Spike Jones in Stereo (also known as Spike Jones in Hi-Fi and A Spooktacular in Screaming Sound) (1959) is a comedy album by musical-satirist Spike Jones. Unlike his previous recordings, which make fun of genres such as Christmas and classical music, Spike Jones in Stereo is a send up of everything horror.
Lindley Armstrong "Spike" Jones was an American musician and bandleader specializing in satirical arrangements of popular songs and classical music. Ballads receiving the Jones treatment were punctuated with gunshots, whistles, cowbells and outlandish and comedic vocals. From the early 1940s to the mid-1950s, Jones and his band recorded under the title Spike Jones and his City Slickers and toured the United States and Canada as The Musical Depreciation Revue.
Making a notable guest appearance on the album is Paul Frees, who plays the voice of Dracula, Doctor Von Steiner, and one of the heads on the two headed monster. Loulie Jean Norman, Thurl Ravenscroft, and George Rock (the voice on Jones's only number one hit "All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)") also lend their voices.
Solomon Hersh Frees, better known as Paul Frees, was an American actor, voice actor, comedian, impressionist and screenwriter known for his work on MGM, Walter Lantz, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during the Golden Age of Animation and for providing the voice of Boris Badenov in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. A contemporary of voice actor Mel Blanc, Frees was known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices."
Loulie Jean Norman was a coloratura soprano who worked with arranger Gordon Jenkins. Jenkins and Norman collaborated on a number of albums. Norman was also a member of The Rhythmaires and the Ray Conniff Singers.
Thurl Arthur Ravenscroft was an American voice actor and bass singer known as the booming voice behind Kellogg's Frosted Flakes animated spokesman Tony the Tiger for more than five decades. He was also the uncredited vocalist for the song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" from the classic Christmas television special, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
The album was the first of Spike Jones original releases to have been re-issued on CD.
Track listing
"I Only Have Eyes For You" – 3.30
"Poisen to Poisen" – 4.39
"Teenage Brain Surgeon" – 3.03
"(All Of A Sudden) My Heart Sings" – 3.13
"Everything Happens to Me" – 3.48
"Monster Movie Ball" – 2.45
"Tammy" – 4.19
"My Old Flame" – 4.22
"This is Your Death/Two Heads Are Better Than One" – 9.24
"Spooktacular Finale" – 2.34
Personnel
Spike Jones – drums, vocals, bandleader
Paul Frees – vocals, impersonations
Loulie Jean Norman – vocals, impersonations
Thurl Ravenscroft – vocals
George Rock – trumpet, vocals
Ken Stevens – vocals
Production
Producer: Alvino Rey
Executive Producer: Gordon Anderson
Engineer: Thorne Nogar
Editing: Thorne Nogar
Mixing: Thorne Nogar
Mastering: Bob Fisher
Arranging: Carl Brandt, Spike Jones
Cover Art: Jim Jonson
Cover Painting: Jim Jonson
Liner Notes: Joseph F. Laredo
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