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In the world of Corn Bands, no group is better known than Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Here, a simple percussionist
took the world of novelty music to new highs. Spike (born Lindley Armstrong Jones in 1911 in California) was especially adept at taking classics and
working them over to a degree that produced music that floated around in your brain until it became the standard. Think of the
classic Chloe. There is scarcely a person under 70 that doesn't have Red Ingle (a Spike Jones vocalist who went on to fame with his own band, The Natural Seven
and later played in Freddie Fishers final LP) belching out the words to a song that, in its natural state, was a bit of a bore.
When the Hoosier Hot Shots, who were quite beholden to the Ward Agency - Alka Seltzer's ad firm - refused to record Der Fuehrer's Face (like someone said, Alka Seltzer got their reward, they're now owned by the Germans)
Spike was called upon and the rest is history.
Due to a musicians strike the group couldn't make any commercial records so they cut some transcriptions and went off to entertain the troops.
When they got back the demand was there for "Cocktails For Two" and RCA was extremely happy to record the fellows and produce a number of hits.
As great as the music was on record, you can imagine what it must have been like to see the fellows in person. Clips from their television shows show a rather maniacal group playing
every form of instrument (and non-instrument) known to man. From all accounts their traveling show - which toured the country by train - had a world of varied entertainment.
Spike smoked. And, Spike drank. Even though he stopped his body couldn't handle it and at age 53 the man who played guns, washboards, vibes and even drums (that's him on Bing Crosby's White Christmas)
died. He had made the world of corn his own for a while (we all forgive him his foray into straight dance band music).
Check out the DVDs and CDs available at Cornbands.com.