The entire staff of newsfromme.com (i.e., me) is a huge fan of bandleader Spike Jones. Comedy in music has been too often done by folks who weren't good enough musicians to play it straight. Mr. Jones was…and one of the many reasons his records worked so well was that they're musically-sound. A member of his troupe, Earl Bennett, once told me that Spike had such a good ear that he could listen to a shot from a starter's pistol and say, "That's an F Sharp. I need an F Flat for this number."
You'll see Earl in our video clip today. I knew him a little from the days when he worked as a film editor at Hanna-Barbera. And you'll also see Eddie Brandt in the video. Eddie was a writer for Spike and later for Hanna-Barbera before he opened up a book/memorabilia store I used to frequent out in North Hollywood. I'm glad someone had the sense to interview these guys about Spike and capture some of their great anecdotes.
You can hear more of them and see video of Spike's work on television in a new DVD set, The Best of Spike Jones. I can't get enough of this stuff and you probably can't either, even if you don't know it yet. But in addition to being a great musician, Spike Jones was genuinely funny and he was surrounded by funny people. Here's an Amazon link so you can order, but first watch this little preview…