History Music / SpikeJones

* 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 Paul Frees) as a psychotic SerialKiller who can't remember [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims which one of his victims the song is about]].

* {{Mondegreen}}: "Feetlebaum" is very easy to mishear as "Beetlebaum".

Spike, over his long career, 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 wes 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.)

In the modern day, he is perhaps best known for performing a BreakawayPopHit cover of the song "Disney/DerFuehrersFace," featured in the Disney WartimeCartoon of the same name, though the song was originally written by Oliver Wallace.

* AdolfHitlarious: "Not to love der Fuehrer is a great disgrace / So ve heil! (''[[BlowingARaspberry raspberry]]'') heil! (''raspberry'') / Right in Disney/DerFuehrersFace."

Creator/SpikeMilligan of ''The Goon Show'' lifted his nickname in homage to Jones.

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. 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; whereas Spike wouldn't change the lyrics, but would take the ''music'' out back and mug it. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL0O5WNzrZqIMRSDT19pXjBuGLcXKqS-3r&v=T0qdvCQY22g 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.

Another famous routine is "William Tell Overture", featuring a horse race commentary by fellow comedian Doodles Weaver stacked with jokes about the horses' names and ending in a surprise win for TheAllegedSteed Feetlebaum.

* ObnoxiousInLaws: "William Tell Overture" includes a joke about a nag.. er.. racehorse named Mother-in-Law. [[note]]ARK ARK ARK ARK ARK![[/note]]

** On "Clink, Clink, Another Drink" Creator/MelBlanc is guest vocalist and AlcoholicHic-er.

** On "Clink, Clink, Another Drink" Creator/MelBlanc is guest vocalist.

* {{Corpsing}}: The cover of "I Went To Your Wedding." The original is a sentimental song about going to the wedding of an ex-lover, but in Jones' version, the singer keeps cracking up into increasingly hysterical laughter at how stupid the ex looked and how glad everyone was to get rid of them.

* TheParody

His band, the City Slickers, were a corporate example of HollywoodToneDeaf. They were all, Spike included, absolute top-notch players -- you ''had'' to be 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.4shared.com/mp3/GBMo0Z0Jei/ThatOldBlackMagic_Intro.html 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.)

Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (1911-1965) 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. 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; whereas Spike wouldn't change the lyrics, but would take the ''music'' out back and mug it. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL0O5WNzrZqIMRSDT19pXjBuGLcXKqS-3r&v=T0qdvCQY22g 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.

* PerspectiveFlip: Often played for laughs. A very BlackComedy example is "My Old Flame," which presents the song as sung by a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of PeterLorre (voiced by Paul Frees) as a psychotic SerialKiller who can't remember [[ReminiscingAboutYourVictims which one of his victims the song is about]].

* AtTheOperaTonight: The song "Pal-Yat-Chee" is a summary of the plot of the opera ''{{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).

* ObnoxiousInLaws: "William Tell Overture" includes a joke about a nag.. er.. racehorse named Mother-in-Law.

Spike, over his long career, 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).

Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (1911-1965) 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. 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; whereas Spike wouldn't change the lyrics, but would take the ''music'' out back and mug it. 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.

His band, the City Slickers, were a corporate example of HollywoodToneDeaf. They were all, Spike included, absolute top-notch players -- you ''had'' to be 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.

His band, the City Slickers, were a corporate example of HollywoodToneDeaf. They were all, Spike included, absolute top-notch players -- you ''had'' to be 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."

* AtTheOperaTonight: The song "Pal-Yat-Chee" is a summary of the plot of the opera ''{{Pagliacci}}'' told from the perspective of two country-and-western fans trapped in the theatre.

Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (1911-1965) 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 - not, by the way, the more recent director. 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; whereas Spike wouldn't change the lyrics, but would take the ''music'' out back and mug it. 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.

Not to be confused with Creator/SpikeJonze.

** On "Patricia and the Hollywood Wolf" Creator/BasilRathbone is guest narrator.

** On "Patricia and the Hollywood Wolf" Basil Rathbone is guest narrator.

* TheAllegedSteed: Feetlebaum in "William Tell Overture"

** On "Clink, Clink, Another Drink" MelBlanc is guest vocalist.

In the modern day, he is perhaps best known for performing a cover of the song ''[[Disney/DerFuehrersFace Der Fuehrer's Face]]'', featured in the Disney WartimeCartoon of the same name, though the song was originally written by Oliver Wallace.