Guest post by Nathan Arizona
This seems like a good time for songs that make fun of fascism, since we have so much of it going on at the White House. But if you want to look back at model fascist Adolf Hitler, Spike Jones is your man. “The Feuhrer’s Face” is your song.
Spike led a talented big band called the City Slickers that was actually a parody of “real” bands. Their performances featured pants-falling-down physical humor, burps and hiccups, gun shots, tin cans, any other metal that could be banged on, at least one air pump and various other sound effects. But there were stretches of quality musicianship as well.
Spike led the band wearing outrageous checkered suits while constantly chewing gum. It all worked for National Book Award-winning novelist Thomas Pynchon, who wrote lengthy liner notes for a compilation album.
Spike’s breakthrough was the 1942 hit “Der Fuehrer’s Face,” into which he threw metaphorical pies. Goebbels and Goring also make an appearance. “Ja, we is der supermen/Super-duper supermen.” Instrumental Bronx cheers keep popping up. The singers wear German helmets and raise their middle fingers when they say “heil.” Actually, I’m not sure what Spike has on his head.
The song had been written for an Oscar-winning animated Disney short called “Donald in Nutzi Land,” but Jones recorded it in a slightly different form a few months before the film came out. In the cartoon, Donald Duck is a frazzled German factory worker forced to make bombs on an assembly line and throw up Heil Hitlers at the same time. Yeah, that’s right, Donald’s making bombs for the Nazis. But don’t worry, it was all a nightmare.
Spike Jones was already well known when his “Der Fuehrer’s Face” came out, but the song’s success inspired him to expand the City Slickers and focus even more on the comedy. The band became hugely popular and had a regular show on network TV in the ‘50s. Spike and the band made the holiday standard “All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.”
“Der Fuehrer’s Face” starts with about 30 seconds of animation from the film and there’s about a minute of (surreal) animation toward the end. Spike’s the one on the left with the kazoo hanging out of his mouth.
The music for “Donald in Nutzi Land” was written by studio composer Oliver Wallace, who also contributed to “Dumbo” and “Cinderella.” In 1994 it was named No 22 on an industry list of the “50 Greatest Cartoons” of all time. If you feel like spending 8 minutes watching the whole thing, here it is. Or you could skip around. Caution: wartime stereotypes.
Here Spike and the band do the non-political “Sabre Dance” — unless they’re mocking the Russians. Did somebody say more cowbell?
