CD1
1. Hawaiian War Chant
2. My Old Flame
3. Chloe
4. Der Fuehrer’s Face
5. Little Bo-Peep Has Lost Her Jeep
6. The Jones Laughing Record (introducing The
Flight Of The Bumble Bee)
7. Laura
8. Drip, Drip, Drip (Sloppy Lagoon)
9. The Glow Worm
10. Red Wing
11. I’m Getting Sentimental Over You
12. And The Great Big Saw Came Nearer And Nearer
13. Liebestraum
14. Leave The Dishes In The Sink, Ma
15. Our Hour (The Puppy Love Song)
16. By The Beautiful Sea
17. (I’m Forever) Blowing Bubble Gum
18. Love In Bloom
19. Behind Those Swinging Doors
20. None But The Lonely Heart (A Soaperetta)
21. The Covered Wagon Rolled Right Along
22. Cocktails For Two
23. My Pretty Girl
24. Hotcha Cornia (Hotcha Chornya) (Russian
Folk Songs)
25. Popcorn Sack
CD2
1. Cocktails For Two
2. Ill Barkio (Il Bacio)
3. You Always Hurt The One You Love
4. The Blue Danube
5. I Dream Of Brownie With The Light Blue Jeans
6. Hotcha Cornia (Hotcha Chornya) (Russian Folk
Songs)
7. Down In Jungle Town
8. MacNamara’s Band
9. That Old Black Magic
10. I Kiss Your Hand Madame
11. William Tell Overture
12. As Time Goes By
13. Old MacDonald Had A Farm
14. My Two Front Teeth (All I Want For Christmas)
15. Serenade To A Jerk
16. Siam
17. Mother Goose Medley
18. I Wanna Go Back To West Virginia
19. Jones Polka
20. The Man On The Flying Trapeze
21. Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow
22. Clink, Clink, Another Drink
23. People Are Funnier Than Anybody
24. Toot Toot Tootsie, Goodbye
25. Holiday For Strings
Spike Jones and his City Slickers
As
a young record collector, one of my main concerns
every month was to obtain the latest 78rpm
record by Spike Jones and his City Slickers.
Most of the recordings made me laugh repeatedly
but I also became aware that Spike’s mob was
a Dixieland jazz band of considerable talent.
This was understandable, as Spike Jones chose
his musicians judiciously, using such virtuosos
as the brilliant trumpeter George Rock. Spike
himself was an experienced drummer who played
for such people as Hoagy Carmichael and Bing
Crosby. You can savour the band’s musical
expertise on fairly straightforward tracks
like Red Wing and The Covered Wagon
Rolled Right Along, mostly recorded in
their early days before they developed their
full range of comic effects.
Of
course, Spike’s main appeal is the humourt
he introduced into music, using motor horns,
gunshots, rude noises, strange singing voices
and even a set of cowbells, which Spike played
like an eccentric xylophone. The comedy was
uproarious but it was always backed up by
impeccable timing and excellent musicianship.
This
is a generous selection of Spike’s recordings,
totalling 150 minutes of playing time, including
most of the tracks that Jones devotees would
expect. It’s good to hear the band’s first
hit (from 1942): Der Fuehrer’s Face,
a splendid deflation of Adolf Hitler,
plus Holiday for Strings (the first
Spike single I ever bought) and The Glow
Worm (which still makes me laugh when
the soprano holds a long note and her male
duettist shouts "Turn the page, you fathead!").
It’s a mystery why the collection includes
two near-identical versions of Cocktails
for Two and Hotcha Cornia. If they
had only included one version of each of these,
they could have found time for Dance of
the Hours (with manic commentary from
Doodles Weaver) or I Went to Your
Wedding (a thoroughly laughable event).
But this is an ideal introduction to the work
of a comic genius and his eccentric sidemen
– at the bargain price of £4.99.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Avid
AVC 871
