Spike Jones was born Lindley Armstrong Jones on December 14, 1911, in Long Beach, California. At the age of 11 he got his first set of drums, and he formed his own band as a teenager. A railroad restaurant chef taught him how to use pots and pans, forks, knives and spoons as percussion instruments. Jones frequently played in theater pit orchestras. In the 1930s, he was percussionist with the Victor Young and John Scott Trotter orchestras and appeared on radio shows, including Al Jolson’s Lifebuoy Program, Burns and Allen, and Bing Crosby’s Kraft Music Hall.
With his fellow musicians, Jones found relief from studio monotony by playing parodies of standard songs, which they privately recorded. One of these recordings was heard by an RCA Victor executive, who offered the musicians (as the City Slickers) a recording contract. One of the City Slickers’ early recordings for the label was a zany arrangement of “Der Fuehrer’s Face.” The record was a hit, and the public clamored for more in the same vein.
Another major hit was Jones’ 1944 destruction of “Cocktails for Two,” a raucous, horn-honking, voice-gurgling, hiccuping hymn to the cocktail hour. Other Jones spoofs followed, including “Hawaiian War Chant,” “Chloe,” “Holiday for Strings,” and “My Old Flame.”
The band recorded extensively for RCA Victor until 1955. They also starred in various radio programs beginning in 1945 and made appearances in feature films, including Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), Meet the People (1944), Bring on the Girls (1945), Breakfast in Hollywood (1946), and Variety Girl (1947). In 1954, Jones starred in Fireman Save My Child, his only top-billed theatrical movie.
The change in the musical landscape after end of World War II and the rise of rock and roll in the early 1950s made Jones’ work as a parodist more challenging. Nonetheless, the Slickers starred in their own NBC and CBS television shows from 1954 to 1961. Jones continued to adapt to the times, veering into spoken-word comedy and spoofing folk songs in the 1960s.
Spike Jones, a lifelong heavy smoker, developed severe emphysema. He died May 1, 1965, at the age of 53. – Adapted fron Wikipedia
Andy Senior is the Publisher of The Syncopated Times and on occasion he still gets out a Radiola! podcast for our listening pleasure.
