Very Worst of Spike Jones

Spike Jones | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 16, 2000)
• Original Release Date: May 16, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nimbus Records
• ASIN: B00004S1F7
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #535,169 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Love In Bloom

2. William Tell Overture

3. The Charleston

4. Cocktails For Two

5. That Old Black Magic

6. The Blue Danube

7. Liebestraum

8. Drip, Drip, Drip (Sloppy Lagoon)

9. My Old Flame

10. McNamara's Band

11. The Glow-Worm

12. Chloe

13. Holiday For Strings

14. You Always Hurt The One You Love

15. Dance Of The Hours

16. Laura

17. Hawaiian War Chant

18. Knock Knock (Who's There)

19. All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)

20. Happy New Year

Editorial Reviews

Every home ought to have some Spike Jones. The operative term, however, is "some." More than an album's worth will probably be too much for anyone whose psyche hovers anywhere near the middle of the bell curve of normalcy, and for those, this hour-long best-of is perfect. It includes all the, er, hits -- everything from the brilliantly anarchic "Cocktails for Two" to the merely anarchic "Happy New Year," from a straightforward "Charleston" (which features a brilliant trombone solo by Arthur Most) to a thoroughly postmodern deconstruction of "Glow-Worm." In many ways, Spike Jones was to musical America what the Goon Show was to British radio and Monty Python was to British television -- either a refreshing dose of comedic mayhem or the very sound of the Philistines at the gates, depending on one's point of view (to some, it was both). As both music and comedy, this material is extremely dated, which is part of its charm -- though the brutal Ink Spots parody contained in "You Always Hurt the One You Love" is dated in perhaps a less charming way, and is not recommended to the racially sensitive. The exceptionally high sound quality on this disc is worth noting; all of the tracks are taken from 78 rpm originals, and despite the completely unnecessary imitation stereo renderings, they sound spectacular. Strongly recommended to all fans of musical comedy. -All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Would be better in Mono, July 31, 2002

By 

Matthew Henry (ANN ARBOR, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Very Worst of Spike Jones (Audio CD)

Unfortunately, they attempted to turn the original mono recordings into stereo. The end result is terrible. It sounds like they added stereo simply by panning from the left to right channel occasionally, which is a very annoying effect if you are wearing headphones. It sounds like they also (unsuccessfully) tried to add some "depth" to the sound. I have heard other versions of some of these tunes in mono with a much "brighter" sound quality, and it sounded a lot better.

It's a shame, because it really is a great collection of tunes.

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good when played in Dolby Surround., February 4, 2008

By 

Kimba W. Lion "kimbawlion.com" (the East Coast) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Very Worst of Spike Jones (Audio CD)

Since these Spike Jones tracks are all available elsewhere, the point of this CD is the Robert Parker Digital Stereo treatment, so there's no reason to fault it for being stereo-ized. The key to enjoyment is the "Dolby Surround" logo on the back of the box. Played through a Dolby Pro-Logic decoder, the sound stays centered up front (most of the time), with the other speakers filling the room with a nice reverberant environment. It is very unfortunate that Parker could not resist occasionally panning various elements to the right or left. That sort of thing simply does not work when all you have is a monophonic source.

Played in simple stereo, Parker's processing adds an uncanny presence that quickly becomes overbearing. Over headphones, the added echo and panning is just repulsive. If you plan to load this into your iPod-like device, I strongly suggest finding a way to mix it down to mono.

The frequency balance is very good; a bit bass-heavy, but that's true of all of Parker's work. He manages to restore a bit of life to "Cocktails for Two", which was originally released with a very limited frequency response.

The claim on the box of "unprecedented clarity" simply is not true, however. That honor belongs to Rhino's "Spike Jones Anthology", produced by Dr. Demento and Cub Koda, that was released 6 years earlier. Here, Parker has reduced the shellac noise to a soft but ever-present fuzz that would be easy to take if it wasn't modulated by the music--the old Gating Filter trick--the noise gets louder when the music gets louder.

There are a lot of worse-sounding Spike Jones compilations out there, and if you have a Dolby Surround system to play this on, you just might enjoy Robert Parker's audio tricks.