Happy April Fool's Day!

As the calendar turns to April, we celebrate April Fool's Day!

And who was more foolish than Doodles Weaver?

So, here's Doodles singing "April Showers" on a radio broadcast when he was the star comic with Spike Jones and his City Slickers:

A highlight of Spike's shows was when Doodles would attempt to get through a song in his "Professor Feitlebaum" character, inevitably being reminded of horses and launching into his famous horse race routine.

The horse race bit was immortalized on Spike's 1948 hit "William Tell Overture" on RCA Victor:

I wonder what Gioachino Rossini would think of the two most famous uses of his overture being the theme song of the Lone Ranger and the background to a Doodles Weaver comedy bit?

The flipside of Spike's record of "William Tell Overture" features Doodles mangling "The Man on the Flying Trapeze":

You'll notice that Spike refers to Doodles as "Winstead," which is Doodles's real first name. It's funny that he had such a proper-sounding name!

Doodles left the City Slickers in 1951, but still made the occasional record.

And never one to let a good bit go to waste, he recorded "April Showers" for the small Intro Records in 1952:

I think he was just great, the undisputed master of the spoonerism!