"Jingle Bells" - Part 13 - Yust Nuts!

For lucky part 13 (on the 13th!) of our "Jingle Bells" survey, we get wacky once again, this time with Yogi Yorgesson, the alter ego of of comic singer/songwriter Harry Stewart!

The very title of this take-off on "Jingle Bells" from 1949 tells you about all you need to know:

"Yingle Bells" was actually a big hit in 1949, reaching the top ten on the "Billboard" charts!

The flipside was even more popular, topping out at Number Five:

To me, "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas" is a brilliant Christmas novelty single.

It has the wacky Swedish accent, but the comic portrayal of a chaotic Christmas with the family is a universal theme.

Dialect humor was still very popular in the U.S. in the late 1940s and such things ran from good-natured spoofing to offensive racism. I think is solidly in the former category.

I think the key is that you're laughing along with Yogi, not at him.

This particular record was the first that Harry Stewart recorded directly for Capitol Records and was so successful that follow-ups were inevitable.

Capitol combined the two sides of that first single with the two sides of another for the following EP from 1954:

The other single was originally released in 1951 and had these two sides:

Oddly, "The Christmas Party" is shown as "The Christmas Story" on the cover, although it's correct on the label. That song is particularly dated, as such goings-on are no longer tolerated, but it was thought of as good fun at the time.

You can see (hear) that the above two "songs" follow the "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas" formula, with Yogi singing the song, then providing a narration in the middle.

Here's a video clip of Harry Stewart as Yogi Yorgesson sing a non-Christmas song:

That's the only "live" footage I've ever seen of him!

That particular song, "All Pooped Out," was one of the releases that Yogi had on the small S&G label in 1949:

That caught the attention of Capitol Records, who picked up Harry/Yogi's contract:

Kind of like being called up to the Show!

The Mrs. is really her!

I had been aware that Harry Stewart had died in an automobile accident in 1956, but what I did not know for a long time was that his widow, Gretchen, later married Jim Jordan, radio's "Fibber McGee," after Marian "Molly" Jordan passed away.

In my little world, Fibber McGee marrying Mrs. Yogi Yorgesson is mind-blowing!

All I can say is that Gretchen must have had a high tolerance for shtick!