Line #5 Music/SpikeJones


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/13670114_ori.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:You wanna buy a bunny?]]
3	->''Now me and my mate were back at the shack\
4	We had Spike Jones on the box\
5	She said, "I can't take the way he sings\
6	But I love to hear him talk"''
7	-->--Music/TheBand, "Up on Cripple Creek"
8
9	Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 – May 1, 1965) was a legendary bandleader in the [[TheThirties thirties]], [[TheForties forties]], and [[TheFifties fifties]], and one of the first innovators of novelty music in popular culture.
10
11	Spike was a master of musical comedy -- not in terms of the film genre, where one gets a comedy that happens to feature singing, but in comedy created through music. Like Music/WeirdAlYankovic, Spike was a parodist, and, again, like Weird Al, having your song mocked by Spike was viewed as a necessity before you could really consider yourself to have made it to musical stardom ... although their approaches were wildly different. Weird Al plays the music so straight that if you're not listening closely, you might not notice that it's a parody; Spike wouldn't change the lyrics, but would take the ''music'' out back and mug it. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvt4b_qwC_Q His 1944 hit cover of "Cocktails for Two"]], originally a nice, sweet song about how Prohibition was over and people could have alcohol on dates again, featured gunshots, gargling, slide whistles, and enough violence done to the musical instruments that he may have violated the Geneva Convention.
12
13	Technically, most of his music isn't so much ''parody'' as it is ''travesty'' (in the technical definition of "a distorted representation of something", without the modern connotation of meanness or butchery). In a song parody, the original melody is used but the lyrics are changed; Jones instead would play the tune with the correct notes and the original lyrics, but in such an out-of-left-field musical style -- changing the style, altering the tempo, adding weird sound effects, or everything in between -- that the music itself was the joke.[[note]]A modern-day equivalent would be the polkas by "Weird Al" Yankovic.[[/note]] While Spike Jones engaged in some parody, it was in his travesties where his style really soared.
14
15	His band, the City Slickers, were a corporate example of HollywoodToneDeaf. They were all, Spike included, [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct absolute top-notch players]] -- you ''had'' to be in order to pull off the scripted cacophony of his scores, mastering the split-second timing and making the proceedings funny rather than totally anarchic. Their musicianship is evident on those rare occasions when they played a passage or (even rarer) an entire number "straight." In fact, Spike formed an alternate orchestra in 1946 under the name "Spike Jones and his Other Orchestra" which played seriously in an attempt to show the world he could produce legitimate music, but the public didn't care and it folded shortly thereafter, having only released two singles. (For a condensed illustration of "straight" vs. "Spike" styles, listen to the brief trombone solo in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRgQtqb72kg intro to "That Old Black Magic."]] He starts out with a tone and technique sounding like the great Tommy Dorsey, but in just a few bars quickly degenerates into the "slowly dying engine of a WWI biplane" tone more commonly heard in the band's recordings.)
16
17	In the modern day, he is perhaps best known for performing a BreakawayPopHit cover of the song "WesternAnimation/DerFuehrersFace," featured in the Disney WartimeCartoon of the same name, though [[ParodyDisplacement the song was originally written]] by Oliver Wallace. Another famous routine is "William Tell Overture", featuring a horse race commentary by fellow comedian Doodles Weaver ([[Creator/SigourneyWeaver Sigourney's]] uncle) stacked with jokes about the horses' names and ending in a surprise win for TheAllegedSteed Feetlebaum. And around Christmas, you've probably heard "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth".
18
19	Over his long career, Spike did live performances, radio, a bit of film work, and appeared on TV for several years. A live performance was a sight to behold, with Spike both conducting and also handling many of the oddball percussion instruments, madly racing around the stage in his trademark loud-patterned Zoot Suit (which he continued to wear long after the Zoot had passed its 15 minutes of fashion fame), often vigorously chewing a wad of bubble gum (Spike was a chain smoker who found masticating the gum was the only thing that helped get him through performances when smoking would have been inconvenient and awkward).
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21	Creator/SpikeMilligan of ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' lifted his nickname as a homage to Jones, and contemporary film director Creator/SpikeJonze was given his stage name in high school as a nickname in reference to Jones.
22	----
23	!!Spike Jones and his City Slickers provide examples of:
24
25	* AdolfHitlarious: "Not to love der Fuehrer is a great disgrace / So ve heil! (''[[BlowingARaspberry raspberry]]'') heil! (''raspberry'') / Right in WesternAnimation/DerFuehrersFace."
26	* TheAllegedSteed: Feetlebaum in "William Tell Overture" and, strangely, at the end of "Dance of the Hours".[[note]]Spike's version of the latter takes place at an ''automobile race''.[[/note]]
27	* AndStarring:
28	** On "Clink, Clink, Another Drink" Creator/MelBlanc is guest vocalist and AlcoholHic-er.
29	** On "Portia and the Hollywood Wolf" Creator/BasilRathbone is guest narrator.
30	* AtTheOperaTonight: The song "Pal-Yat-Chee" is a summary of the plot of the opera ''{{Theatre/Pagliacci}}'' told from the perspective of two country-and-western fans trapped in the theatre. Those fans are played by Homer and Jethro, who would enjoy fame of their own in the 1950s and 1960s with their own parodies of popular songs (by way of the lyrics, as Music/WeirdAlYankovic would do years later).
31	* BaitAndSwitch: "Never Hit Your Grandma With a Shovel" has the singer admonish the audience not to bludgeon their dear sweet granny with a shovel... and to use a ''great big rock'' instead.
32	* BanisterSlide: The City Slickers' version of "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" has a spoken lead-in explaining that the loss of the teeth was due to one of these gone wrong.
33	* BlackComedy: Spike doesn't usually go black, but when he does...
34	** "My Old Flame" has a serial killer reminisce about his previous lovers.
35	** "Never Hit Your Grandma With a Shovel" discusses the best way to murder your dear sweet grandmother.
36	* BlowingARaspberry: Used to show disrespect to Hitler in "Der Fuehrer's Face." As this was considered a bit too racy for radio at the time, it had to be {{bowdlerized}} in some recordings to a tuba or kazoo.
37	* BreakingTheFourthWall:
38	** In Spike's parody of "Ghost Riders In The Sky" one of the vocalists asks: "When do I come in, partner?", whereupon the other replies: "In this song it don't matter, partner, go ahead!"
39	** In "The Funnies" ComicStrip/DickTracy is tortured by listening to a Spike Jones record.
40	* BrickJoke: At the end Dance of the Hours, at the end of the race, [[spoiler:after all the cars crash, we hear a horse whinny and the announcer proclaiming the winner as...Feetlebaum, the horse from the William Tell Overture. Especially funny, since this was a car race...]]
41	* DarkhorseVictory: "William Tell Overture" ends with Feetlebaum winning despite being ten lengths behind the rest around the last turn.
42	* EdibleAmmunition: Mirandy's biscuits in "Pass the Biscuits, Mirandy" are used as bullets in a hillbilly feud. They don't actually work well as ammunition (they cause a gun to explode), and it's implied they aren't all that edible either.
43	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: If it makes a goofy sound, it's fair game. Breaking glass, champagne corks, car horns, bird calls, gargling, tuned wine glasses, starter pistols, kitchen utensils, hiccuping....
44	* ElectronicSpeechImpediment: Sped up voices are regularly used for comedic effect.
45	* ExplosiveBreeder: This is the theme of "Ya Wanna Buy A Bunny?"
46	* GretzkyHasTheBall: The "William Tell Overture" begins with a commentary on a horse race, but gets so crazy, that it somehow gets turned into a prize fight.
47	* HailToTheThief: "Der Fuehrer's Face."
48	* HurricaneOfPuns: The race commentary in "William Tell Overture". Girdle in the stretch, Apartment House with plenty of room, Assault and Battery tied for fifth, Banana coming up through the bunch, Mother-in-Law nagging in the rear[[note]]Ark ark ark ark![[/note]]...
49	* InMyLanguageThatSoundsLike: In "Pal-Yat-Chee", "Vesti la giubba" from ''Theatre/{{Pagliacci}}'' is interpreted as "invest in a tuba".
50	* {{Instrumental}}: A few of Spike Jones' songs are devoid of lyrics all together, or as long as gargling or manic laughing aren't considered "lyrics". Examples include "Carmen" and "Holiday for Strings".
51	* KazoosMeanSilliness: Kazoos feature prominently in several of Jones's arrangements, perhaps most notably as a stand-in for BlowingARaspberry in "Der Fuehrer's Face."
52	* {{Lampshaded}} FridgeLogic: a natural practice of {{Parodies}}.
53	--> "Rub-a-dub dub. Three men in a tub. How unsanitary." \
54	"Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold. Peas porridge in the pot nine days old. [[{{Squick}} PU!]]"
55	* LyricalDissonance: A regular source of comedy; the lyrics of the original song are usually sung seriously with the sound effects and extra added jokes as contrast. "Cocktails for Two" is arguably the most famous example.
56	* ObnoxiousInLaws: "William Tell Overture" includes a joke about a nag.. er.. racehorse named Mother-in-Law nagging in the rear. [[note]]ARK ARK ARK![[/note]]
57	* OverlyLongGag: "He Broke My Heart In Three Places" ends with the (female) singer listing over ''two dozen'' cities where her missing beau left her heartbroken.
58	* TheParody: Jones was a master of the form; a significant portion of his discography consists of taking then-popular songs and replacing the music with comedic covers, while leaving the original lyrics intact.
59	* PerspectiveFlip: Often played for laughs. A very BlackComedy example is "My Old Flame," which presents the song as sung by a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Creator/PeterLorre (voiced by Creator/PaulFrees) as a psychotic SerialKiller who can't remember [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims which one of his victims the song is about]].
60	* PorkyPigPronunciation: The singer of "The Man On The Flying Trapeze" constantly stumbles over the lyrics, often going through several incorrect versions of a line.
61	* PropagandaPiece: Before and during World War II, Spike Jones recorded a number of songs supporting the war effort in his own style, with "Der Fuehrer's Face" being the most renown. Other titles include "Little Bo Beep Has Lost Her Jeep", "48 Reasons Why", "Trailer Annie", and "You're a Sap Mister Jap".
62	* ReferenceOverdosed
63	* RockMeAmadeus: A collection of parodies of ClassicalMusic (anticipating Music/PDQBach by quite a while) appears in the album, "Spike Jones is Murdering the Classics."
64	* ShoutOut: In "Up On Cripple Creek" by Music/TheBand from ''[[Music/TheBandAlbum The Band]]'' Spike Jones is referenced. Bessie says: "I don't like the way he sings, but I love to hear him talk."
65	* SpokenWordInMusic: A lot of his material have sketches. Most notable in "Camptown Races", which consists of various short comedy sketches separated by a rapid instrumental of "Camptown Races".
66	* TangledFamilyTree: "None But the Lonely Heart"
67	* TheVillainSucksSong: "Der Fuehrer's Face" again.
68	* ThoseWackyNazis: Mocked in "Der Fuehrer's Face."
69	* WorldOfChaos: It all sounds hectic and noisy.

Context Music / SpikeJones