JazzWax List: 6 Tunes for 'Toons

Years ago, cartoons were wry and played a role imparting important life lessons about hard work and fairness, from Cinderella and Bugs Bunny to Little Audrey and Casper. What's more, cartoon theme songs were immensely hummable and became ingrained in the popular culture. Cartoons' widespread popularity had something to do with their showing in movie theaters before the feature film and then their domination of Saturday morning TV. Here are six jazz songs with cartoon titles:

Krazy Kat—Johnny Mandel's flag-waver for Artie Shaw's bebop band was recorded in 1949. It's on Self Portrait here.

Little Lulu—Bill Evans' touching tribute to the girl who was in and out of trouble, but mostly always in. His waltz-time interpretation of the cartoon's playful theme is on Trio '64 here.

Mister Magoo Does the Cha-Cha—This 1955 novelty song wasn't Peggy Lee's finest moment. To add insult to injury, Lee had to share the microphone with actor Jim
Backus—the voice of Magoo—who added the sight-challenged character's addleheaded mutterings. It's on Peggy Lee: Classics & Collectibles here.

Popeye—Organist Big John Patton's 1993 tribute to the spinach-eating sea-loving sailor man is on Blue Planet Man here.

Donald Duck—Sonny Stitt's alto sails  through this quirky quacker from the 1962 release Low Flame here.

Woody Woodpecker Song—Trumpeter Woody Shaw's 1986 take on the "guess-who" bird's lumber serenade is on Solid here.

Comments

[Bill Kirchner]

And perhaps the best-known of all cartoon themes: "The Flintstones Theme". It's been embraced by a number of jazz musicians (most notably Clark Terry) because it's based on "I Got Rhythm" changes.

[Keith Hedger]

Bill beat me to it!!! I was going to mention CTs playing of this theme throughout the last 40 years.

[David]

Woodpecker theme also covered in 1948 by Kay Kaiser, who slowed it down to a fox trot. Shaw's post-bop version probably chosen for the title. Cartoon fans should check out the hysterical jazz parody "The Three Little Bops" which is reviewed elsewhere on this site.

[Andrew Gilbert]

The great San Francisco jazz singer Kim Nalley recently wrote on her blog about how cartoons provided some of her earliest musical influences.

http://www.kimnalley.net/info/index.php?topgroupid=&groupid=43

[David]

I think that the Sonny Stitt side "Donald Duck" actually refers to Don Patterson rather than the goofy critter as DP's nickname was "The Duck."

[Ed Leimbacher]

And every fan of almost any kind of music needs to own and occasionally listen to the tribute CD to cartoons composer Carl Stalling (The Carl Stalling Project, produced back in 1990 by Hal Willner, Warner Bros W2 26027, with a great little booklet enclosed too). Wiki-wacky-woo, it's good for what ails you, when stupidity has conquered all and negativity just won't pull you through. Put it on and put on your happier face. Many a Jazz musician has drawn some inspiration from this set, and that's no put on.

[O'Sullivan, "Red"]

I wonder can anyone help me: who is the jazz flute player on the old TV "Pink Panther" cartoons (mid to late '70s I think)...? He sure got a lot of space, and, as I recall what I heard, I'm pretty confident it's not Bud Shank. Maybe Buddy Collette? I sure would like to know (and, in fact, anything else about the score to that show that anyone may know).
Thank you in advance.

[A Books Blog]

I collect Krazy Kat prints, they might be slap-stick, but they a great irony about them. I hadn't heard of some of these others though, great stuff, thank you!~