Not More of that Crap...

Shut up, It's more Spike Jones...

Bottoms Up (1952)

Two seven inch elongated players of songs about drinking done in the Spike Jones style.

Skol!

Carmen Murdered! (1953)

Spike and his gang take on the Bizet operetta and it goes a little something like this.

Brava!

The Homer & Jethro Project #25

# 25

Finishing up 1953.
It was a pretty busy year for Homer & Jethro with a whole bunch of releases.
I wonder how 1954 treated them...
Stay tuned and find out.

November 1953-11 - RCA 47-5555 - Hey Schmo / You-Ewe-U

A side is yet another Boudleaux Bryant song, "Hey Joe" that was a hit for Carl Smith.

It is completely unrelated to the song of the same that every Tom, Dick and Hendrix recorded in the 1960s that is second on the list of terrible older folk songs made into endless shitty garage band fodder when they wanted to appear more serious minded. It comes right after "House of the Rising Sun".

B side "You You You" is another white bread easy listening favorite first made into a hit in the U.S. of A. by the Ames Brothers in 1953 in the days long before the Osmonds and Hanson were born, to bland up the airwaves with sibling harmonies and toothy grins.
With smarmy crap like cluttering up the airwaves it's no wonder Elvis sounded so raw and visceral when he grabbed the attention of the nations teenagers with his first single the next year.

It must have sounded to them like the first time I listened to the Sex Pistols in 1978...

November 1953 - EPA 499 - Assault the Top Pops - I'll Never Waltz Again with You

So another 7" elongated player with previously released material and one little brand spanking unreleased nugget to get the suckers to buy stuff they already have one more time and squeeze a couple more bucks out of them.

Worked on me anyway.

The bonus track is a take on "Till I Waltz Again with You" by Teresa Brewer who certainly looks like a very perky sort. I'm not a fan of perky. Perky needs to shut the fuck up and go chirp in another room. I'm busy.

February 1954 - RCA 47-5633 - Oh my Pappy / Swappin' Partners


A Side started life in German as a song about somebody's dead clown dad for a 1939 musical "Der Schwarze Hecht". A lyric in the Queen's English was made and it became another schlock hit for Mr. Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher as "Oh my Papa" and thus making Rock and Roll all the more necessary and inevitable.

Once again, Homer & Jethro outdo the original by at least making it bearable.

B side - I  don't recommend typing "swapping partners" into Youtube at work. It's not going to come up with the original of the flip side of this single and might get you a visit from HR.
You want "Changing Partners" by Patti Page.

Another win for H & J vs. the kind of creepy and stalker-ish original as Ms. Page appears to be ready to reclaim her lost dance partner from "The Tennessee Waltz". One wonders if boiled bunnies are far behind...

The Homer & Jethro Project #24

#24

Another little break in the flow of things with something a little different

1952-54 - Country All-Stars




The thing that it's always important to remember is that for all the jokes and stuff, Homer and Jethro were really really good musicians. The comedy wouldn't work as well if they weren't. So it's not much of a stretch to imagine that between H & J recordings they might find time to record some with Chet Atkins and the studio guys a few straight and instrumental tracks from days gone by. (They certainly seemed to have a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of vintage song) A sort of in studio early super group as it were.

 It's also not far fetched that they'd end up releasing these recordings under a different name to keep them a little separated from the funny stuff.

The Country All-Stars only released a handful of singles and a 10" record in their brief recorded existence collected here. (I don't have originals for these because they're pretty hard to find and already collected for me on this compact disc.)

They run through some small country combo versions of any number of jazz standards like "Stomping at the Savoy" and "Sweet Georgia Brown" with a light and effortless swing that satisfies like a smooth Chesterfield should and fill things out with a few more tracks of Homer singing other favorites from their youth in the 30's.

Later Homer and Jethro would go on to put out a couple Lps of instrumental recordings and an Lp of funny 30's hits under their own name, but until I get there in a few weeks you've got this to keep you busy.

The Homer & Jethro Project #23

#23

Just keeps going and going don't it?

And we're only at still only at 1953.

August 1953 - RCA 47-5429 - Your Clobbered Heart / Gambler's Git Box

A side - Another day, another Hank Williams parody. Taking a stab at "Your Cheatin' Heart" with all sorts of sound effects to help you keep track of the various ailments that cheatin causes.

B side - a 1953 song by Jim Lowe called "Gambler's Guitar" gets the treatment. It wasn't exactly a big hit for him, but it was recorded to some moderate success by a few others. Jim Lowe would go on in 1956 to score his own One Hit with "Green Door" which I always imagined was about some kind of clandestine seedy suburban sex club and one man's obsession with it. (He needed to find a date to bring. Unaccompanied males are generally frowned upon or so I've read somwhere)

October 1953 - RCA 47-5472 - Pal-Yat-Chee / Dragnet

Here we go again. Spike Jones & his City Slickers augmented by Homer & Jethro. A meeting of the musical comedy minds producing quality.

A side is a good synopsis slash piss take on the Leoncavallo opera about a sad clown by the name of Pagliacci. The boys take on the role of a couple of hicks in the big city who accidentally stumble into the opera and try to make sense of it. Truly one of Spike Jones' finest recorded moments, some really great writing. A great arrangement with car horns and gun shots and breaking glass. Everything a boy could ask for.

B side - Ok, I'm fudging this a tad. "Dragnet" is supposed to be the A side, but it's not nearly as good as "Pal-Yat-Chee" and not exactly a personal highlight for Spike in general.

Dragnet started as a radio show that moved to TV in 1951 following the adventures of fast talking hard nosed L.A. cop Joe Friday. A real law and order type guy with a nifty theme song. The original TV series ran until 1959 but rose again briefly from the dead in 1967 to lecture a new generation on the follies of their misspent youths and is best encapsulated in one brilliant minute about the dangers of LSD.

Let that be a warning to all you dopers. He's the expert.

The Homer & Jethro Project #22

#22

That's one third of the way in.

We're making some progress.

March 1953 - RCA 46-5280 - (How Much is) That Hound Dog in the Window/Poor Ol' Koo-liger

You know the drill

A side - a big ear worm novelty hit for Patti Page that makes me feel kind of stabby whenever I hear it. The Homer and Jethro version, not quite so much.

B side - Yet another Hank Williams song. He was kind of a big deal at the time even with this song that's not particularly currently politically correct. But it's old enough that it gets a pass and because it deals with sentient incel wood carvings and is by that logic just plain fucking weird enough that you really don't want to analyze it any deeper for fear of what it will really ultimately reveal to you about yourself.

It only wins if you let it.

July 1953 - RCA 47-5372 - I'm Walkin' Behind You-All / Mexican Joe No. 6 7/8

A side was another mawkish hit for Carrie Fisher's dad, Eddie. It's an old story. She's getting married and he's romantically stalking her. Which will eventually win out, True Love or the Restraining Order? Only Eddie Fisher knows for sure.

B side - A jolly little song originaly by Jim Reeves about a rascally dude who goes by the name of "Mexican Joe" who lives quite the life without a care in the world. No need to build a wall against him. He seems quite content where he is.

Unfortunately in Homer and Jethro's version Mexican Joe comes to an untimely end. It's kinda sad. I'll leave it to you to discover how fate does him in.

The Homer & Jethro Project #21

#21


We're getting closer to the long players now.

March 1953 - EPB 3112 - Homer and Jethro Fracture Frank Loesser


So this came in a couple formats, either as a double 7" ep set or as one 10" 33 1/3 rpm elongated player. I have the former.

It's our boys having a go at the compositions of celebrated Broadway Composer Frank Loesser which I'm sure you had already figured out based on the title. I will always give you the shadow of the doubt in cases like that. You're an adult, I assume..

So they have a crack at eight tunes from Frank's catalog

1. "My Darling My Darling" from the musical "Where's Charley" based on the every high school theater produceer's go to play "Charley's Aunt"

2. "Once in Love With Amy" from the same place.

3. "A Bushel and a Peck" from the Broadway production of "Guys and Dolls", but which got replaced in the movie by another song.

4. "If I Were a Bell" likewise from "Guys and Dolls" which featured Marlon Brando in the movie musical. So yeah, that happened.

5. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" (We already covered this one back in #8)

6. "Have I Stayed Away Too Long" originally recorded by Tex Ritter and later a hit again for that bland smarmy bologna stinking Perry Como motherfucker.

7. "Moon of Manakoora" from the film "The  Hurricane" starring 30's hottie Dorothy Lamour in a story of forbidden love directed by 4x Oscar winning director John Ford. This was not an Oscar contender.

8. "Slow Boat to China" which has become a lesser standard and was initially a hit for Kay Kyser. Homer and Jethro must have liked this one because they did record it more than once. This is the better version of  the two.

The Homer & Jethro Project #20

Well things are just cruising along here.

#20

November 1952 - RCA 47-5099 - Screwball's Love Song /Settin' the Woods on Fire No. 2

A side is another great original novelty tune by the great Boudeleaux Bryant about the terrible and detrimental physical aspects of love. What kind of cold soulless psychic vampire could spurn someone who's "lungs are plum collapsing over them"?

B side is another song by Hank Williams. This maybe the fourth or fifth Hank Williams song somebody who doesn't know shit about Hank Williams might be able to name.

I like to think Hank approved.

April 1953 - RCA 47-5214 - Don't Let the Stars Get Your Eyeballs/Unhappy Day

This song was the one that hooked me.

"Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes" was initially a #1 hit for Skeets McDonald for 18 weeks in 1952 and was consequently recorded numerous times by many many others including middle class crustless Wonder Bread cardigan fancier Perry Como and my personal pick by George Jones (who deserves much more respect as a vocalist. Man, could he shade a note.)

(The B side is not one of my favorites. Feels forced.)

The source material "Oh Happy Day" however is one of those extremely improbable songs that get a release and against all sense become some kind of brief weird phenomenon.

The wiki article lays it out concisely enough but the tl;dr goes. Boy writes song. Sings it at his High School Assembly. Crowd goes nuts. Boy records song cheap and primitively. Song becomes unlikely hit worldwide despite odds and shitty recording. Even Lawrence Welk takes a stab at it and scores. One hit wonder. The end.

The Homer & Jethro Project #19

So here's where shit gets tricky.
I had everything organized and numbered and then had a few more things drop into my awareness that I had to then retroactively fit into the system.

So for my purposes this is #18a but I'm going to add to my own confusion and label it here 19.

And to make it even more confusing it's a post of odditties/rarities

April 1953 - RCA 47-5263 - Jack Turner & his Granger County Gang - Hound Dog/ I Couldn't Keep From Crying

I know what the one or two of  you who are actually interested in this crap I'm posting are wondering.

Who's this Jack Turner and his Granger County Gang and what are they doing in a season's long post marathon about Homer and Jethro?

Well kids, they are Homer and Jethro recording under a pseudonym with a pair of straight songs.

The first is a cover of the Leiber and Stoller song that was a huge hit for Big Mama Thornton in 1952 called "Hound Dog" that you may be more familiar with as a cover by some other dude who had an even bigger hit with it in 1956. El something, I think.

B side is a Marty Robbins song "I Couldn't Keep From Crying" that was a Top 10 Country hit for him in 1953.

And just to make shit even more confusing RCA did actually release more records by a totally different artist named Jack Turner who released one single as "Jack Turner & his Ranger County Gang" a few years later.

 

June 1953 - RCA 47-5384 - Jack Turner & his Granger County Gang - Butterfly Love

And then a few months after I originally set this particular post in the queue I finally managed to score this 45 which pretty much completed my H & J shebang with all the stuff that I am aware of as originally released. It's the second single they put out under the Jack Turner name.

The A-side is a song that as near as I feel like looking up was done by Jim Reeves called "Butterfly Love" I think I can honestly say that I actually kind of prefer the original's tempo more than our heroes version, but there is some nice guitar work.

The flip is a straight take on "Gambler's Guitar" which was penned by Jim Lowe and something akin to a hit for Rusty Draper in 1953. They would go on a little later to do another version as Homer and Jethro where they take some of the piss out of it, but you, gentle downloader will have to wait for the 23rd installment of this shit show to sample some of that mess.

1952(?) - Radio Appearance

I'm kind of guessing on this, but I suspect this is on the Red Foley Show on Saturday morning radio in the early part of the 50's. It's kind of a cool window into the time and a glimpse at how Homer and Jethro sounded live and the jokes they used. (and frequently used again and again.)
It came on a bonus Cd with the other 78rpm transfers somebody made me years ago. Not the best sound, but good enough as a bootleg of 50's radio.

They give us a quick run through of a few of their more recent releases and call it a day like true recording professionals.