All Right Louie, Drop the Gun - Louis Prima, Carter, Ray
Anticipation Without Realization - Louis Prima, Franklin, David [1]
I Feel So Smoochie - Louis Prima, Moore, Phil [Piano]
Civilization (Bongo, Bongo, Bongo) - Louis Prima, Hilliard, Bob
That Certain Party - Louis Prima, Donaldson, Walter
That Was a Big Fat Lie - Louis Prima, Cahn, Sammy
Mean to Me - Louis Prima, Ahlert, Fred E.
Heap Big Smoke (But No Fire) - Louis Prima, Kane, Buddy
My Flame Went Out Last Night - Louis Prima, George, Don
Anywhere in Texas R.F.D. - Louis Prima, Belle, Barbara
Betty Blue - Louis Prima, Leveen, Raymond
Judy - Louis Prima, Carmichael, Hoagy
Abou Ben Adhem - Louis Prima, Miller, Pat
You Can't Tell the Depth of the Well - Louis Prima, Bond, Johnny
The Bee Song (He-Bee and She-Bee) - Louis Prima, Belle, Barbara
With a Hey and a Hi and a Ho Ho Ho! - Louis Prima, Curtis, Mann
All of Me - Louis Prima, Marks, Gerald
Everybody's Friend, But Nobody's Sweetheart - Louis Prima, Belle, Barbara
I'll Never Make the Same Mistake Again - Louis Prima, Berle, Milton
Say It With a Slap - Louis Prima, Daniel, Eliot
Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue - Louis Prima, Henderson, Ray
By now, everyone has heard trumpeter-bandleader Louis Prima singing his lounge classics from the '50s--"Jump Jive N' Wail," "Old Black Magic," and "Just a Gigolo." But here's a package of Prima's lesser-heard recordings--s... more »ides from 1947 to 1949--by the then-leader of an 18-musician big band. Recorded for the Victor record company long before Prima founded his Vegas nightclub routine, these songs often sound more indebted to Spike Jones than to Frank Sinatra. They're jazzy, frenetic, and--most of all--filled with cornball humor. Prima, a master of the double-entendre, performs memorable numbers such as "All Right Louie, Drop the Gun," "The Bee Song," and "You Can't Tell the Depth of the Well"--all songs you're not likely to find on the next hipster compilation. Remastered and sounding much better than other recordings from this period, this is a great package and a must-have for Prima-philes. A young Keely Smith joins her future husband on a few numbers, and there's really not a dud tune in the set. Great stuff. --Jason Verlinde« less
By now, everyone has heard trumpeter-bandleader Louis Prima singing his lounge classics from the '50s--"Jump Jive N' Wail," "Old Black Magic," and "Just a Gigolo." But here's a package of Prima's lesser-heard recordings--sides from 1947 to 1949--by the then-leader of an 18-musician big band. Recorded for the Victor record company long before Prima founded his Vegas nightclub routine, these songs often sound more indebted to Spike Jones than to Frank Sinatra. They're jazzy, frenetic, and--most of all--filled with cornball humor. Prima, a master of the double-entendre, performs memorable numbers such as "All Right Louie, Drop the Gun," "The Bee Song," and "You Can't Tell the Depth of the Well"--all songs you're not likely to find on the next hipster compilation. Remastered and sounding much better than other recordings from this period, this is a great package and a must-have for Prima-philes. A young Keely Smith joins her future husband on a few numbers, and there's really not a dud tune in the set. Great stuff. --Jason Verlinde
Laughs with Louis from his late-forties "novelty" band
Scott MacGillivray | Massachusetts, USA | 04/27/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Louis Prima had several careers as a bandleader. In the 1930s he led his "Dixieland Gang" in hot jazz, then in the early forties he formed a more conventional big band, and in the fifties he found his niche as the genial king of the Las Vegas lounge bands. This collection showcases the obscure late-forties Prima band, which emphasized novelty tunes and scored only one mainstream hit, "Civilization (Bongo Bongo Bongo)." The opening cut, "All Right, Louis, Drop the Gun," is the closest this album comes to a Spike Jones record; you'll even hear Jones's vocalist George Rock in an uncredited falsetto. But in general, this band is closer to Kay Kyser than Spike Jones. These guys aren't satirists like the Jones gang and aren't as outrageously zany, but they do have fun with silly songs. The arrangements are big and brassy in the swing-era tradition, and most of them have amusing call-and-response vocals between maestro and band (Louis begins to sing "All of Me" and the band yells "NO!!!!!"). Some of the standards heard here have unique twists -- "Five Foot Two" opens with Louis hilariously imitating a police call! -- but there's some good "straight" material, too. The best is "Mean to Me," boasting fine musicianship by Prima and band.Fidelity is excellent. A good bet for big-band fans, and if you like Prima you'll enjoy this."