From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Dec 14, 2002  7:18 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Spike Jones
 
SPIKE JONES

Born Lindley Armstrong Jones, 14 December 1911, Long Beach, California
Died 1 May 1965, Los Angeles, California

Drummer, bandleader.
Diminutive, silver-haired bandleader Spike Jones didn't intend to gain fame
as "the man who murdered music" (as he was described by one biographer);
it just turned out that way. During the first 12 years or so of his professional

career, Jones, the son of a Long Beach railway station agent, worked as a
drummer for radio orchestra leaders Victor Young, Henry King, Billy Mills
and others. In 1940 he formed his own group called the City Slickers.
Essentially a Dixieland aggregation (one of the best, in fact), Jones and his
boys got together on weekends to perform wacky variations on such classics
as "The William Tell Overture" and "Dance of the Hours." This peculiar form
of musical relaxation became a full-time job when, in 1942, the City Slickers
recorded a novelty tune titled "Der Fuehrer's Face." The song caught on like
wildfire with the public (peaking at # 3), its immortality assured when it
served
as the basis for a Donald Duck cartoon. By the end of 1942, Spike Jones and
the City Slickers were touring the country, performing on such novel musical
instruments as the anvilphone and the latrinophone. The City Slickers used
cowbells, shotguns, and the gurgling gullet of comedian Mickey Katz to
slaughter such standards as "Cocktails for Two" (hic!), "Chloe" ("Where are
ya, you old bat?"), and "You Always Hurt the One You Love" (kar-RUNCH!).
Thanks to constant radio exposure, such City Slickers as Doodles Weaver,
Carl Grayson, and Horatio W. Birdbath became as famous as Jones himself.
There were 18 chart entries, 1942-53, including a number one, "All I Want
For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)", 1948. All on RCA Victor.
The group made its feature film debut in Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943),
making subsequent guest appearances in Bring on the Girls (1945), Variety
Girl (1947), and many others.
The band reached its zenith in the late 1940s - the very top of its game -
with The Musical Depreciation Revue, a Coca Cola-sponsored CBS radio
series and some of their most musically sophisticated records, including
"Rhapsody from Hunger" and "Morpheus." But within a few short years the
rigors of the road - and an invention called television - began to take their
toll on the zany band and its once hugely popular enterprise. Jones made
a valiant effort to tackle the new medium with appearances on The Colgate
Comedy Hour and a number of short-lived series, but his declining health
and a change in musical tastes were the end of the line for the City Slickers.
Jones' so-called New Band, which combined folk music with traditional
dixieland jazz in the early 1960s - and disappointed his old fans - was
"just a temporary musical disarmament until rock 'n' roll blows over." But
he was forced to admit: "It's been eight years blowing over, and it's blowing
better now than ever."
After the death of Spike Jones in 1965, the band made a few sporadic
appearances under the baton of Spike Jones Jr.

Further reading: Jordan R. Young, Spike Jones Off The Record : The Man
Who Murdered Music. Revised and expanded edition. Beverly Hills: Past
Times Publishing, 1994. (Earlier edition 1984.)
Jack Mirtle, Thank You Music Lovers : A Bio-discography Of Spike Jones
And His City Slickers, 1941-1965. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 1986.
Recommended listening:
Proper has recently issued a 4 CD-box, Strictly For Music Lovers (Proper
Box 5). There are several good single-CD overviews like "Spiked! The Music
Of Spike Jones" (Catalyst 09026-61982-2), and "Greatest Hits" (RCA, 1999).
Videos: The Best of Spike Jones, Vol. 1 (1955) and Vol. 2 (1956).