Of all the sped-up-voices novelty acts rushed into print after the success of the Chipmunks, the craziest had to be The Nutty Squirrels, who, improbably, were a scat-singing bop-jazz variant on the concept. Heavy cats like Cannonball Adderly even played on it. Even more improbably, they could be really good - "Uh Oh, Pt.2" was an actual Top 40 hit in 1959 (the only bebop hit single?) and a ridiculously catchy tune to boot. The Nutty Squirrels.
01 Uh Oh! (part one)
02 Uh Oh! (part two)
03 Ding Dong
04 Something Like That
05 Jumping Bean
06 Nutty
07 Uh-Huh
08 Salt Peanuts
09 Eager Beaver
10 Bang
11 Nutcracker
12 Zowee
They even had a tv show. Again I ask: when did jazz lose it's sense of humor?
5 comments:
This is great! Thank you for learnin' me right about an unknown group of nuts, I hadn't any idea of. I think Jazz lost it's sense of humor when Miles Davis became a hot head around 1970...
this actually came out before alvin and the chipmunks. it didn't do well because of the jazz concept. Ross Badgesarian 'took' the concept to pop and created "alvin and the chipmunks" (having a hit with "witch doctor" as David Saville.
This article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nutty_Squirrels
says that "Witch Doctor" and the Chipmunks came out in '58, and the Nutty Squirrels in '59 (tho the Squirrels had their tv show first). Who is right?!
Will you re-up please! Thanks! Love the blog, btw.
Uh oh..!
It should work now.
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