Need Another Nutcracker?

For those of you who might have it up to HERE with music from "The Nutcracker" - and the season has only just begun - may I suggest my favorite antidote to holiday overexposure, the version by Spike Jones and his City Slickers with Chorus and special lyrics and effects by Foster Carling and Joe "Country" Washburne, first released in 1945?

I grew up listening to my folks' 45rpm recording of this and though I know there was an LP in the library where I used to work, I haven't heard it more than once or twice since I was 9 years old. It doesn't surprise me how many of the lines I remember.

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Part I

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Part II

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Part III (my apologies for the politically incorrect words to the Chinese Dance)

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Unfortunately, the final part is missing from this video/audio sequence. In addition to the "Mysterious Room" (the Arabian Dance), there is also my favorite "Russian Dance" with the line 'they dance on the seat of their pants.' Then of course, how could you not have the famous "Waltz of the Flowers"?

You can read all the texts here.

A complete version of Spike Jones' derangement is available on the CD Spiked: The Music of Spike Jones or Tchaikovsky's Greatest Hit.

To anyone who knows me, the fact I used to listen to this constantly as a child should come as no surprise...

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Dr. Dick