Spike Jones And His City Slickers threw "Musical Mayhem" in "Der Fuehrer's Face"
Written: May 03 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Million-selling hits including "Der Fuehrer's Face" and "Cocktails For Two."
Cons: Though vaudeville humor can be funny, some may find Spike's humor in bad taste.
The Bottom Line: A very generous, 24-track collection of the comedy recordings of Spike Jones And His City Slickers. Comedy that inspired Monty Python and Weird Al Tankovic.
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| Don_Krider's Full Review: Musical Mayhem - Spike Jones And His City Slickers... |
Comedy recording artist Weird Al Yankovic (whose 2003 album "Poodle Hat" went platinum in sales and earned a Grammy Award) often cites Spike Jones as one of his greatest influences.
Even the members of the comedy troupe Monty Python's Flying Circus list Spike Jones as a major influence. His songs are regulars on the "golden oldies" playlist of the "Dr. Demento" radio series.
Spike Jones began his career as a serious jazz/Big Band musician whose credits include playing drums on Bing Crosby (that's Spike playing his wire brushes in the background on the mega-hit "White Christmas"), Judy Garland, Al Jolson and Hoagy Carmichael recordings. He even played percussion on "The Wizard Of Oz" film soundtrack.
He is, however, remembered best as one of the most successful comedy recording artists of all-time.
Jones sold millions of records from the 1940s through the 1960s (his last chart album, "Washington Square," peaked in Billboard magazine's Top 200 Albums chart at # 113 in 1963, just after the assassination of President Kennedy and just before the arrival of "Beatlemania" stateside).
His talent was to take classic pop tunes such as Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" and rewrite them with new lyrics, then issue them with a new title such as "Sixteen Tacos."
His parodies often insulted every politically correct institution in the world and he was a true pioneer of the sarcastic comedy genre. Even The Three Stooges covered his "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth" as a 45 rpm single (and latter-day Stooge Joe Besser was once a cast member, with Billy Barty, on "The Spike Jones Show" on TV).
At his peak, recording as Spike Jones And His City Slickers, Jones' band would wear wigs, outlandish costumes and play some very unique "musical instruments." Those instruments included cowbells, car horns, goats noises, chickens clucking, the sound of hiccups, the sound of people gargling and the music of a "latrinophone" (described in the CD liner notes as "a toilet seat strung with piano wire").
That his band was composed of superb musicians in real life added to the music's impact. As Jones told one interviewer, "My band's got rhythm, and to it we add a guffaw. We get along by not taking anything serious."
In 1943, Radio Mirror magazine called Spike Jones's music "a subtle burlesque of all corny, hillbilly ballads." In 1944, Downbeat magazine proclaimed Spike Jones as "The King Of Corn" and actually gave him a crown in honor of the award.
In the years before Billboard magazine began tracking hits in the mid-1950s, Spike Jones truly was a "king" of the pop charts. Albums with titles like "Dinner Music For People Who Aren't Very Hungry" and "Sixty Years Of The Music America Hates Best" were huge hits.
Other huge hits included the Top 10 singles such as "Der Fuehrer's Face" (a really big slap in Adolf Hitler's Nazi face in 1942 that raised American morale in World War II), "Cocktails For Two" (with a chorus of hiccups) and "You Always Hurt The One You Love" (which featured sounds such as gunfire in a take-off on a classic hit by The Ink Spots).
Jones conquered all the entertainment mediums from recorded music through motion pictures and television during his brief 53 years of life. He was a much sought after guest on such television shows as "The Ed Sullivan Show," "The Jack Benny Show," "The Perry Como Show" and "The Frank Sinatra Show."
He was born on December 14, 1911, in Long Beach, California, as Lindley Armstrong Jones and legend has it that his nickname of "Spike" was given to him by his father's co-workers at the Southern Pacific Railroad. He died in May of 1965 in Bel Air, California, from emphysema. He was married twice (the last time to his TV co-star, Big Band singer Helen Grayco) and he had a son from his first marriage (Spike Jones, Jr.).
What makes Spike Jones special is well-represnted on the CD "Musical Mayhem." It's one of the reasons the man earned his star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
The album:
"Musical Mayhem" gathers 24 tracks on a single CD that gloriously shows why the comedy song-stylings of Spike Jones And His City Slickers were so popular with children of all ages (from children in elementary schools to adult soldiers trying to survive on military battlefronts) during World War II.
This British import album reproduces the original tracks from the original master recordings for a crisp, clear sound.
The CD comes with a 4-page booklet featuring one photo of Spike Jones and a two-page biography by R. Nosgrove. Lyrics are not included in the booklet, which is a shame.
Recommendation:
"Musical Mayhem" by Spike Jones And His City Slickers will appeal to fans of comedy recordings, from The Three Stooges and Weird Al Yankovic to The Smothers Brothers. It's funny stuff that has stood the test of time, with appeal that spans generations of fans.
The City Slickers' members, by the way, had names like Sir Frederic Gas, Horatio Q. Birdbath and Herietta Pootwaddle, which gives a hint at the lack of "serious music" in this collection (the music is played flawlessly and why don't more people play the "latrinophone"?).
My interest in the album comes from playing it for my father, who is recovering from a stroke suffered in January of 2004. He used to sing "Der Fuehrer's Face" to me as a kid in the '60s, while holding a finger under his nose (like a mustache) and doing a "ministry of silly walks" goose-step march to show me how kids of his generation made fun of Adolf Hitler when listening to the tune (all while dressed in his U. S. Navy uniform; he's a veteran of Korea and Vietnam). Spike Jones' music still makes him smile, and that's a good thing as he recovers and is the reason I bought the CD.
The tracks:
"I Wanna Go Back To West Virginia," "Der Fuehrer's Face," "Behind Those Swinging Doors," "Cocktails For Two," "Clink, Clink Another Drink," "Chloe (Song Of The Swamp)," "My Old Flame," "Liebestraum" and "None But The Lonely Heart."
Also, "William Tell Overture," "I Kiss Your Hand Madame," "Little Bo Peep Has Lost Her Jeep," "That Old Black Magic," "Holiday For Strings," "Love In Bloom," "You Always Hurt The One You Love," "Leave The Dishes In The Sink, Ma" and "Laura."
Also, "Hotcha Cornia (Black Eyes)," "The Blue Danube," "The Man On The Flying Trapeze," "A Serenade To A Jerk," "The Glow Worm" and "Hawaiian War Chant."
The best tunes:
"Der Fuehrer's Face":
With crazy, wildly-played German beer hall music as a backdrop, and a "Looney Tunes" cartoonish feel in the vocals, Spike Jones and His City Slickers went to # 1 in 1942 with "Der Fuehrer's Face."
In a nation losing most of its engagements for the first six months of World War II, this light-hearted, in-your-face insult to the dictator of Nazi Germany helped boost American morale. After each "HEIL! HEIL!" there's the sound of a "raspberry" right in Adolf Hitler's face, a fake German slang in the lyrics and the word "Nazi" is replaced by "Nutzi":
"When Der Fuehrer says, 'We ist der master race' / We HEIL! HEIL! Right in Der Feuhrer's face / Not to love Der Feuhrer is a great disgrace / So we HEIL! HEIL! Right in Der Feuhrer's face / ... / Is this Nutzi land not good? / Would you leave if you could? / Ja this Nutzi land is good! / Vee would leave if we could..."
"Der Fuehrer's Face" was a million-selling single for Spike Jones And His City Slickers.
"Cocktails For Two":
Songwriter Sam Coslow was not happy when Spike Jones' took his lovely ballad and turned it upside-down with the sounds of breaking glass, cowbells, crazed horns and finger-popping, among other things, accenting the tune:
"...then maybe fortune will complete her plan / with cocktails for two..."
"Cocktails For Two" was another million-seller for Spike Jones And His City Slickers.
"None But The Lonely Heart":
Set to the classical music of Tchaikovsky with a woman reading dialogue as if from a radio soap opera:
"No, John, it's best that we part, John / you have another wife / and I have another husband / and he has another wife / and she has another husband / but it isn't the simplest sort of arrangement, is it?..."
"You Always Hurt The One You Love":
One wonders what The Ink Spots thought of Jones' treatment of their gorgeous ballad ("...you always hurt the one you love / the one you shouldn't hurt at all...") features the sounds of gunfire and assorted other violence as background sound-effects throughout the tune.
"Leave The Dishes In The Sink, Ma":
The B-side of Jones' million-selling single "Cocktails For Two," "Leave The Dishes In The Sink, Ma" is hillbilly-themed. It's more notable for having been written by Jones with comedian Milton Berle:
"...pa took off ma's apron and hollered out 'Yahoo!' / leave the dishes in the sink, ma / each dirty dish will have to wait / tonight we're gonna celebrate / leave the dishes in the sink, ma..."
On the web:
The late Cub Koda, lead singer of the band Brownsville Station (who did the original version of "Smokin' In The Boys Room" in the 1970's), wrote a biography of Spike Jones for the All Music Guide at: http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll
The IMDB biography of Spike Jones: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005066/
The Pynchon - Music biography of Spike Jones: http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_music_jones.html
Yahoo Launch - Spike Jones Community: http://musicfinder.yahoo.com/artist/community/1800034972
The "Dr. Demento" show's official site: http://www.drdemento.com/index.html
The official Weird Al Yankovic site: http://www.weirdal.com/home.htm
A page for Joe Besser, latter-day member of The Three Stooges, who was a veteran of TV's "The Spike Jones Show": http://www.stoogeworld.com/_Biographies/Joe.htm
Fans of television and/or TV comedy might enjoy these book reviews:
"The Life And Times Of Maxwell Smart" by Donna McCrohan (about the "Get Smart" series that starred Don Adams and featured among its guest stars Billy Barty, a veteran of "The Spike Jones Show"): http://www.epinions.com/book-review-451-110FDD6-3909205F-prod5
"A Really Big Show" by John Leonard (about "The Ed Sullivan Show," on which Spike Jones (not to mention The Beatles and Elvis Presley, of course) was a guest): http://www.epinions.com/content_134775148164
Special thanks:
To Epinions.Com Music Category Lead Shelly, aka Lambchops (http://www.epinions.com/user-lambchops), for adding Spike Jones And His City Slickers' "Musical Mayhem" to the Epinions' music category database.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Don_Krider
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 in Music, Electronics, Musical Instruments |
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Member: Don Krider
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About Me:
Fan of power pop (Raspberries, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, The Knack, Romantics, Slade,Sweet...) --- "Play On"!!!
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