Strictly for Music Lovers [BOX SET] [IMPORT]

Spike Jones

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 18, 1999)
• Original Release Date: February 8, 2000
• Number of Discs: 4
• Format: Box set, Import
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Proper Box UK
• ASIN: B00003ZKVH
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #105,720 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #77 in	Music > Indie Music > Miscellaneous > Comedy & Spoken Word
  #78 in	Music > Miscellaneous > Comedy > Contemporary Comedy

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The genius of Spike Jones--as a songwriter, bandleader, and musician--is often overshadowed by his comedic schtick. But make no mistake, Jones was a musician and a damn fine one at that, whether on a set of drums, singing into a mic, or with a car horn. This bargain-priced, four-CD set from the U.K. label Proper, goes a long way toward setting Jones's record straight. In the 1930s and '40s, while American dance and jazz orchestras were just finding their mature footing and popularity, Jones was there to sabotage their efforts with great playing, parody tunes ("I Dream of Brownie with the Light Blue Jeans," "I'm Forever Blowing Bubble Gum"), and, oh yes, gunfire. As novelty artists go, Jones was one of the best. He hired great musicians for his Cityslickers, he wrote memorable songs, and he was a snappy dresser, too. This set features more of the musician than you'll ever need, but its supercheap price, nice liner notes, and great music (that still sounds hilarious after all these years) make it a steal. --Jason Verlinde

Product Description
Budget-priced four disc box set featuring 95 tracks by the comic genius, including nine #1 million-selling hits, 'Der Fuerher's Face', 'Cocktails For Two', 'Glow Worm', 'All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)', 'Clink Clink Another Drink', 'Sheik Of Araby', 'Oh By Jingo', 'Holiday For Strings' and 'William Tell'. Also includes a fully illustrated 24 page booklet. Each CD comes in a separate standard jewel case & together they come packaged within a thick, full color slipcase box. 1999 release.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Appreciating Musical Depreciation, March 19, 2003

By	Walter Five (13th Floor Elevator, Enron Hubbard Bldg. Houston Texxas) - See all my reviews

This is the big one, folks! Four discs; 96 sides of musical mayhem! Gunshots, cowbells, bleating goats, Sigourney Weaver's Uncle Doodles, this is the biggest Spike Jones collection commercially released! (An inferior 8-disc set of his radio shows is out there in EBay-land, but only mentioned for the hard-core City Slickers enthusiasts.) This one is NOT for the slightly interested listener who recalls "Der Furher's Face", "My Old Flame" and little else--there are several good single-disc compilations out there that they should start with. This one is for the real fans, as a one-time buy to fill in most if not all of the gaps in their Spike Jones collections.

Spike Jones was a very sneaky man--combining an overview of the finest classical music with Swing, Dixieland, Jazz, Country, Hawaiian, and Western musics and adding the ZING, POW, CRASH! of the finest slapstick humor. He combined highbrow music with lowbrow comedy and radio-theatre style sound effects and gave America a musical mayhem that's never been equaled.

For those of you wading through the tracks lists, yes, there is some repetition...this set contains both Jones V-disc recordings done for the Armed Forces Radio Service, and the subsequent RCA-Victor studio remakes of some of those recordings. There also seem to be some outtakes perhaps from the previously mentioned radio show. However, this is *not* a complete collection; in particular, several of Spike's holiday pieces are not present-- his immortal take on "The Nutcracker Suite" for example. There's a dozen or so other loose 78s not found here, nor are all the V-disc sides appearantly present. You'll have to wade through several other anthologies to get all of *those* if you absolutely *must* have them, personally, I wouldn't bother. Not that a few of the missing sides aren't gems, but with a treasure chest like this, who's to notice?

For those of you curious about Spike's radio shows, I'd reccomend Rhino's "Radio Years Vols. 1 & 2" if you can find them--they have four of the classic City Slicker's shows, with special guest stars Peter Lorre, Lassie, Boris Karloff and Frank Sinatra. For those of you curious about Spike's *TV* Show, (and he MUST be seen to be believed) I'd reccomend "Best of Spike Jones Vols. 1, 2, & 3." (Some of you may recall the original episodes being re-aired on the Disney Channel a dozen or more years ago)

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great music, if not slickly packaged, August 17, 2002

By	Lee Hartsfeld (Heath, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My five-star rating is for the music, which includes a number of V-Discs, live material, RCA Victor sides, and who knows what--recordings made for radio, maybe. The shoddy packaging is of no consequence, considering that the price includes four discs' worth of material. My complaint is with the annoying reverb in the sound reproduction, which occurs on any number of tracks. It's enough to ruin the sound at times, especially on the late-40s masterpieces "Laura" and "William Tell Overture." Were the engineers trying to add depth to the recordings? If so, imposing late-70s, Sansui-style reverb is NOT the way to go about it.

At any rate, the V-Discs are a joy, especially the riotous "As Time Goes By," which features clock effects (what else?) and splendid Red Ingle vocal effects. This is one Jones classic that will never grow old, with an arrangement that uses the verse of the tune as the calm before the storm of interpolated sound effects, a la "Cocktails for Two." And the live material proves that the City Slickers' musicianship was as dead-on in person as in the studio, though "G.I. Haircut" does have the singer trying to come in one measure too early. How often do we get to hear a screw-up on a Jones recording? Who would have known these guys were capable of error? Anyway, a great buy if the listener doesn't mind a bit of mud in the mix. Five stars for the greatest musical parodist of the 20th century.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars STRICTLY for Music Lovers?, July 31, 2000

By	"jletson" (AZ) - See all my reviews

Why was this titled "Strictly for Music Lovers" it makes it sound as if you would only enjoy these CDs if you were an absolute Spike Jones fanatic! To enjoy these CDs you just have to have a slight familiarity with Spike in order to enjoy them!

While this collection isn't as great as "The Musical Depreciation Revue" or "Spiked!" (both are essential to any fan of Jones by the way) this collection does come close. These FOUR discs :o) cover Spike's early days to his songs in the late 40's which in my opinion, are the best. In short these discs cover Spike from silliness to insane genius.

Disc 1: This disc contains many early V-discs. A few are not silly at all! (ex: Cheatin' on the Sandman) If you don't own any of Harley Quinn's Spike CDs, most of these songs might be new to you. (That is unless you were around in the 1940's). Der Fuehrer is on almost EVERY Spike CD so that's not too special.

Disc2: (The disc I'm listening to right now as I type). This is a great CD because it contains many live "in concert" recordings. I haven't seen many of these songs on any other CDs. The first 10 or so songs are from V discs.

Disc 3: Two versions of "Cocktails"! This CD starts to really show some insanity towards the end. Great stuff! This CD also contains an almost crystal clear version of "Black Bottom."

Disc 4: This is the only CD that doesn't contain any "straight" songs. All of them are great and crazy. Plus there are a few on here that I haven't seen on any other CDs.

All in all a great collection, not as great as ones previously listed but still great. I only wish that this collection went into the 1950's a little, possibly into the 60's. Another disapointment was that I already own most of these songs on other CDs. Oh well!

Hope this review was helpful! :-) LONG LIVE SPIKE!