Spike Jones

Some other well-known tracks included:. He has also done work with Prince Charles's the Prince's Trust. Billy Barty even appeared in a video by "Weird Al" Yankovic. Following the success of the album, he commenced his first headlining tour of the UK featuring an appearance at Party in the Park in Birmingham. There is a clear line of influence from the Marx Brothers to Spike Jones and to Stan Freberg, The Goons, The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and to "Weird Al" Yankovic. Lemar won a Brit Award for Best Urban Act in the 2004 Brit Awards. His real name was not Harry Joseph Chick Daugherty. His first album Dedicated was released late in 2003 with additional singles "50/50" and "Another Day" also achieving chart success in the UK.

He was not born on 14th May 1916, nor did he die on March 29th 1966. Lemar's first single "Dance With U" reached number 2 on the UK singles charts in early 2003. Many compilations from the seventies and eighties contained spurious dates of birth and death for Spike in the liner notes. Unfortunately they have been widely reproduced on the web and in books. Sony Music was so impressed with his potential that they signed him to a five record deal. Two members of Spike Jones's band appear in the film - Billy Barty (1924 - 2000) and Paul "Mousie" Garner (1909 - 2004), playing themselves. While he ended up finishing third in the show, he caught the eye of veteran British r&b singer Beverly Knight who invited him to sing a duet with her during her concert at the Hammersmith Apollo. It contains the last appearance of George Burns. He made the finals of the show winning plaudits for his version of "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green and singing a duet with Lionel Richie on "Easy Like Sunday Morning".

"Radioland Murders" was poorly reviewed and compared unfavorable with Woody Allen's "Radio Days". Lemar saw an advertisement for Fame Academy in 2002, a combination of a talent quest and reality television show and decided to put his name forward. Set in 1939, it contains fictionalized versions of Spike Jones and Frank Sinatra. When the record deal fell through due to restructuring at the label he was signed to, he had to eventually take a job working as an accounts manager at the NatWest Bank. In 1994 Mel Smith directed a film based on a script by George Lucas. Lemar had some success in his musical career supporting Destiny's Child and achieving a record deal. He is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. He gave up an opportunity to study pharmacy at the Cardiff University to pursue a musical career.

Spike Jones died in Beverly Hills on 1st May 1965. He was eighteen when he had his first concert at the Junior Jam at the Temple in Tottenham supporting Usher. Also in 1956, Jones released his first LP, Dinner Music For People Who Aren't Very Hungry. By 1959 his act seemed old-fashioned and work dried up. Lemar Obika was born on 4 April 1978 in London and grew listening to soul and r&b and used to sing at home with his brother pretending to be The Jacksons. "The Perry Como Show" had him as a guest in 1956, and Jack Benny in the same year. Lemar or Lemar Obika (born 4 April 1978- ) is a British r&b singer who has had a run of chart success in the UK since appearing on Fame Academy on BBC Television. Once his fame grew he repaid his debt to Spike by inviting him onto his show in 1958. Top of The Pops interview (http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp/artists/l/lemar/underthegrill/page1.shtml/BBC).

He was glad to have work as a comedy actor. Lemar Online website (http://www.lemar-online.com/lemar/). The war years were lean times for Frank Sinatra. Time To Grow (2004). Songs from the soundies were released on a compilation called Not Your Standard Spike Jones Collection. Dedicated (2003). In 1990 BBC2 screened six compilation shows from these broadcasts.

The band got their own variety shows on NBC then CBS from 1954 to 1961. One of their instruments was a "latrinophone", a toilet seat with strings. In them we see Jones dressed in a suit with an enormous check pattern, leaping around playing cowbells, a suite of klaxons, foghorns, then xylophone then shooting a pistol into the air. These so-called soundies were put onto juke boxes.

A series of short musical films were made by the band. Dora Bryan had a hit in 1963 with a variation called "All I want For Christmas is a Beatle". It was a number one hit. In 1948 Spike recorded "(All I want for Christmas is) my two Front Teeth".

It used drinking glasses as musical instruments. Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, provided the hiccups on "Clink Clink Another Drink". A collection of 12 of these homicides was released in 1971 as "Spike Jones is Murdering The Classics". In live shows Spike would acknowledge the applause with complete solemnity, saying "Thank you music lovers".

It was played at a jaunty pace on inappropriate instruments. Rossini's "William Tell Overture" was rendered on kitchen implements. One of his earliest recordings was an adaption of Liszt's "Liebestraum". He appeared in a dozen films in the late forties and fifties, always playing himself. The band grew from 7 to 16 players.

Through the late 40s and early 50's the band toured the USA and Canada under the name "The Musical Depreciation Revue". Sinatra appeared in October 1948, Lassie in May 1949. Spike's parody of Vaughn Monroe's "Ghost Riders In the Sky" was quickly withdrawn and is a prized rarity. In more than 60 shows his guests included Groucho Marx, Hank Williams, Frankie Laine and Burl Ives.

In 1945 he got his own show. His signature tune, Cocktails for Two, was recorded in about 1943. Spike had seven top ten hits from 1942 to 1949, even though no new recordings were made for a year during a strike by the American Federation of Musicians. It is said that even Hitler heard it.

It reached number 2. It contained the song "Der Fuehrer's Face" which was released as a single. In 1942 Walt Disney made a propaganda cartoon called "Donald Duck in Nutzi Land". They recorded five records for Victor's label "Bluebird" before receiving their big break.

They became his backing band The City Slickers.Jones's wife was the singer Helen Grayco, who performed on some of his radio shows. By 1941 the band included violinist Carl Grayson. Other band members were George Rock (voice and trumpet), Doodles Weaver (voice) and Red Ingle (voice). He joined up with vocalist Del Porter and performed in Los Angeles, gaining a cult following. In 1940, he had an uncredited part in the film Give Us Wings, and in 1942 as a hillbilly in Pass the Biscuits, Mirandy.

In the 1930's he joined the Victor Young Band and thereby got many offers to appear to radio shows including the Al Jolson Lifebuoy Show, Burns and Allen (with George Burns) and Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall. He frequently played in theater pit orchestras. A chef in a railroad restaurant taught him how to use adapted pots and pans, forks, knives and spoons as musical instruments. As a teenager he played in bands that he formed himself.

At the age of eleven he got his first set of drums. His father was a Southern Pacific railroad agent. He got his nickname by being so thin that he was compared to a railroad spike. He was born in Long Beach, California. Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones (December 14, 1911 - May 1, 1965) was a popular musician and comedian.

. "You Always Hurt the One You Love". "The Sheik of Araby". "The Blue Danube".

"That Old Black Magic". "I Went to your Wedding". "Cocktails for Two".