Spike Jones
Wikimp3 information about the music of Spike Jones. On our website we have 67 albums and 70 collections of artist Spike Jones. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Spike Jones represents Humor genres.
Biography
[Edit]Lindley Armstrong Jones was a musical genius. In the wild and woolly days before multi-track recording, MTV, and certainly digital entertainment content, Spike Jones put together a top-flight musical organization that the world has not seen the likes of since. Known as the City Slickers, the emphasis was on comedy, primarily doing dead-on satires of popular songs on the hit parade and taking the air out of pompous classical selections as well.
Not merely content to do cornball renderings of standard material or trite novelty tunes for comedic effect, Jones' musical vision encompassed whistles, bells, gargling, broken glass, and gunshots perfectly timed and wedded to the most musical and unmusical of source points. His stage show was no less mind-boggling, needing a full railroad car just to carry the props alone, all presented without electronic gimmickry of any kind, with visuals that would make your eyes pop out of your head. Though he often downplayed his musical achievements (all part of the master plan of selling the idea to the general public), the fact remains that Spike was a strict bandleader and taskmaster, making sure his musicians were precision tight and adept in a variety of musical styles from Dixieland to classical, with a caliber of musicianship several notches higher than most big bands of the day that played so-called "straight" music.
In other words, Jones was no dummy. He knew what he was doing when he put the whole concept together — checkerboard suits and all. It gave him Top Ten hits on phonograph records and proved immensely popular as a stage show, in movies, and on television. (It became a badge of honor with pop musicians that you really hadn't tasted true success until Spike Jones & the City Slickers had destroyed your song.) A definite precursor to the video age, Jones didn't merely play the songs funny, he illustrated them as well, a total audio and visual assault for the senses.
Jones (the son of a railroad man, hence the nickname) had started as a jazz drummer and radio session player working with top-drawer stars like Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby, among others. (One of the more interesting bits of Jones trivia is that if you listen hard enough, that's him gently working his wire brushes in the background on Bing's "White Christmas.") But as in-demand as he might have been, musician union restrictions only allowed so many radio dates to be worked by one drummer. To this end (and to distinguish himself from the pack), Jones added a full set of tuned cowbells, guns, whistles, and sirens to his already existing drum set, thus insuring steady work as a both a drummer and small-scale sound effects man.
Although these additions made him unique in a field loaded with anonymous sidemen, Jones had bigger and crazier ideas. After putting together various after-hours small groups that played "corny just for fun" (including early recordings with the Penny-Funnies and Cinema-Fritzers bands for the short-lived Cinematone company), he formed the City Slickers in the early '40s. By 1942, his sixth record under the new band's name, "Der Fuehrer's Face," became not only a national hit but a national mania, and Jones' self-named "musical depreciation revue" was off and running.
The bands assembled over the years under the City Slickers banner would feature everyone from singers, midgets, acrobats, and vaudeville comics to musicians who could just plain blow their brains out, all hand-picked by Jones. From George Rock's braying, high-register trumpet and kiddie voices to Freddie Morgan's incredible rubber-faced pantomime banjo shenanigans, from Sir Frederick Gas' insane "twig" bowing to Billy Barty's Liberace impressions, here was a band that truly defied description. Musicians who could play multiple instruments in a wide variety of styles were commonplace, making the City Slickers the crackerjack unit they were. But certain members of the troupe (like Gas or Barty) were hired because they did one thing extremely well, and would proceed to do it on a nightly basis, key players all. (For years, the rumor persisted that Jones had a guy on the payroll who did nothing but gargle.)
Though bands that played "corny" had been successful before he leapt to national fame (most notably Freddie Fisher & the Schnickelfritzers and the Hoosier Hot Shots), Jones' musical vision also encompassed a total assault against the conventions of general show-business pomposity. Whatever the newest fad (current singing stars, radio, television, and movie personalities), if Jones could figure a way to ridicule it for the "this month's flavor" shallowness of it all, the City Slickers torch was duly applied. And once you heard Jones' version of the tune, you could never go back and take any of those idols of the moment quite as seriously as you might have before. Although parodies of pop music continued to proliferate (Weird Al Yankovic is probably the closest modern-day equivalent, although he's closer in style to an Allan Sherman; he sings funny lyrics to normal songs, he doesn't play them funny), the simple fact remains that Spike Jones & His City Slickers did it better than anyone before or since.
Title: Dinner Music... For People Who Aren'T Very Hungry!
Artist: Spike Jones
Title: (Not) Your Standard Spike Jones Collection
Artist: Spike Jones
Title: Christmas Comes to Everyone (Merry Christmas from Spike Jones)
Artist: Spike Jones
Genre: Traditional Pop Music
Title: I Want Eddie Fisher for Christmas (Remastered) - Single
Artist: Spike Jones, Linda Strangis
Genre: Pop
Title: From Russia with Love (Remixes) - Single
Artist: Spike Jones
Genre: Techno, Dancefloor, Dance Pop
Title: Spike Jones Presents A Xmas Spectacular
Artist: Spike Jones
Genre: Jazz, Traditional Pop Music, Humor
Title: All I Want For Christmas) Is My Two Front Teeth (Digitally Remastered)
Artist: Spike Jones
Genre: Pop
Title: You Always Hurt The One You Love - Single
Artist: Spike Jones, Red Ingle, Carl Grayson
Genre: Pop
Collections
Title: The Golden Age of American Comedy
Genre: Humor
Title: Easter - Lost & Found
Genre: Jazz
Title: Christmas Goldtimer
Genre:
Title: Jolly Old Christmas
Genre:
Title: All-Time Greatest Christmas Songs
Genre: Kids
Title: Halloween Novelty Songs
Genre: World Music
Title: Grandma's Favorite Christmas Songs
Genre: Kids
Title: Big Hits & Highlights of 1953, Vol. 5
Genre: Pop
Title: Yule Be Miserable
Genre: Jazz
Title: The 50 Best Christmas Songs Ever
Genre:
Title: Christmas to Remember
Genre:
Title: Some Other Christmas Tunes
Genre:
Title: Halloween's Gravest Hits (Expanded Version)
Genre: Pop
Title: Christmas All Time Hits
Genre: Traditional Pop Music
Title: Vintage Kids Songs from the '30s, '40s & '50s
Genre: Kids
Title: I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Genre: Kids
Title: Sentimental Journey - WWII Project
Genre: Jazz
Title: 100 Vintage Holiday Classics
Genre: Traditional Pop Music
Title: Ultra-Lounge, Vol. Thirteen: TV Town
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Greetings From Hollywood!
Genre: Traditional Pop Music
Title: Big Hits & Highlights of 1942, Vol. 3
Genre: Pop
Title: Original Soundtracks Hollywood 40's
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Vintage Novelty Songs
Genre: Pop
Title: Best of Americana, Vol. 1
Genre: Jazz
Title: Liszt, Vol. 6 : Piano Solo (AwardWinners)
Genre:
Title: Jazz Oldies But Goodies Vol 1 As Time Goes By
Genre: Jazz
Title: Stars of the Range / Stars Who Made Us Smile
Genre: Pop
Title: Smash Xmas Hits Vol 4
Genre:
Title: Journeys in Musical Memory (Remastered)
Genre: Pop
Title: Ultra-Lounge, Vol. 7: The Crime Scene
Genre: Jazz
Title: Hits of The Late 40's Vol 4
Genre: Pop
Title: More Christmas Songs
Genre:
Title: SOUNDIES Music of World War II
Genre: Country
Title: Hits of The Late 40's Vol 6
Genre: Pop
Title: L'auberge Qui Chante
Genre: World Music
Title: Hits of The Late 40's Vol 7
Genre: Pop
Title: Radio Hits of the 40's 1945
Genre: Jazz
Title: Radio Hits 1942
Genre: Jazz
Title: Radio Hits of The 40's 1948
Genre: Jazz
Title: Christmas Novelty Hits
Genre:
Title: Circus Themes
Genre: Kids
Title: Flag Waver - 21 Red, White & Blue Favorites
Genre: Country
Title: Number 1 Hits Of The 40's
Genre: Pop
Title: Music for California
Genre: Pop
Title: The Driving Instructor - 20 Comedy Classics
Genre: Humor
Title: Essential Childrens Collection (Digitally Remastered)
Genre: Kids
Title: Thank Your Lucky Stars (O.S.T - 1943)
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Featuring albums
Title: Xmas Classics - Essential Christmas Songs
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Traditional Pop Music
Title: Musical Depreciation Revue! (Remastered)
Artist: Spike Jones And His City Slickers
Genre: Jazz