Jasmine Records Cliffie STONE - Sings 'The Grunt Song' & Other Country Classics CD

One suspects that Cliffie Stone was not too serious about his singing career, but nevertheless he achieved three Country hits in the late 1940s with Silver Stars, Purple Sage, Eyes Of Blue (1947), Peepin’ Through The Keyhole and When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again (both 1948). Stone appears to be in his element with novelty material such as the singular Grunt Song, a ditty with lavatorial overtones which subsequently has become a cult classic. From the pen of Cousin Herb Henson comes The Board Of Education, the lyrics making it clear that the usually quoted title, Bored Of Education, is the wrong play on words. Billy Vaughn, the future musical dynamo of the Dot label, wrote Dirty Dishes, whilst humorist Stan Freberg was the collaborator on B-One Baby. Freberg began his professional career in 1943 performing vocal impressions on a Cliffie Stone radio programme, and it was Stone’s band who backed his first record (on Capitol) in 1950, John And Marsha.Stone made sure trends of the day were covered, as with Jump Rope Boogie from 1951 featuring Jimmy Bryant on guitar and Billy Liebert on piano. On the flip was The Hokey Cokey which doubtless inspired Ray Anthony’s 1953 better known version on Capitol; a dispute about the authorship of the novelty dance tune arose when an obscure group of Americans claimed they had written it in 1949 when in fact it had been very popular in war-time England some years earlier. Also popular around 1950 was Square Dancing and Stone cut a lot of sides to suit, none bettered than caller Les Gotcher monotoning his way through Square Dance Boogie and an adaptation of Peggy Lee’s song Manana.