Spike Jones was the bandleader of a group he called The City Slickers. The City Slickers took popular songs of the day and made novelty tunes of them, adding cowbells, whistles, horns, and comic vocals. The band had their first recording session in 1941. Most of the early songs were very subdued considering what the band recorded at the peak of their popularity. With the advent of Red Ingle in 1943 and Dick Morgan and George Rock in 1944, the band began to develop their trademark sound. The height of the band's popularity was probably from 1946-1949. During these years, the band turned out their classic versions of "Dance of the Hours," "William Tell Overture," "None But the Lonely Heart," "Knock, Knock (Who's There)," and "Rhapsody From Hunger(y)." Freddy Morgan, one of the most popular sidemen in the history of the band, joined in 1947. The group also began to add comics to the routines to spice up the road show, such as Doodles Weaver and Sir Fredric Gas. In the early 50's the City Slickers appeared on All-Star Revue and the Colgate Comedy Hour. In 1954, the band finally got their own TV show, The Spike Jones Show. The show was on the air in 1954, 1957, 1960, and 1961. The 1957 season featured a new more toned-down version of the the band who called themselves The Band That Plays For Fun. Throughout the 60's the band's popularity waned due to the advent of rock and roll musivc. Spike was quoted as saying that he couldn't parody music that was already ruined in its original form. In May of 1965, Spike died in his sleep. With his death ended his original work, though there have been other sound-alike bands which have tried to revive the City Slicker sound.

I love the City Slickers because of their incredible talent and because their humor is genuinely funny and not vulgar. Take the 1954 band for instance. These guys were touring and recording and at the same time, they had to write and learn their new routines for the TV show as well as make personal appearances. Every Saturday, they had to return to Burbank to perform the TV show. Wow! Unfortunately, the silliness of the band members sometimes covers up their true talent. All of them were top notch musicians. A lot of my peers have been bored by the music of Spike Jones, and after thinking about itm I have come to this conclusion: Spike Jones' humor is too complicated for them. Also, a lot of people just don't laugh....

The sidemen who are my favorites are not known to too many Spike fans, unless they are a real Spikehead like me :)

Bernie Jones:
Bernie is my absolute favorite of every sideman I know about who worked for Spike. He played the saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, and violin (violin after Dick Gardner left) for the band from 1951 through 1956. He also did some vocals and recorded two songs with the band as Ole Svenson, "A Din Skal, A Min Skal" (for the Bottoms Up album), and "I'll Never Work There Anymore" (with George Rock and Dick Morgan). Bernie appeared in The Colgate Comedy Hour and All-Star Revue with the band as well as the 1954 TV season. I found a record called Dick Sinclair's Polka Parade on which Bernie performed vocals on two songs as Ole Svenson, "I Yust Don't Give a Hoot," and "A Din Skal, A Min Skal." I also spotted Bernie playing in a nightclub band on the 60's sitcom Gomer Pyle. When I found out that Bernie appeared on the 1990 version of the movie Dick Tracy, I got that and found Bernie playing the sax in the nightclub. If anyone knows of anything else Bernie appeared in, let me know.

Jad Paul:
Jad is my second favorite sideman. He played the banjo for the City Slickers from 1954-1958 and appeared in the 1954 and 1957 TV shows. I am of the opinion that Jad is the greatest banjo player. It was he who really inspired me to learn how to play the banjo. It is really hard for me to find Jad Paul stuff. He is on my Polka Parade record, and I also have one record that he recorded for Liberty recording company.

Sir Fredric Gas:
Sir Fredric Gas is the best comic that Spike ever hired. Jerry Colonna once said that a comedian has to be funny from the neck up. Well, Gas sure is! When I see him with his hair poofed up in a big cloud on his head and a timid, unassuming look on his face, I just have to laugh. His style of comedy is so different from anyone else's that I think there really was no replacement for him when he left.

My favorite groups of personnel are those from:
1945:
Trumpet-George Rock
Trombone-Chick Daugherty
Banjo-Dick Morgan
Drums-Giggie Royce
Piano-Herman Crone
Sax and clarinet-Red Ingle, Zep Meissner
Tuba-Candy Hall
Violin-Carl Grayson
Those personnel from 1945 were in a couple of movies, Ladies' Man and Breakfast in Hollywood. Most of them were in a 1947 movie called Variety Girl.

and 1954:
Trumpet-George Rock
Trombone-Ray Heath
Banjo-Freddy Morgan, Jad Paul
Drums-Dick Shanahan
Piano-Paul Leu
Sax and clarinet-Bernie Jones, Bill DePew, Bill Hamilton
Tuba-Roger Donley
Actors-Mack Pearson, Earl Bennett (Sir Fredric Gas), Peter James, Billy Barty
Some of the 1954 personnel (Rock, Morgan, Leu, Jones, DePew, Donley, Bennett, James, Barty) were in a movie filmed in 1954 called Fireman, Save My Child.

Recently, I got an e-mail from Mr. Ted Hering. He actually saw this webpage! Wowser, Bowser! He sent me a copy of an album called "Hi-Fi Polka Party" which Bernie performed on and also copies of Jad Paul's "12th Street Rag" and "Rebel" albums and some music by the Sunnysiders, another group that Jad was in with Freddy Morgan. That's too cool. And after I had said that my favorite sidemen might not be known to someone unless they are a real Spikehead....

I'm always on the lookout for anything having to do with Spike and his bands. If anyone out there has something they'd like to get rid of, let me know.

Any of you Spike fans out there feel free to drop me a line! Let me know what you think about my Spike page!

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Last updated August 9, 1999.

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