SPIKE JONES: McNamara's Band

Those guys knew drill, too. Wow.

Love the formation😂😂😂😂

Modern audiences don't always realize that TV shows in 1954 would be broadcast over the airwaves to 12 inch television sets with 4 inch speakers.
Nobody watching at home in the fifties saw this show with 1/10 of the sound fidelity and image quality that we watch it today.

Love that drum pattern!

I think I'll get me a plaid suite.

I always used to think that Hennessy Tennessee FLUTLES the flute.  What a disappointment to know that he TOOTLES the flute.  I guess I'll get over it.

Seventy eight years ago, when I was a four year old, my favorite records were Spike Jones. Twice, when Jones was in town, my grandfather took me down to the Carman Theater in Philadelphia to see Jones onstage -- a treasured memory.

When I was in the Air Force, specifically Air Weather Service, we had an unofficial song that would be sung to the tune of "McNamara's Band".

The AWS Song

Oh, I'll never forget, the day was wet,
The General wanted to fly.
He said, "My boy is it OK
For me to go on high?"
When I said, "No, it's going to snow",
You should have seen him frown!
Say, I'm the only guy that ever
Kept the General down.

Chorus:
We are the men,
The Weather Men.
We may be wrong,
Oh, now and then.
But when you see
Our planes on high--
Just remember we're the ones
Who let them fly.

I read the codes and spot the plot,
My maps are very neat;
With isotherms and millibars
These charts are most replete.
I slip the slide-rule, check the graph,
Consult the weather vane;
I order sunshine every day
But all I get is rain.

Chorus

The teletype's hot, synoptic's shot,
Anemometer's going around,
My pressure lines are intertwined,
My fronts are underground.
The winds that blow from high to low,
Have blown me off the track.
I'll have to throw my books away
And use the Almanac!

Chorus

je n'ai jamais vu des costumes aussi affreux

Fun stuff. I read on the liner notes of an old Spike album that in High School, he was the drum major—just like here. Legend has it that he once led his band out of the parade route and brought it back to rejoin the parade at the right spot. True? I dunno, but fun!

Wish they had sung the words.

Better then what’s on tv today in 2020.

The lovely and energetic majorettes are the real story here.

I’ll take this entertainment over the Batchelorette any day!!!

For anyone who loves music, there are very few Spike Jones episodes WITHOUT at least one jaw-dropping moment.

Oh, me name is MacNamara, I'm the leader of the band
Although we're few in numbers, we're the finest in the land
We play at wakes and weddings and at every fancy ball
And when we play the funerals, we play the March from Saul

CHORUS
Oh, the drums go bang and the cymbals clang and the horns they blaze away
McCarthy pumps the old bassoon while I the pipes do play
And Henessee Tennessee tootles the flute and the music is something grand
A credit to old Ireland is MacNamara's band

Right now we are rehearsing for a very swell affair
The annual celebration, all the gentry will be there
When General Grant to Ireland came he took me by the hand
Says he, I never saw the likes of MacNamara's Band

Oh, the drums go bang and the cymbals clang and the horns they blaze away
McCarthy pumps the old bassoon while I the pipes do play
And Henessee Tennessee tootles the flute and the music is something grand
A credit to old Ireland is MacNamara's band

Oh, my name is Uncle Julius and from Sweden I did come
To play with MacNamara's Band and beat the big bass drum
And when I march along the street the ladies think I'm grand
They shout, there's Uncle Julius playing with an Irish band
Oh, I wear a bunch of shamrocks and a uniform of green
And I'm the funniest lookin' Swede that you have ever seen
There is O'Brians, O'Ryans, O'Sheehans and Meehans, they come from Ireland
But, by yimminy, I'm the only Swede in MacNamara's Band

Oh, the drums go bang and the cymbals clang and the horns they blaze away
McCarthy pumps the old bassoon while I the pipes do play
And Henessee Tennessee tootles the flute and the music is something grand
A credit to old Ireland is MacNamara's band

They need to bring this back to compete with "Naked and Afraid" !

Television doomed these vaudeville acts...

I've just found this channel !!! Yes !!! But ... I can't find a vid of "Beetlebomb " !!!!!!!!!! :)

The majorettes have nice legs and should be naturally bare-legged (no stockings, leotards, tights, nor panty-hose)! And why not hair on their legs? Girls' hairy legs are beautiful and feminine!

The Blonde majorette looks a lot like Vera Ellen.

Crazy and wild but what might be overlooked is the great musical talent of these guys. Remember watching Spike on TV as a kid.

What's the English name of the march from 0.43.....? In Danish it is "mit navn er Mads Mathiesen...." The melody is by Samus O'Connor.

Great stuff. I used to love it when I was a boy and they played anything of his on the radio - whistles, bells and gunshots included! My father had the words to MacNamara's Band on a big sheet, and we used to sing it every Christmas, with different members of the family being given different toy instruments to play at the appropriate times. Though we did it every year we still almost cried with laughter. Those were the days!

Great, great, blooming great. If I was born today and not 1941, I could have been stuck with "One Direction"  I makes one wonder, what happened to humour and music.

loved seeing this, as a band Mom....:-) always loved the suits,...Spike had to have a full time tailoring shop, and a wizbang designer. (plaids, bold checks, not easy to sew!) Cheers!

Loving these clips. If only someone would re-broadcast everything that's available, Channel 4 or BBC 4 would be ideal outlets. Odd thing about this one, at about 45 seconds, the image is reverse scanned for a while, the banjo players suddenly become left handed and the bass drum has back to front writing on it. Still classic though.

Ecellent stuff, I can't wait to see what else you will upload!

Boom boom!