Still in 1950 with "Jingle Bells," we go from the somewhat corny Dixieland of the Firehouse Five Plus Two to the straight-up corn of the Korn Kobblers!
Here they are with "Jingle Bells" on MGM Records:
I do think that's pretty fun!
What do you suppose the flipside to that record is? Of course:
Santa sounds kind of maniacal, though, doesn't he?
This particular record was actually part of a mini-album of two records, with the recent holiday hit "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" on one side of the other record:
The flipside of that was this tune that I've never heard anywhere else:
I think the Korn Kobblers were in good form on this set, with clever instrumentation.
Here's Billboard's review from December 16 1950:
I think that review pretty much nails it, even down to the underwhelming cover art (seen at the top of this page)! (The score of 83 is the low end of the "excellent" range.)
The most telling thing is that this album is reviewed in the Children's records section and I do think that the Korn Kobblers by the relatively late date (for corn bands) of 1950 do seem like they're aiming more at the kiddie market. Part of that is it seems like Stan Fritts is almost over enunciating the lyrics so that kids will understand them.
(I do have to admit that by the early 1950s, even the great Spike Jones increasingly seemed to aim for the youngsters, recording several numbers with virtually no satiric edge.)
This earlier Christmas record by the Korn Kobblers is definitely edgier and weirder, especially for 1939:
What an odd record! They also cut it for Okeh Records in 1941, with slightly different lyrics:
Not sure what's behind the lyric changes, except that Joe Penner had passed away in between these recordings, so the latter says the duck belongs to Old MacDonald instead.
The Korn Kobblers were a spinoff of Freddie Fisher's Schnickelfritz band and kept the corny formula going for quite a while.
An interesting series of events had trombonist/singer Stan Fritts and the other members of Freddie Fisher's band leaving to form the rival Korn Kobblers. Don't know what the beef was, but Freddie had to form a new group.
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| Nels Laakso! |
To replace ace trumpeter Nels Laakso, Freddie came up with George Rock, who, as we know, graduated from the Schnickelfritzers to Spike Jones and his City Slickers!
I find such connections to be fascinating!
For reference, here's Stan Fritts taking the vocal on this cut by Freddie Fisher's band in 1938:
I like that one a lot and feel that Stan's vocals were better with the Fisher band!
The flipside of that record, with Freddie's vocal, is awesome too:
That particular song was played by Freddie and the boys in the 1938 Warner Brothers movie "Gold Diggers in Paris," which is largely unmemorable, except for the chance to see them in action:
Very fun!
Hey, let's throw in Spike Jones's 1942 record of "The Wild, Wild Women" for a rare one-on-one Fisher/Jones comparison:
And Spike's record has a brilliant flipside, so let's hear that too:
Great stuff from when the City Slickers were still more of a traditional corn band.
Jumping ahead, the pianist/arranger for the Korn Kobblers, Marty Gold, later got into arranging and conducting studio groups, making a lot of "bachelor pad" music. Here's a 1958 album cut of a sort-of Christmas song:
That is awesome and shows Marty never lost his sense of whimsy!
Back to the matter at hand, good job by the Korn Kobblers on that Christmas album!
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