In addition to being the 54th anniversary of the debut of the first Hanna-Barbera cartoon show, today marks another historical event I want to mention. Early this AM on its hoary rerun of I've Got A Secret, GSN ran one from February 1, 1961 with special guest Spike Jones. Since they don't seem to be selecting episodes in any order (the one the night before was from '63), I wonder if this choice was because someone there knew that if Spike had lived, he would have been 100 years old today. Here's that segment from the show that aired this morning…
I was and still am a great fan of the fine and funny bandleader and at one point (as described here) came close to writing a book about him. I've collected most of his records…no small feat for he was very prolific. Actually, I should clarify and say that I only tried to collect the ones where he was credited because he also worked as an anonymous musician, arranger or conductor on hundreds of records for other performers…a great musician and a very funny man. I ran a Spike Jones clip here the other day without realizing its proximity to his centennial. I think I'll run a few more the next few days, starting with this one featuring a performance from one of his biggest-selling records.
You will notice Mr. Jones himself playing the duck call, which on the record label was described as a "birdaphone." (It said "Willie Spicer on the birdaphone." Mr. Spicer apparently did not exist. He was a joke credit on several of Spike's recordings. On Spike's "Hotcha Cornia," Willie Spicer played the "sneezaphone.") It is not known if Spike himself did the Bronx cheer on the well-known recording of "Der Fuehrer's Face" but it is known that he recorded two different versions of it. RCA Records was afraid some folks would find the razz offensive, even if it was directed at Hitler…so there's another version which just has a rude trombone sound in its place. Here's the authentic, albeit truncated-for-film rendition. The main vocalist is Carl Grayson…