COMEDY & QUIZZES
21 February 2006
Tuesday 21 February 2006 11:30-12:00 (Radio 4 FM)
Classical musician and comedian Rainer Hersch profiles entertainers who have combined comedy in serious music.
Rainer profiles the life and work of American big band musical comedian Spike Jones - one of the biggest stars of the 1940s and '50s whose career was launched in 1941 with a song that mocked Adolf Hitler - Der Furher's Face.
With his band The City Slickers, Spike was never averse to wearing wigs, playing toilet seats, or tuning gunshots to C-sharp. He mixed the high and the lowbrow, the serious and the comic, instrumental virtuosity and sonic hi-jinks into a blend that startled and delighted audiences in a much more innocent time. Rainer also talks to Spike Jones Jr about the life and work of his father.
