Feb 22 2008
Spike Jones
As a teenager, Spike Jones, the son of a Southern Pacific railroad agent, learned to use pots and pans, forks, knives and spoons as musical instruments from a railroad restaurant chef. Jones formed and led his own band as a teen. In the 1930s he was the drummer in Victor Young’s Orchestra. In 1942 Jones was the drummer for Bing Crosby’s first recording of “White Christmas,” with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra. At the same time Jones was working with his own band “The City Slickers,” which specialized in comic, novelty songs. Spike and the City Slickers recorded “Der Fuehrer’s Face” in 1942, which had been written for a Disney cartoon, originally intended to be titled “Donald Duck in Axis Land,” made for the U.S Government and released in 1943. Jone’s preemptive success caused Disney to rename the cartoon after the song.
Here is a segment from a 1950s television show. Spike Jones had shows on both NBC and CBS during that decade. Here Spike and the City Slickers perform “Twelfth Street Rag.” The segment features a dig at Ed Sullivan, who had refused to show Elvis Presley below the waist on his program.
The video I had shown earlier of Art Tatum was recorded on a Spike Jones broadcast. He often had musical guests on his show and usually included them in the comedy routines.
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When I first saw the title, I thought it was strange that you were doing a feature on a modern music video director, then I realized that Spike Jones and Spike Jonze are two different people. I definitely enjoyed the post and video.