# Have you ever heard of this band? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 3, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049 "2011-09-03T12:29:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/1 "2011-09-03T12:29:31Z")
In another thread someone mentioned Spike Jones of fond memory from my childhood and I got to wondering whether he is familiar to more recent music fans or has he faded from the public consciousness. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/2 "2011-09-03T12:52:47Z")
Yes! [I couldn’t pick a favourite](http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=spike+jones+&aq=f). I used to own a Spike Jones LP, too. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/3 "2011-09-03T12:56:33Z")
Unless it’s the guy who directed _Being John Malkovich_, no. ---
**Author:** ![Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Marconi\_N.Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marconi_N.Cheese)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/4 "2011-09-03T13:19:14Z")
I do, but I’m old. I doubt if any of my kids know who he was and they’re in their 30’s. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/5 "2011-09-03T13:47:07Z")
_Me_, never heard of Spike Jones? You jest. He’s on my iPod (just now listening to the all-chicken version of “Holiday for Strings”). ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/6 "2011-09-03T14:18:46Z")
Moving poll and thread from IMHO to Cafe Society. ---
**Author:** ![Ostrya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/35a633/32.png) [@Ostrya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ostrya)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/7 "2011-09-03T14:46:30Z")
I don’t want to admit that I am old enough to have heard of Spike Jones. So hopefully there is a good reason for this question and therefore a good reason for me to come forward now thoroughly humiliated. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/8 "2011-09-03T14:53:11Z")
I’m 31 … in high school I had a friend who introduced me to him … I’ve heard and read his name many times since then, but had I not had that one friend I would have no idea who he was other than ‘some music guy’ ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/9 "2011-09-03T14:57:38Z")
Spike Jones? Hmmm…_I’ll have to look through my collection of human heads_.\* \*_My Old Flame_ is the definitive Spike Jones classic. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/10 "2011-09-03T15:14:53Z")
I voted “Yes and I know what his music was like”, but I only know because there was a line in some song saying “Spike Jones playing on the jukebox” or something, and I looked him up. I’ve heard the [“Hitler’s face”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_Jones#Der_Fuehrer.27s_Face) song, but I wouldn’t have known who it was by otherwise. ETA: > [@](#): > > _My Old Flame_ is the definitive Spike Jones classic. Yeah, never heard of that one. Looking through my link, the only other song I’ve heard of is _All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth_, and I didn’t know it was by him. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/11 "2011-09-03T15:20:04Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > there was a line in some song saying “Spike Jones playing on the jukebox” or something, and I looked him up. That would be “Up on Cripple Creek” by the Band. _Me and my mate were back at the shack We had Spike Jones on the box She said, “I can’t take the way he sings But I love to hear him talk!”_ Poetic license, of course; Spike Jones was the bandleader, not the singer. P.S.: Ya wanna buy a bunny? ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/12 "2011-09-03T15:20:50Z")
The Bettlebaum bit was huge. He was all over early TV. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/13 "2011-09-03T15:56:39Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > That would be “Up on Cripple Creek” by the Band. Oh yeah, I used to like The Band. > [@](#): > > P.S.: Ya wanna buy a bunny? No idea what this means. Another Spike Jones song? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/14 "2011-09-03T16:07:26Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > No idea what this means. Another Spike Jones song? [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UMjCBe3r4nI/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AG-AoAC8AGKAgwIABABGGUgZShlMA8=&rs=AOn4CLCpPdmCu2LmpUnSi5JRbj_k3DBmug "Rabbit Montage to "Ya Wanna Buy A Bunny?"") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMjCBe3r4nI) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/15 "2011-09-03T16:43:57Z")
Spike Jones was a genius. I didn’t know much about him until I heard "[Cocktails for Two"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0dw2UKRYSA). It may seem a little tame now, but back in the 1940s, it was the wildest thing around. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/16 "2011-09-03T18:04:48Z")
I’m 21 and I know him because I saw the cartoon Der Führer’s Face and looked up his other songs on youtube. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/17 "2011-09-03T19:23:22Z")
> [@ZenBeam](#): > > ETA:Yeah, never heard of that one. Because _you_ asked for it: [My Old Flame](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D2A32KUTq0). (Disintegration into anarchy begins at about the 1:05 mark; the “Peter Lorre” performance at 1:29). ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/18 "2011-09-03T19:56:53Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Because _you_ asked for it: [My Old Flame](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D2A32KUTq0). (Disintegration into anarchy begins at about the 1:05 mark; the “Peter Lorre” performance at 1:29). Ha! That’s brilliant. Hawaiian War Chant is another one that starts out normally and quickly devolves into stellar sillieness. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q7swR8MATA0/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AG-AoAC8AGKAgwIABABGH8gGygaMA8=&rs=AOn4CLA7F2gNBRxfUAP_n-optrBD3-JPmA "Spike Jones Hawaiian War Chant") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7swR8MATA0) ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/19 "2011-09-03T20:02:27Z")
I know his name, but “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” is the only Spike Jones song I could name. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049/20 "2011-09-03T20:31:15Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > I know his name, but “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” is the only Spike Jones song I could name. The trumpet player standing next to Spike Jones in [this picture](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_thlFYTjJbmQ/R_CyAVh9rZI/AAAAAAAAE00/TGg24taczkE/s640/rockJones46.jpg) is George Rock, who provided the “child’s” voice on “Two Front Teeth” and “Ya Wanna Buy a Bunny?” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-you-ever-heard-of-this-band/595049.md?page=2)