[Dixielandjazz] Spike Jones Laughing Record - was Tommy Pederson

[Anton Crouch]

Hello all

Bill Haesler wrote:

Dear DJMLers (especially my mate Don Ingle),
During the 1940s how many of you, like me, literally fell on the floor in stitches whenever "Spike Jones' Laughing Record" was played?
Recorded for Victor on 28 September 1946, it featured the magnificent trombonist, Tommy Pederson and pianist Frank Leithner, aided and abetted by laughers George Rock, Red Ingle, Dick Morgan and others.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdUdhYvXrLw

As a surprise (to me), here is a video (lurking on YouTube) of the great duo, Pederson and Leithner, reprising the piece for a TV show, date unknown:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=GFbSHWBjuuQ
Very kind regards,
Bill.

The video is splendid and shows what fine musicians Spike Jones used to create his "crazy" performances. The musicologically inclined might be interested in the provenance of the Spike Jones composition.

"Laughing records" are almost as old as records themselves - George W Johnson recorded his signature/Laughing Song/  as early as 1902 and set the stage for the genre of songs in which laughing is "sung" as part of the composition. Charles Penrose's/Laughing Policeman/  is a later example.

Spike Jones' recording comes from a different tradition - laughing AT a performance. Steve Porter's/Laughing Spectator/  (1908) is an early example but the prototype is/The Okeh Laughing Record/  (Okeh 4678-A, released c. August 1922). In this, a cornet player is interrupted by a woman laughing and soon the cornet player stops and joins in the laughter. The record finishes with both performers in paroxysms of laughter. Numerous cover versions followed, and one (/Button Buster/, Grey Gull 7010, Sep 1922) uses a trombone (playing the quartet from Verdi's/Rigoletto/  + female laughter. Did Spike Jones know this record?

An interesting discographical aside is that Okeh 4678 does not appear in Ross Laird and Brian Rust's/Discography of Okeh Records, 1918-1934/, Praeger, 2004. The reason is simple - the recording was not made by Okeh. It was made in Berlin on 8 June 1920 by Otto Rathke, cornet&  Lucie Bernado, vocal and issued on Beka 5306. One can only wonder how Okeh came to issue it domestically 2 years later. And who said the Germans don't have a sense of humour?  :-)

All the best,
Anton