The Mickey Katz Komedy Kollection 1949-58

Mickey Katz, born in Cleveland in 1909, was a clarinettist and saxophonist with dance bands during the 1930s before forming his own band, and, having failed his army medical, worked to entertain troops during WWII. He met Spike Jones after the war and toured with him, and being influenced some of Jones’ comedy techniques. He decided to make his own English-Yiddish comedy record, which proved extremely popular, and he made a subsequent career out of recording and performing similarly-styled comedy records, primarily for a Jewish audience, but also aimed at the popular market. He specialised in recording Yiddish parodies of current popular chart hits. This 77-track 3-CD collection comprises selected early releases for RCA-Victor and then most of the A and B sides of his singles for Capitol from this era, along with selected titles from his albums “The Most Mishige”, “The Family Danced”, “Katz Puts On The Dog” and “Comin’ Round The Katzkills”. It features his chart hits “Music! Music! Music!”, “Come On-A My House” and “Herring Boats”, which underline that while his music and style of humour were geared to a particular audience, his records had wide popular appeal. He was a highly distinctive and unusual artist and this collection offers a substantial and entertaining window onto his very individual style of music.