You might think that a musical genius like Spike Jones would be secure in his vision, but this 1956 album, reissued for the first time in 1998, exposes the man's inner conflicts. He and his City Slickers were famous for novelty music with wild stage antics that required tight discipline and musicianship, a pre-rock predecessor to Frank Zappa or the Tubes. But Jones' humorous music was constantly dogged by critics. As a result, he occasionally attempted to present more straight-faced fare, which turned out to be indistinguishable from the offerings of such as Lawrence Welk and which comprise the bulk of this Christmas album. Oh, there are some good novelties, like "Santa Claus's Son," "Nuttin' For Christmas," and the popular "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth," and he buries an entertaining "Jingle Bells" in pig Latin inside an otherwise unremarkable medley. But most of the novelty stuff depends on trumpeter George Rock's bad-little-boy voice to carry the performance; a typical City Slickers outing had a much wider cast of characters. All in all, one of history's lost opportunities. UPDATE: Rhino had a reissue of this album out in the mid-1980s (I knew that, but forgot). Thanks to Chris Candreva for the reminder. He also notes that Billy May, arranger on this album, worked with Stan Freberg (see above) and also did the Carpenters' Christmas album -- Rich and Karen apparently were fans of the Spike Jones album. FURTHER UPDATE: Ted Hering tells us that Billy May wasn't involved with this album -- Jud Conlan was the arranger. Sure enough, Conlan, and the Jud Conlan Singers, are listed in the credits of the album. Conlan is credited with vocal arranging on every cut. And Richard Carpenter did liner notes for the reissue. Somehow, in those liner notes, I previously missed the fact that Spike also cut a version of "The Nutcracker Suite" in 1945, reissued as Christmas Crackers.
Let's Sing a Song of Christmas, Spike Jones (Verve)
You might think that a musical genius like Spike Jones would be secure in his vision, but this 1956 album, reissued for the first time in 1998, exposes the man's inner conflicts. He and his City Slickers were famous for novelty music with wild stage antics that required tight discipline and musicianship, a pre-rock predecessor to Frank Zappa or the Tubes. But Jones' humorous music was constantly dogged by critics. As a result, he occasionally attempted to present more straight-faced fare, which turned out to be indistinguishable from the offerings of such as Lawrence Welk and which comprise the bulk of this Christmas album. Oh, there are some good novelties, like "Santa Claus's Son," "Nuttin' For Christmas," and the popular "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth," and he buries an entertaining "Jingle Bells" in pig Latin inside an otherwise unremarkable medley. But most of the novelty stuff depends on trumpeter George Rock's bad-little-boy voice to carry the performance; a typical City Slickers outing had a much wider cast of characters. All in all, one of history's lost opportunities. UPDATE: Rhino had a reissue of this album out in the mid-1980s (I knew that, but forgot). Thanks to Chris Candreva for the reminder. He also notes that Billy May, arranger on this album, worked with Stan Freberg (see above) and also did the Carpenters' Christmas album -- Rich and Karen apparently were fans of the Spike Jones album. FURTHER UPDATE: Ted Hering tells us that Billy May wasn't involved with this album -- Jud Conlan was the arranger. Sure enough, Conlan, and the Jud Conlan Singers, are listed in the credits of the album. Conlan is credited with vocal arranging on every cut. And Richard Carpenter did liner notes for the reissue. Somehow, in those liner notes, I previously missed the fact that Spike also cut a version of "The Nutcracker Suite" in 1945, reissued as Christmas Crackers.
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