Fonk

Spike Jones | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 14, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 1941
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Harlequin Records
• ASIN: B000075A68
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #455,660 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Down In Jungle Town

2. Spike Explains 'Dance Of The Hours'

3. Dance Of The Hours

4. Ugga Ugga Boo Ugga

5. Chinese Mule Train

6. Macnamara's Band

7. Minka

8. Rum Tee Diddle Dee Yump

9. So 'Elp Me

10. Fiddle Faddle

11. Alto, Baritone, And Bass

12. What IS A Disc Jockey?

13. Come, Josephine, In My Flying Machine

14. Popcorn Sack Take 1

15. Popcorn Sack - False Start + Take 2

16. Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight

17. Holiday For Strings

18. Glow Worm

19. Interview

20. Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

He went by "Duke Daniels" during much of the '40s, but one listen and you'll know that these were the demented work of Spike Jones! This 23-track collection features unissued 1941-1951 material, guests like Tommy Dorsey, alternate takes and live cuts; includes Down in Jungle Town; So 'Elp Me; Fiddle Faddle; Ugga Ugga Boo Ugga , and more. 20-page booklet, too!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Long lost Spike Jones tracks surface!, January 24, 2003

By 

Ted Hering (Redding, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fonk (Audio CD)

Harlequin has been releasing hard-to-find Spike Jones items since the 1980s, beginning with the Standard Transcriptions. But this new release, Fonk, is absolutely the best of the litter! Even if you are a rabid Jones collector, you will find a goldmine of long out-of-print discs, previously unheard radio excerpts, interviews, and even several alternate performances from Spike's golden days with RCA Victor. The sound is quite good on all tracks. There is not a "lemon" among them!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And now for some REAL info?, May 15, 2003

By 

PHILIPPE VANDENBOSSCHE "Se coucher tard ... n... (Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fonk (Audio CD)

Incredible performances: just listen to the live performance of "Dance of the hours", or Tommy Dorsey trying to fit in Spike's rendering of his own sig tune "I'm getting sentimental over you" (also live)... a bunch of other gems too. BUT: again, like with the other Harlequin records, you have to know already a lot about Spike & Slickers, because their liner notes keep referring to "insiders only facts". I like the style of the notes, but the contents are lost on me... Since I actually would have liked to rate this CD SIX stars, leaving of one for the liner notes still gives me five stars. Hahaha!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Spike that promises but delivers only now and then!, November 22, 2006

By 

Robert Badgley (St Thomas,Ontario,Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fonk (Audio CD)

This 2002 Spike Jones indie release of some rather rare tracks in the Jones arsenal is one that promises alot but doesn't really deliver overall.
Harlequin is an indie company in England who makes their living obtaining copies of sometimes rare/hard to find records now in the hands of private collections and releasing them onto records/CDs....a great way to get around copyright laws in many countries.Harlequin,Proper,Flapper,ASV,et al have done very well over the years trying to fill the niche collectors market in material that the biggies won't or aren't interested in releasing.This release while produced in England was made in the Czech Republic....make of that what you will,if anything.
This is great for collectors and compleatists looking for those rare items to add to their favourites collections.But like everything else in this world caveat emptor,buyer beware.Not all indie releases are made equal as some companies take more pains to get their work done as well as they can while others are just out there to exploit a gullable public.
While this release doesn't fall into the latter category by any means it is certainly from a audio point of view rather disappointing.It's a mixed bag with some tracks sounding quite well while others sounding pretty poor.
There are two main factors involved here: 1) the person on the sound board,i.e. the expertise/committment at equalizing and remixing the sound the best he/she possibly can and 2)the source material involved,i.e.how worn/damaged are the pressings they have to work with.
And this is the crux on which buying these releases rest on.You takes your chances and settle for what you gets.
Another bone of contention I have with the release are the liner notes.For the most part they are all over the place.They are written by a member of the Spike Jones International Fan Club who(should have known BETTER) wrote them like he was releasing them to a bunch of buddies instead of a more generalized public.It's filled with alot of inane patter,in-jokes and references.While I "got" many of them this kind of liner note is NOT for general fan consumption and shows a disturbing lack of professionalism and subsequent lack of respect for the buyer.
To top this the liner notes do blurbs on just 13 of the 23 tracks on the disc!! The best thing about the booklet really are the pictures included,not much else.
In conclusion unless you are a Spike Jones compleatist who REALLY wants these performances,about five released studio recordings and the rest split between alternate takes and live recordings,then I suggest you give this a pass.The sound varies considerably on these tracks and are no where near what you would hear on official releases and should have been better than they are.And let's not get into the liner notes again....as annoying as a Popcorn Sack!!