I think this is from the '50s (or the '40s, or the '60s), the sort of thing Leroy Anderson may have written. Instrumental, played very fast, straight eighth notes, by pizzicato strings. I think it was the theme song for a radio or tv show, and may also have been used in cartoons.
Something like this:
DCDCBABA GFGFEDED CDEGBBBA DDDCBBBA . . .
The damn thing has been stuck in my head for three days now.
“Holiday for Strings.”
Are there two songs named “Holiday for Strings”? The one I remember isn’t pizzicato or fast.
Oops, they are different parts of the same song. Thanks.
Hmm…apparently I was wrong. I was 100% sure that was the title of that tune.
It’s definitely Holiday for Strings, composed by David Rose. I can’t find any “straight” recordings online, but here’s a video featuring a typically wacky version by Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Composers such as Alf Clausen and Laurie Johnson have also written some cues for television meant to mimic the same style (Clausen’s for The Simpsons, Johnson’s for a British production music library).
Holiday for Strings was the main theme of The Red Skelton Show which ran from 1951-1971.
It isn’t even from the '50s. It dates to 1944. Spike Jones made a record of it around that time.
The Lush Strings play “Holiday for Strings” (click the little arrow on the left of the song title).