Dr. Demento
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Playlist for August 31, 1975
From: songs.davesfunstuff.com/11a40400.htm
* playlist courtesy of The Dr. Demento Show
* The Best Of Dr. Demento #XM-47 (XM channel 40)
* April 18, 2004 - 12m ET (Sunday night)
* repeated May 2, 2004 (XM channel 6)
* originally broadcast as The Dr. Demento Show #57 - August 31, 1975
Love In Bloom - Spike Jones & His City Slickers w/ Bing Crosby (The Barefooted Pennsylvanians, Dr. Horatio Q> Birdbath and the Saliva Sisters) () Albums: Strictly For Music Lovers / Musical Depreciation Revue: The Spike Jones Anthology / Wacky World of Spike Jones and His City Slickers / Cocktail Hour / Musical Mayhem / The Jones Laughing Record / Very Worst of Spike Jones
You Have To Be Slightly Crazy To Be On The Radio - Ray Bolger & Verna Felton ()
Ain't We Crazy - Harry McClintock (also known as "Haywire Mac" or "Radio Mac")
The Green Door - Jim Lowe ()
Goodness Gracious Me! - Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren ()
Junk Food Junkie - Peter Alsop ()
I Had But Fifty Cents - R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders ()
Toot Toot Tootsie Good-bye - Mel Blanc ()
Elderly Man River - Stan Freberg f/ Daws Butler () Albums: Tip Of The Freberg
Smut - Tom Lehrer () Album: That Was The Year That Was
Pet Shop (The Dead Parrot Sketch) - Monty Python (U.S. Version) () Albums:(The Worst of) Monty Python's Flying Circus
The Biggest Parakeets in Town - Jud Strunk ()
Skinny Dippin' - Hank Wallis ()
Nellie, The Nudist Queen - Ross & Sargent ()
The Bumble Bee Invaded A Nudist Colony - Billy Mitchell ()
Beans - The Funnyboners ()
Don't Bogart Me - Fraternity Of Man () Albums: from the film Easy Rider
Narcissus - Joyce Grenfell & Norman Wisdom ()
Jungle Boogie - The Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band () Albums: Retro Rooter
The Crusher - The Novas () Albums: Land of 1000 Dances
# #10 Springtime for Hitler - Mel Brooks ()
Albums: The Producers
# #9 Ya Wanna Buy A Bunny? - Spike Jones & His City Slickers (f/ George Rock)
() Albums: Musical Depreciation Revue: The Spike Jones Anthology / Spike Jones' Greatest Hits!
# #8 The Dirty Old Man - Jim Backus ()
Albums: Dory Records Comedy Classics / Dirty Old Man
# #7 Transfusion - Nervous Norvus ()
Albums: Hot Rods and Custom Classics / Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection / Stoneage Woo: The Zorch Sounds of Nervous Norvus
# #6 Highly Illogical - Leonard Nimoy (of Star Trek) () Albums: Dr. Demento 25th Anniversary Collection
EXTRA: Minnie The Moocher (The Ho De Ho Song) - Cab Calloway & His Orchestra (-Betty Boop cartoon version-) () Albums: Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time Volume I: The 1940s and Before
# #5 The Ying Tong Song - The Goons () Albums: The World of the Goons
# #4 Shaving Cream - Benny Bell (vocal by Paul Wynn) ()
Albums: 25 All Time Novelty Hits / Dr. Demento 25th Anniversary Collection
EXTRA: Michael's Market - Madman Michaels ()
# #3 Who's Next? - Tom Lehrer ()
Albums: The Remains Of Tom Lehrer / That Was The Year That Was
# #2 The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati - Rose & The Arrangement ()
Albums: Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection
EXTRA: Mother's Lament (The Plughole Song) - Cream ()
Albums: Israeli Gears
# #1 Spam - Monty Python ()
Albums: The Final Ripoff / Monty Python Sings / Another Monty Python Record
MAC HAYWIRE
Harry McClintock -- Born: 1882 -- Styles: Contemporary Folk
Some of the career experience this artist had -- such as actor, poet, painter, newspaper reporter, or set designer -- is similar to what many other performing artists might list on their resumés. But as for some of the other things Harry McClintock did, he would find himself in an elite group of recording artists who have also been seamen, sheep herders, railroaders, union organizers, cowboys, hobos, and muleskinners.
Ironically, he is most remembered for songs about people who choose to do nothing at all, such as "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" and "The Big Rock Candy Mountain." McClintock successfully established himself as the copyrighted composer of these numbers, though folk music experts and copyright lawyers continue to argue amongst themselves. Known in his recording and broadcast career as Haywire Mac, Radio Mac, or just plain Mac, he made more than 50 excellent records of original songs and folk classics. Much of this material has been reissued by Rounder and Smithsonian Folkways. He was the first artist to record what have become classic American folk songs, such as "Red River Valley," Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie," and Jesse James."
McClintock was the son of a cabinet maker. He began singing in church as a child and was still a child of 14 when he first took off on the road. He toured with a dog and pony show as a horse groomer, but was never paid. Heading to New Orleans and the prospect of warmer weather, he found himself in the company of bums from all over the land, all of whom had the same idea. It was here that he first developed his strong sympathy for these individuals, later to be expressed in the classic rhyming couplets of tunes such as "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" and "The Bum Song," the latter recorded twice as there were always new verses pouring out of each sidecar. At 16, he began playing music on the streets for the promise of "spare change."
He had discovered what he recalled later was one of the great secrets of life: "Anyone who can sing never has to go hungry." This was when he wrote his first song, the story of "Big Rock Candy Mountain." It was based on fairy tales he had heard growing up, conjuring up images of houses built out of sweet cakes and candy. Except in McClintock's song, there is no evil witch and it is the hobos, not Hansel and Gretel, who live happily ever after.
By 1905, the song had become so popular that he had a printer run off packs of cards with the lyrics printed on them. He wrote "Hallelujah I'm a Bum" in 1902, following his involvement with labor organizations such as the Wobblies. The popularity of these songs would multiply many times over once McClintock got on the radio in San Francisco in 1925.
His big radio break was a program aimed at children, a crowd he immediately wowed with his authentic cowboy material. Native American "performers" -- they were mostly just various interesting and rowdy friends of McClintock's -- were also regulars on this show, including Tall Pine, Joe Longfeather, Silver Cloud, and Evening Thunder. A few years later, he made his first recordings for Victor.
He would continue recording for the label over the next three and a half years, completing a total of 41 titles. The performances were solo, in duo with fiddler Virgil Ward or vocalist Dorothy Ellen Cole, or with the full orchestral backup of the Haywire Orchestra. Following the end of his Victor contract, McClintock cut sides for Decca and a small local label, called Flex-o-Disc.
Eventually he had to mount several lawsuits to establish the publishing rights for the original songs he had recorded. Mixed in among the folk songs and cowboy numbers, some of McClintock's work was passed off as traditional by other artists looking to cash in without shelling out publishing royalties. In a letter to the League of Composers, McClintock made fun of the idea that so-called "hillbilly" songs were not written by anybody. "The theory seems to be they are created by some sort of spontaneous generation," he wrote.
McClintock moved to Hollywood in 1938 to see what he could get going in the movie business. He wound up appearing in several Gene Autry films, a Durango Kid oater, and a variety of serials done at the Universal and Republic studios. He tended to be a villain, when he was lucky. Unlucky, he just got to stand there and say "He went thataway."
McClintock also did radio work as well as writing articles, plays, and fiction for pulp magazines under pseudonyms. In 1953, he went back to San Francisco to appear on the radio and television program entitled The Breakfast Hour. He continued with this program off and on until 1955, and died several years later.
~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
Born Barret Hansen, master's degree in music from UCLA under that moniker, but he's far better known as "Doctor Demento." In 1995, he celebrated his 25th anniversary of broadcasting the greatest novelty records of all time. In that time, he's elevated the novelty record to a high trash culture art form. He's made hits out of 40-year-old records that no one had ever played, and was responsible for the success of "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose song parodies debuted on his show. Hansen's journey from record collector to national personality is the journey of the radio everyman, grounded in a solid knowledge of American music.
At the age of 19, Hansen first started broadcasting at Reed College in Portland, OR. He went on the air at the tiny ten-watt campus station with a half-hour weekly blues show, working his way up to eventually become the student station manager. An early forerunner of his present-day format was exhibited on a show he hosted at the station called Music Museum. Hansen's tenure found him writing about eclectic electric rockers like Frank Zappa. This literary bent leading him to do record reviews for Rolling Stone as well.
In the late '60s, Hansen found himself gainfully employed by Specialty Records in Hollywood. Hansen's behind-the-scenes duties included compiling and annotating numerous excellent vinyl releases (among them several fine Little Richard packages and Doo Wop, one of the Doctor's areas of expertise), producing and issuing the decidedly demented Edard Nelson single "Pale Blues."
Sitting in as a guest on a '50s rock & roll oldies radio show on KPPC-FM in Pasadena, CA, in 1970 was the turning point in his broadcasting career. When his DJ friend Steven Siegal asked him to bring in some off-the-wall rock & roll singles for the upcoming week's show, the seeds of what would soon become the Doctor Demento Show were sown. He went from on-the-air guest to his own Sunday night shift and, as he quickly noticed, "everybody liked the obscure blues and doo wop records well enough, but every time I played 'Transfusion' by Nervous Norvus, the phones lit up like crazy." Knowing a good thing when it landed in his lap, the good Doctor started experimenting with tunes from an era that was beyond the rock & roll pale. A good example of this was 1947's "Pico and Sepulveda," which would become his show's theme song. The die was cast.
After resigning from Specialty to make a quick U-Haul trip up to San Francisco for a summer's shift at KPPC's sister station, Hansen found himself back at the Pasadena affiliate just long enough to watch himself and the rest of the staff get fired. In December of 1971, Siegal had landed at Los Angeles' KMET-FM. One more time, Demento guested on Siegal's show and soon had his own show on the station on Sunday nights. While working at Warner Bros. Records -- putting sampler albums of new material together -- he invited his first special guest on the program, his "teenage hero," Frank Zappa. With a solid time slot, interesting guests, the Doctor's upbeat personality, and an arsenal of audio goodies, the show became a huge success in no time flat, and Hansen stayed at KMET for the next 15 years as one of the jewels in its radio crown.
In 1973, Demento found himself with a manager who had an eye for syndicating his show for a national audience. The process was a slow one, starting in March of 1974 with station in Seattle, but by year's end the list of subscribers topped over 100. It was the Doctor's constant programming of a 30-year-old obscurity -- "Shaving Cream" by Brooklyn, NY, native Benny Bell -- that caught the attention of his New York City affiliate, catapulting him to network TV appearances, national media attention, and the upshot of even more stations signing up for syndication.
In 1975, his profile was high enough that Warner Bros. issued the first collection of selections from his radio show, Dr. Demento's Delights, paving the way for other likeminded compilations on Rhino Records. Hansen has also stayed active with liner note and comp work on such diverse projects as Rhino's John Fahey and Spike Jones collections and the "Weird Al" Yankovic box set on Capitol. With a new syndication company firmly in place and the 2000 release of the Dr. Demento 30th Anniversary Collection: Dementia 2000 set, he showed no sign of slowing down in his pursuit of recorded dementia. ~ Cub Koda, All Music Guide
Edited from: http://www.mp3.com/dr.-demento/artists/129/biography.html
"UNOFFICIAL" Dr. Demento Site - Links & etc.
Dr Demento Article -- www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/09-28-95/music.htm