank you, music lovers." A collection of these 12 "homicides" was released by RCA (on its prestigious Red Seal label) in 1971 as Spike Jones Is Murdering the Classics. They include such tours de force as Pal-Yat-Chee (Pagliacci
), Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours
, Tchaikovsky's None but the Lonely Heart
, and Bizet's Carmen
, besides the two above.
In December 1945 Spike released his version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, arranged by Joe "Country" Washburne with lyrics by Foster Carling. An abridged version is also included in the aforementioned album, with a complete version available in Spiked: The Music of Spike Jones.
, The Chase and Sanborn Program
, as Edgar Bergen
's summer replacement in 1945. Frances Langford
was co-host and Groucho Marx
was among the guests. The guest list for Jones' 1947-49 CBS program for Coca-Cola
(originally The Spotlight Revue, retitled The Spike Jones Show for its final season) included Frankie Laine
, Mel Torme
, Peter Lorre
, Don Ameche
and Burl Ives
. Frank Sinatra
appeared on the show in October 1948, and Lassie
in May 1949.
One of the announcers on Jones' CBS show was the young Mike Wallace
. Writers included Eddie Maxwell, Eddie Brandt and Jay Sommers
. The final program in the series was broadcast in June 1949.
The one outstanding recording by the Other Orchestra is "Laura," which features a serious first half (played exquisitely by the Other Orchestra) and a manic second half (played hilariously by the City Slickers).
Note that technically there never was an "Other Orchestra". The Other Orchestra musicians augmented the same players as the City Slickers.
film Give Us Wings, appearing on camera for about four seconds.
In 1942 the Jones gang worked on numerous soundies
, musical shorts seen on coin-operated projectors in arcades, malt shops and bars. The band appeared on camera under their own name in four of the Soundies, and provided background music for at least 13 others, according to musicologist Mark Cantor.
As the band's fame grew, Hollywood producers hired the Slickers as a specialty act for feature films, including Thank Your Lucky Stars
and Variety Girl
. Jones was set to team with Abbott and Costello
for a 1954
Universal Pictures
comedy, but when Lou Costello withdrew for medical reasons, Universal replaced the comedy team with look-alikes Hugh O'Brian
and Buddy Hackett
, and promoted Jones to the leading role. The finished film, Fireman Save My Child
, is a juvenile comedy that turned out to be Spike Jones' only top-billed theatrical movie.
worked on both, but neither was successful. The band fared much better on live television, where their spontaneous antics and crazy visual gags guaranteed the viewers a good time. Spike usually dressed in a suit with an enormous check pattern and was seen leaping around playing a washboard, cowbells, a suite of klaxons and foghorns, then xylophone, then shooting a pistol. The band starred in variety shows, such as The Colgate Comedy Hour
(1951, 1955) and their All Star Revue (1952) before being given his own slot by NBC
, The Spike Jones Show, which aired early in 1954, and Club Oasis
on NBC, in the summer of 1958; and by CBS, as The Spike Jones Show, in the summers of 1957, 1960, and 1961. Jones and his City Slickers also appeared on NBC
's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
in the episode which aired on November 15, 1956. In 1990, BBC2
screened six compilation shows from these broadcasts; they were subsequently aired on PBS
stations.
!" This was the cue for a pair of pants — inhabited by dwarf actor Billy Barty
-- to scamper across the stage.
Jones was always prepared to adapt to changing tastes. In 1950, when America was nostalgically looking back at the 1920s, Jones recorded an album of Charleston arrangements. In 1953 he responded to the growing market for children's records, with tunes aimed directly at kids (like "Socko, the Smallest Snowball"). In 1956 Jones supervised an album of Christmas songs, many of which were performed seriously. In 1957, noting the television success of Lawrence Welk
and his dance band, he revamped his own act for television. Gone was the old City Slickers mayhem, replaced by a more straightforward big-band sound, with tongue-in-cheek comic moments. The new band was known as Spike Jones and the Band that Plays for Fun. He also recorded a cover of "Dominique
" with Spike Jones' New Band in 1964, a hit by The Singing Nun
, in which he not only plays part of the melody on a banjo
but melds the melody successfully with "When the Saints Go Marching In
!"
The last City Slickers record was the LP Dinner Music For People Who Aren't Very Hungry
. The whole field of comedy records changed from musical satires to spoken-word comedy (Tom Lehrer
, Bob Newhart
, Mort Sahl
, Stan Freberg
). Spike Jones adapted to this, too; most of his later albums are spoken-word comedy, including the horror-genre sendup Spike Jones in Stereo
(1959) and Omnibust (1960). Jones remained topical to the last: his final group, Spike Jones' New Band, recorded four LPs of brassy renditions of pop-folk tunes of the 1960s (including "Washington Square" and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett").
. His already thin frame deteriorated, to the point where he used an oxygen tank offstage, and onstage he was confined to a seat behind his drum set. He died at the age of 53, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery
, Culver City, California
.
, Freddie Fisher
and his Schnickelfritzers and the Marx Brothers
to Spike Jones — and to Stan Freberg
, Gerard Hoffnung
, Peter Schickele
's P.D.Q. Bach, The Goons, The Beatles
, Frank Zappa
, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo
, and "Weird Al" Yankovic
. Billy Barty
appeared in Yankovic's film UHF
and a video based on the movie.
Syndicated radio personality Dr. Demento
regularly features Jones' music on his program of comedy and novelty tracks. Jones is mentioned in The Band
's song, "Up on Cripple Creek
". (The song's protagonist's paramour states of Jones: "I can't take the way he sings, but I love to hear him talk.") Novelist Thomas Pynchon
is an admirer and wrote the liner notes for a 1994 reissue, Spiked! (BMG Catalyst). A scene in the romantic comedy I.Q.
shows a man demonstrating the sound of his new stereo to Meg Ryan
's character by playing a record of Jones' music.
In 1997, singers Artie Schroeck
and Linda November
directed a production in Atlantic City entitled "The New City Slickers Present a Tribute to Spike Jones", with a band that attempted to re-create the style and humor of Jones' music.
Mel Blanc
Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...
, the voice of Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink" (reissued in 1949 as "The Clink! Clink! Polka"). The romantic ballad "Cocktails for Two
Cocktails for Two
"Cocktails for Two" is a song from the Big Band era, written by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow. The song debuted in the movie Murder at the Vanities , where it was introduced by singer and actor Carl Brisson...
", originally written to evoke an intimate romantic rendezvous, was re-recorded by Spike Jones in 1944 as a raucous, horn-honking, voice-gurgling, hiccuping hymn to the cocktail hour. The Jones version was a huge hit, much to the resentment of composer Sam Coslow
Sam Coslow
Sam Coslow was an American songwriter, singer, film producer, publisher, and market analyst. Coslow was born in New York City. He began writing songs as a teenager...
. Other Jones satires followed: "Hawaiian War Chant," "Chloe," "Holiday for Strings," "You Always Hurt the One You Love," "My Old Flame," (referring to Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
's voice [impersonated on the recording by Paul Frees
Paul Frees
Paul Frees was an American voice actor and character actor.-Biography:He was born Solomon Hersh Frees in Chicago...
] and eerie scenes in contemporary movies) and many more.
Ghost Riders
Spike's parody of Vaughn MonroeVaughn Monroe
Vaughn Wilton Monroe was an American baritone singer, trumpeter and big band leader and actor, most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording and radio.-Biography:...
's "Ghost Riders in the Sky" was performed as if sung by a drunkard and ridiculed Monroe by name in its final stanza:
CHORUS: 'Cause all we hear is "Ghost Riders" sung by Vaughn Monroe
DRUNK: I can do without his singing.
FRIEND: But I wish I had his dough!
The original version was pressed for the European market in 1949. Furthermore, a few pressings containing the first ending were mistakenly pressed on the West Coast and are a prized rarity. The official (and more common) American release used an alternative take, minus the dig at Monroe, because Monroe, an RCA recording artist and also a major RCA stockholder, demanded it.
All I Want for Christmas
Jones' recording, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front TeethAll I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth
"All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" is a novelty Christmas song written in 1944 by Donald Yetter Gardner while teaching music at public schools in Smithtown, New York...
", with a piping vocal by George Rock
George Rock
George Rock was a member of Spike Jones and His City Slickers.In addition to being a trumpet player, he also sang with the group from time to time, using a voice characterization that sounded like a child...
, was a number-one hit in 1948. (Dora Bryan
Dora Bryan
Dora May Bryan OBE is an English actress of stage, film and television.-Early life:Bryan was born as Dora May Broadbent in Southport, Lancashire, England. Her father was a salesman and she attended Hathershaw County Primary School in Oldham, Lancashire...
recorded a 1963 variation, "All I Want For Christmas is a Beatle
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
".)
Murdering the Classics
Among the series of recordings in the 1940s were humorous takes on the classics such as the adaptation of LisztFranz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
's Liebesträume
Liebesträume
Liebesträume , is a set of three solo piano works by Franz Liszt, published in 1850. Liszt called each of the three pieces Liebesträume, but often they are referred to incorrectly in the singular as Liebestraum...
, played at a breakneck pace on unusual instruments. Others followed: Rossini's William Tell Overture was rendered on kitchen implements using a horse race as a backdrop, with one of the "horses" in the "race" likely to have inspired the nickname of the lone SNJ aircraft flown by the US Navy's Blue Angels aerobatic team's shows in the late 1940s, "Beetle Bomb". In live shows Spike would acknowledge the applause with complete solemnity, saying "Thank you, music lovers." A collection of these 12 "homicides" was released by RCA (on its prestigious Red Seal label) in 1971 as Spike Jones Is Murdering the Classics. They include such tours de force as Pal-Yat-Chee (Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
), Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours
Dance of the Hours
Dance of the Hours is a short ballet from Act 3, Scene 2 of the opera La Gioconda composed by Amilcare Ponchielli. It depicts the hours of the day through solo and ensemble dances. The opera was first performed in 1876 and was revised in 1880...
, Tchaikovsky's None but the Lonely Heart
None but the Lonely Heart
None but the Lonely Heart is a 1944 film which tells the story of a Cockney lad who returns home with no ambitions but finds that his family needs him...
, and Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, besides the two above.
In December 1945 Spike released his version of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, arranged by Joe "Country" Washburne with lyrics by Foster Carling. An abridged version is also included in the aforementioned album, with a complete version available in Spiked: The Music of Spike Jones.
Radio
After appearing as the house band on The Bob Burns Show, Spike got his own radio show on NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, The Chase and Sanborn Program
The Chase and Sanborn Hour
The Chase and Sanborn Hour was the umbrella title for a series of US comedy and variety radio shows, sponsored by Standard Brands' Chase and Sanborn Coffee, usually airing Sundays on NBC from 8pm to 9pm during the years 1929 to 1948....
, as Edgar Bergen
Edgar Bergen
Edgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...
's summer replacement in 1945. Frances Langford
Frances Langford
Julia Frances Langford was an American singer and entertainer who was popular during the Golden Age of Radio and also made film appearances over two decades.-Birth:...
was co-host and Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
was among the guests. The guest list for Jones' 1947-49 CBS program for Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
(originally The Spotlight Revue, retitled The Spike Jones Show for its final season) included Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine
Frankie Laine, born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio , was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in 1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "That's My Desire" in 2005...
, Mel Torme
Mel Tormé
Melvin Howard Tormé , nicknamed The Velvet Fog, was an American musician, known for his jazz singing. He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books...
, Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre
Peter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
, Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
and Burl Ives
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was an American actor, writer and folk music singer. As an actor, Ives's work included comedies, dramas, and voice work in theater, television, and motion pictures. Music critic John Rockwell said, "Ives's voice .....
. Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
appeared on the show in October 1948, and Lassie
Lassie
Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...
in May 1949.
One of the announcers on Jones' CBS show was the young Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace (journalist)
Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
. Writers included Eddie Maxwell, Eddie Brandt and Jay Sommers
Jay Sommers
Jay Sommers was a producer, director and comedy writer whose career spanned four decades. He wrote more than 90 television comedy episodes, produced 63, and had a major responsibility for creating the Green Acres television show...
. The final program in the series was broadcast in June 1949.
Spike Jones and His Other Orchestra
The very name of Spike Jones became synonymous with crazy music. While he enjoyed the fame and prosperity, he was annoyed that nobody seemed to see beyond the craziness. Determined to show the world that he was capable of producing legitimate "pretty" music, he formed a second group in 1946. Spike Jones and His Other Orchestra played lush arrangements of dance hits. This alternative group played nightclub engagements and was an artistic success, but the paying public preferred the City Slickers and stayed away. Jones wound up paying some of the band's expenses out of his own pocket.The one outstanding recording by the Other Orchestra is "Laura," which features a serious first half (played exquisitely by the Other Orchestra) and a manic second half (played hilariously by the City Slickers).
Note that technically there never was an "Other Orchestra". The Other Orchestra musicians augmented the same players as the City Slickers.
Movies
In 1940, Jones had an uncredited bandleading part in the Dead End KidsDead End Kids
The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play Dead End in 1935. In 1937 producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film...
film Give Us Wings, appearing on camera for about four seconds.
In 1942 the Jones gang worked on numerous soundies
Soundies
Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced in New York City, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946, often including short dance sequences. The completed Soundies were generally released within a few months of their filming; the last group was...
, musical shorts seen on coin-operated projectors in arcades, malt shops and bars. The band appeared on camera under their own name in four of the Soundies, and provided background music for at least 13 others, according to musicologist Mark Cantor.
As the band's fame grew, Hollywood producers hired the Slickers as a specialty act for feature films, including Thank Your Lucky Stars
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943 film)
Thank Your Lucky Stars is a film made by Warner Brothers as a World War II fundraiser. It was directed by David Butler and starred Eddie Cantor, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie, Edward Everett Horton and S. Z...
and Variety Girl
Variety Girl
Variety Girl is an all-star movie musical produced by Paramount Pictures. Numerous Paramount contract players and directors make cameos or perform songs, with particularly large amounts of screen time featuring Bing Crosby...
. Jones was set to team with Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
for a 1954
1954 in film
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
comedy, but when Lou Costello withdrew for medical reasons, Universal replaced the comedy team with look-alikes Hugh O'Brian
Hugh O'Brian
Hugh O'Brian is an American actor, known for his starring role in the ABC television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp .-Early years and career:...
and Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett was an American comedian and actor.-Early life:Hackett was born in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of a Jewish upholsterer. He grew up on 54th and 14th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, across from Public School 103...
, and promoted Jones to the leading role. The finished film, Fireman Save My Child
Fireman Save My Child (1954 film)
Fireman Save My Child is a 1954 American comedy film starring Hugh O'Brian and Buddy Hackett in a movie originally meant for Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, a last-minute substitution when Costello fell ill. Comical musical band "Spike Jones and His City Slickers" also appear at great length, with...
, is a juvenile comedy that turned out to be Spike Jones' only top-billed theatrical movie.
Television
As a shrewd businessman, Jones saw the potential of television and filmed two half-hour pilot films, Foreign Legion and Wild Bill Hiccup, in the summer of 1950. Veteran comedy director Eddie ClineEdward F. Cline
Edward Francis Cline was a screenwriter, actor, writer and director. He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin and died in Hollywood.-Career:...
worked on both, but neither was successful. The band fared much better on live television, where their spontaneous antics and crazy visual gags guaranteed the viewers a good time. Spike usually dressed in a suit with an enormous check pattern and was seen leaping around playing a washboard, cowbells, a suite of klaxons and foghorns, then xylophone, then shooting a pistol. The band starred in variety shows, such as The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Colgate Comedy Hour
The Colgate Comedy Hour is an American comedy-musical variety series that aired live on the NBC network from 1950 to 1955. The show stars many notable comedians and entertainers of the era, including Eddie Cantor, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Fred Allen, Donald O'Connor, Bud Abbott and Lou...
(1951, 1955) and their All Star Revue (1952) before being given his own slot by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, The Spike Jones Show, which aired early in 1954, and Club Oasis
Club Oasis
Club Oasis is a 24-episode half-hour comedy-variety show, set in a chic simulated nightclub, which appeared on NBC in the 1957–1958 television season. The series alternated with The Polly Bergen Show in the 9 p.m. EST time slot on Saturday evenings...
on NBC, in the summer of 1958; and by CBS, as The Spike Jones Show, in the summers of 1957, 1960, and 1961. Jones and his City Slickers also appeared on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford
The Ford Show
The Ford Show is a half-hour comedy/variety program, starring singer and folk humorist Tennessee Ernie Ford, which aired in color on NBC television on Thursday evenings from October 4, 1956 to June 29, 1961....
in the episode which aired on November 15, 1956. In 1990, BBC2
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
screened six compilation shows from these broadcasts; they were subsequently aired on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
stations.
Later years
The rise of rock-'n'-roll and the decline of big bands hurt Spike Jones' repertoire. The new rock songs were already novelties, and Jones could not decimate them the way he had lampooned "Cocktails for Two" or "Laura." He played rock-'n'-roll for laughs when he presented "for the first time on television, the bottom half of Elvis PresleyElvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
!" This was the cue for a pair of pants — inhabited by dwarf actor Billy Barty
Billy Barty
Billy Barty was an American film actor.-Biography:Barty, an Italian American, was born William John Bertanzetti in Millsboro, Pennsylvania...
-- to scamper across the stage.
Jones was always prepared to adapt to changing tastes. In 1950, when America was nostalgically looking back at the 1920s, Jones recorded an album of Charleston arrangements. In 1953 he responded to the growing market for children's records, with tunes aimed directly at kids (like "Socko, the Smallest Snowball"). In 1956 Jones supervised an album of Christmas songs, many of which were performed seriously. In 1957, noting the television success of Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk
Lawrence Welk was an American musician, accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1955 to 1982...
and his dance band, he revamped his own act for television. Gone was the old City Slickers mayhem, replaced by a more straightforward big-band sound, with tongue-in-cheek comic moments. The new band was known as Spike Jones and the Band that Plays for Fun. He also recorded a cover of "Dominique
Dominique
"Dominique" is a popular song in French by Sœur Sourire , of Belgium, also known as The Singing Nun. It is about Saint Dominic, a Spanish-born priest and founder of the Dominican Order, of which she was a member . The English version of the song was written by Noël Regney...
" with Spike Jones' New Band in 1964, a hit by The Singing Nun
The Singing Nun
Jeanine Deckers , known in English as The Singing Nun, was a Belgian nun, and a member of the Dominican Fichermont Convent in Belgium. She became internationally famous in 1963 as Sœur Sourire when she scored a hit with the song "Dominique"...
, in which he not only plays part of the melody on a banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
but melds the melody successfully with "When the Saints Go Marching In
When the Saints Go Marching In
"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as "The Saints", is an American gospel hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. The precise origins of the song are not known. Though it originated as a spiritual, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band...
!"
The last City Slickers record was the LP Dinner Music For People Who Aren't Very Hungry
Dinner Music for People Who Aren't Very Hungry
Dinner Music For People Who Aren't Very Hungry - Spike Jones Demonstrates Your Hi-Fi was the first long-playing release by comedic bandleader Spike Jones....
. The whole field of comedy records changed from musical satires to spoken-word comedy (Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, mathematician and polymath. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater...
, Bob Newhart
Bob Newhart
George Robert Newhart , known professionally as Bob Newhart, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide...
, Mort Sahl
Mort Sahl
Morton Lyon "Mort" Sahl is a Canadian-born American comedian and actor. He occasionally wrote jokes for speeches delivered by President John F. Kennedy. He was the first comedian to record a live album and the first to perform on college campuses...
, Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg
Stanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...
). Spike Jones adapted to this, too; most of his later albums are spoken-word comedy, including the horror-genre sendup Spike Jones in Stereo
Spike Jones in Stereo
Spike Jones in Stereo is a comedy album by musical-satirist Spike Jones...
(1959) and Omnibust (1960). Jones remained topical to the last: his final group, Spike Jones' New Band, recorded four LPs of brassy renditions of pop-folk tunes of the 1960s (including "Washington Square" and "The Ballad of Jed Clampett").
Death
Jones was a lifelong smoker. He was once said to have gotten through the average workday on coffee and cigarettes. Smoking may have contributed to his developing emphysemaEmphysema
Emphysema is a long-term, progressive disease of the lungs that primarily causes shortness of breath. In people with emphysema, the tissues necessary to support the physical shape and function of the lungs are destroyed. It is included in a group of diseases called chronic obstructive pulmonary...
. His already thin frame deteriorated, to the point where he used an oxygen tank offstage, and onstage he was confined to a seat behind his drum set. He died at the age of 53, and is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery
Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Holy Cross Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery at 5835 West Slauson Avenue in Culver City, California, operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles....
, Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
.
Influence
There is a clear line of influence from the Hoosier Hot ShotsHoosier Hot Shots
The Hoosier Hot Shots were an American quartet of madcap musicians who entertained on stage, screen, radio, and records from the mid 1930s into the 1970s. The group initially consisted of players from the U. S. State of Indiana...
, Freddie Fisher
Freddie Fisher (musician)
Freddie Fisher was an American musician, leader of a band variously known simply as the Freddie Fisher Band, Freddie Fisher and His Schnikelfritz Orchestra , or Colonel Corn and His Band...
and his Schnickelfritzers and the Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
to Spike Jones — and to Stan Freberg
Stan Freberg
Stanley Victor "Stan" Freberg is an American author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director whose career began in 1944...
, Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung
Gerard Hoffnung was an artist and musician, best known for his humorous works.- Early years :Born in Berlin, and named Gerhard, he was the only child of a well-to-do Jewish couple, Hildegard and Ludwig Hoffnung...
, Peter Schickele
Peter Schickele
Johann Peter Schickele is an American composer, musical educator, and parodist. He is best known for his comedy music albums featuring his music that he presents as music written by the fictional composer P. D. Q...
's P.D.Q. Bach, The Goons, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo
Oingo Boingo was an American new wave band. They are best known for their influence on other musicians, their soundtrack contributions and their high energy Halloween concerts. The band was founded in 1972 as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, a performance art group...
, and "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
. Billy Barty
Billy Barty
Billy Barty was an American film actor.-Biography:Barty, an Italian American, was born William John Bertanzetti in Millsboro, Pennsylvania...
appeared in Yankovic's film UHF
UHF (film)
UHF is a 1989 American comedy film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva, in whose memory the film is dedicated.The title refers to Ultra High Frequency...
and a video based on the movie.
Syndicated radio personality Dr. Demento
Dr. Demento
Barret Eugene Hansen , better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present....
regularly features Jones' music on his program of comedy and novelty tracks. Jones is mentioned in The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
's song, "Up on Cripple Creek
Up on Cripple Creek
"Up on Cripple Creek" is the fifth song on The Band's eponymous second album, The Band. It was released as a single in November 1969 and reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100...
". (The song's protagonist's paramour states of Jones: "I can't take the way he sings, but I love to hear him talk.") Novelist Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
is an admirer and wrote the liner notes for a 1994 reissue, Spiked! (BMG Catalyst). A scene in the romantic comedy I.Q.
I.Q. (film)
I.Q. is a 1994 American romantic comedy film directed by Fred Schepisi and starring Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, and Walter Matthau. The original music score was composed by Jerry Goldsmith...
shows a man demonstrating the sound of his new stereo to Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
's character by playing a record of Jones' music.
In 1997, singers Artie Schroeck
Artie Schroeck
Arthur "Artie" Bruce Schroeck is an American musician, best known for arranging and composing popular songs and jingles. He has won multiple Clio Awards, such as when he composed the music for the 1981 ABC-TV promo "Now is the time, ABC is the place". He also composed the 1982 promo "Come on...
and Linda November
Linda November
Linda Ellen November is an American singer who sang tens of thousands of commercial jingles. She was the voice of the singing cat in the Meow Mix commercials, sang the jingle "Galaxy Glue" in the 1981 film The Incredible Shrinking Woman, the "Coke and a Smile" jingle in the classic Mean Joe Greene...
directed a production in Atlantic City entitled "The New City Slickers Present a Tribute to Spike Jones", with a band that attempted to re-create the style and humor of Jones' music.
Discography
- Dinner Music For People Who Aren't Very HungryDinner Music for People Who Aren't Very HungryDinner Music For People Who Aren't Very Hungry - Spike Jones Demonstrates Your Hi-Fi was the first long-playing release by comedic bandleader Spike Jones....
(1956) - Spike Jones in StereoSpike Jones in StereoSpike Jones in Stereo is a comedy album by musical-satirist Spike Jones...
(1959) - Omnibust (1960)
- Washington Square (1963)
- Spike Jones New Band
Popular recordings
- "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front TeethAll I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth"All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" is a novelty Christmas song written in 1944 by Donald Yetter Gardner while teaching music at public schools in Smithtown, New York...
" - "Black BottomBlack Bottom (dance)Black Bottom refers to a dance. which became popular in the 1920s, during the period known as the Flapper era.The dance originated in New Orleans in the 1900s. The theatrical show Dinah brought the Black Bottom dance to New York in 1924, and the George White's Scandals featured it at the Apollo...
" - "The Blue DanubeThe Blue DanubeThe Blue Danube is the common English title of An der schönen blauen Donau, Op. 314 , a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866...
" - "Bottom's UpBottom's Up"Bottoms Up" is the fifth episode of the first series of British sitcom Bottom. It was first broadcast on October 14, 1991. This episode sees the first appearance of Roger Sloman as "Mr. Harrison", the landlord.-Plot:...
" - "By the Beautiful SeaBy the Beautiful SeaBy the Beautiful Sea is a musical with a book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, and music by Arthur Schwartz. Like Schwartz’ previous musical, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, also starring Shirley Booth, the musical is set in Brooklyn just after the turn of the century...
" - "ChloeChloe (song)"Chloe " is a popular song and jazz standard with music by Neil Moret and lyrics by Gus Kahn.-External links:*...
" - "Cocktails for TwoCocktails for Two"Cocktails for Two" is a song from the Big Band era, written by Arthur Johnston and Sam Coslow. The song debuted in the movie Murder at the Vanities , where it was introduced by singer and actor Carl Brisson...
" - "Dance of the HoursDance of the HoursDance of the Hours is a short ballet from Act 3, Scene 2 of the opera La Gioconda composed by Amilcare Ponchielli. It depicts the hours of the day through solo and ensemble dances. The opera was first performed in 1876 and was revised in 1880...
" (PonchielliAmilcare PonchielliAmilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
) - "Der Fuehrer's FaceDer Fuehrer's FaceDer Fuehrer's Face is a 1943 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon, which features Donald Duck in a nightmare setting working at a factory in Nazi Germany, was made in an effort to sell war bonds and is an example of...
" - "Down In Jungle Town"
- "Flight of the BumblebeeFlight of the Bumblebee"Flight of the Bumblebee" is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899–1900. The piece closes Act III, Tableau 1, during which the magic Swan-Bird changes Prince Gvidon Saltanovich into an insect so that he can fly away to...
" (Laughing Record) - "Hawaiian War ChantHawaiian War Chant"Hawaiian War Chant" was an American popular song whose original melody and lyrics were written in the 1860s by Prince Leleiohoku. The original title of the song was Kaua I Ka Huahua`i or "We Two in the Spray." It was not written as a chant, and the Hawaiian lyrics describe a clandestine meeting...
" - "Holiday for Strings"
- "Hotcha Cornia"
- "The Hut-Sut SongThe Hut-Sut SongThe Hut-Sut Song is a novelty song from the 1940s with nonsense lyrics. The song was written in 1941 by Leo V. Killion, Ted McMichael and Jack Owens. The first and most popular recording was by Horace Heidt and His Musical Knights....
" - "I Want Eddie Fisher For Christmas"
- "I Went to Your WeddingI Went to Your Wedding"I Went to Your Wedding" is a popular song written by Jessie Mae Robinson and published in 1952.The song is a report of a wedding, attended by the ex-lover of one of the parties being married, who obviously is still in love with the person it is addressed to...
" - "Mairzy DoatsMairzy DoatsMairzy Doats is a novelty song composed in 1943 by Milton Drake, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston. It was first played on radio station WOR, New York, by Al Trace and his Silly Symphonists. The song made the pop charts several times, with a version by the Merry Macs reaching No. 1 in March 1944...
" - "The Man on the Flying Trapeze"
- "Never Hit Your Grandma With A Shovel"
- "Old MacDonald Had a Farm"
- "Omnibust, (LP Album of spoken-word comedy)"
- "PowerhousePowerhouse (song)Powerhouse is a instrumental musical composition by Raymond Scott, probably best known today as the iconic "assembly line" music in animated cartoons released by Warner Brothers.-History:...
" by Raymond ScottRaymond ScottRaymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....
(Recognizable as the 'industrial factory' music from cartoons.) - "The Sailor With The Navy Blue Eyes"
- "The Sheik of Araby"
- "The Sound Effects Man"
- "Spike Jones in Stereo (A Spooktacular in Screaming Sound, LP album)"
- "(Mono version: Spike Jones in Hi-Fi - A Spooktacular in Screaming Sound, LP album)"
- "That Old Black Magic"
- "Pal-Yat-CheeVesti la giubba"Vesti la giubba" is a famous tenor aria from Ruggero Leoncavallo's 1892 opera Pagliacci. "Vesti la giubba" is the conclusion of the first act, when Canio discovers his wife's infidelity, but must nevertheless prepare for his performance as Pagliaccio the clown because "the show must go on".The...
" - "William Tell Overture"
- "Yes, We Have No BananasYes, We Have No Bananas"Yes! We Have No Bananas" is the title of a novelty song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn from the 1922 Broadway revue Make It Snappy. Sung by Eddie Cantor in the revue, the song became a major hit in 1923 when it was recorded by Billy Jones, Arthur Hall, Irving Kaufman, and others...
" - "You Always Hurt the One You LoveYou Always Hurt the One You Love"You Always Hurt the One You Love" is a pop standard, words by Allan Roberts and music by Doris Fisher. It has been performed by many artists over the years, such as The Mills Brothers, Connie Francis , Fats Domino, The Impressions,Frankie Laine, Richard Chamberlain , Peggy Lee, Maureen Evans,...
"
Sources
Notes by Peter Gamble from Clink Clink Another Drink CD by Audio Book & Music Company, ABMMCD 1158.Further reading
- Corbett, Scott C. (1989) An Illustrated Guide to the Recordings of Spike Jones. Monrovia: Corbett. No ISBN.
- Mirtle, Jack. (1986) Thank You Music Lovers: A Bio-discography of Spike Jones. Westport; Greenwood Press ISBN 0-313-24814-1
- Young, Jordan R. (2005). Spike Jones Off the Record: The Man Who Murdered Music. Albany: BearManor Media ISBN 1-59393-012-7 3rd edition.
External links
- Red Hot Jazz
- [ Allmusic]
- Phillywire article with added links