During
the 1940's and into the 1950's, Spike Jones led a band of
first-rate musicians, dressed them in brightly colored suits
with large plaid squares or stripes, gave them derbies and
other hats, and had them play some of the funniest music ever
recorded or broadcast. Everyone loved them!
Normally
romantic ballads and classical works were skewered with cowbells,
gunshots, whistles, and hysterically funny vocals.
According
to Wikipedia, "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 alternate group played nightclub engagements
and was an artistic success, but the paying public preferred
the City Slickers and stayed away.
"The
one outstanding recording by the Other Orchestra is "Laura,"
which features a serious first half (played exquisitely by
the serious group), and a manic second half (played hilariously
by the City Slickers)."
You can
hear "Laura" and about a dozen other Spike Jones
classics in the media player embedded near the top of this
page.
Spike
Jones and His City Slickers always cracked us up! Six decades
later, they still crack me up!
A
Personal Note: As a small boy in the early 1940's, my
favorite song was Spike Jones' recording of the "William
Tell Overture," which everyone called "Feedlebomb,"
the name of one of the horses in the song. To this day, some
60 years later, "Feedlebomb" never fails to bring
a smile to my face and makes me laugh! It is classic Spike
Jones.
In
1946, my parents bought our first car -- a black, 1929 four-door
Essex sedan. What should we call it? I suggested "Feedlebomb"
after the Spike Jones song. The name stuck. Here's Feedlebomb
on a snowy winter morning outside our Berwyn home.
I
loved listening to Spike Jones on the radio. In those days
before television, families finished dinner, washed the dishes,
and then went into the living room (or front room, as we called
ours in Chicago). Each of us had our favorite chair or seat
on the sofa.
Aunt
Ruth's RCA Victor radio/phonograph console was in one
corner of our front room. My dad sat opposite the radio on
his easy chair. I sat on the end of the sofa near my father.
My mother sat next to me and Aunt Dorothy sat next to her.
Aunt Ruth sat in an easy chair across from my father. We always
sat in the same place.
We
listened to the radio every night beginning at 7 PM Central
Time. I listened from 6:30 on so I could hear my favorite
show, "The Lone Ranger," which incidentally used
the "The William Tell Overture" for its theme. Wouldn't
it have been funny if they had used Spike Jones' "Feedlebomb"
instead one night!
Network
shows began at 7 PM in Chicago and 8PM in New York City. We
listened to the same shows week after week. "Gangbusters,"
"Jack Benny," "Burns and Allen," "Milton
Berle," "Amos n'Andy," and "Inner Sanctum"
were among our favorites. On Saturday nights, we always listened
to "Your Hit Parade." Everyone loved that show!
My
mother, Aunt Dorothy, and I listened to "Don McNeill
and His Breakdast Club," which came on the air at 8 AM.
My dad and Aunt Ruth left for work around 7:30 AM. The "Breakfast
Club" was radio's longest running network entertainment
show, debuting on June 23, 1933 and leaving the air on December
27, 1968. During its first decade, the "Breakdast Club"
was carried by the NBC Blue Network and thereafter on ABC,
the successor to the NBC Blue. In the late 1940's. Johnny
Desmond became a regular on the "Breakfast Club."
He sometimes reminisced about his years during World War Two
singing with Glenn Miller's terrific Army Air Force Band.
Usually,
I went to bed about nine o'clock in those days. After the
15-minute 10 PM newscasts, big band remotes began from ballrooms
and night clubs across the land. Every night! Sometimes I
listened to them on headphones connected to the used Hallicrafter
shortwave radio on the nightstand next to my bed. My dad bought
me the Hallicrafter from a neaby Army Surplus store. Wish
I had it today!
George
Spink
Los Angeles
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