Spike Jones
Spike Jones (1911-1965) was an American bandleader and comedian. During the 1940s and 1950s he became notorious for his numerous parodies of popular music in his time. His band often performed sketches and used loud and unexpected sound effects to ridicule their musical targets. He was the first musician to use comedy in his music and was therefore a large influence on The Goon Show, Stan Freberg, The Bonzo Dog Band, Monty Python's Flying Circus and "Weird Al" Yankovic.
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"Yeah, I was a massive Spike Jones fan, and ah when I was I guess about six or seven years old he had a hit record called All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth. And I sent him a fan letter because of that, and … hem … I was expecting a photograph of Spike Jones in the mail, but instead I got a photograph of a man named George Rock who was the actual vocalist on that … hem … tune. And he looked like a master criminal. It was like a frightening thing to receive in a mail. [almost laughing] (...) And the, ah … the guy he looked, ah … if you remember the old Untouchables television series, there was a guy named Bruce Gordon who played Frank Nitti? Yeah. Well, that's what this guy looked like. And he was a trumpet player." (Frank Zappa in Ode To Gravity - Frank Zappa: World Affairs Commentator)
