One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded: “Happy New Year” by Spike Jones and His City Slickers!!!

For as long as I’ve been on the radio, and definitely for as long as I’ve been writing a blog, I will occasionally make a reference to a song being “One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded!” (GSER)

I would usually follow that by saying that I would eventually start a category for it, but then never get around to it.

Well, now I’m getting around to it!

My radio show, “Theme Attic,”  is on Wednesdays 1PM-4PM ET.

The show can be heard on WHFR 89.3 FM in the Dearborn-Detroit area of Michigan, or it can be streamed with this link: https://www.whfr.fm/streamer/!

The Greatest Songs will pretty much follow the pattern of The Most Awesomest Song of the Day.

I’ll select a song to celebrate and then give my thoughts about it. Nothing really brand new here that hasn’t been done before. But since I have a website, I can collect them and lay out what my own greatest songs are.

Here’s a link to have a look at “The Greatest Songs Ever Recorded”: https://philmaq.com/the-greatest-songs-ever-recorded/! Occasionally, an “awesome song” crosses over to become a “Greatest Song!”

Even though I always emphasize new music and artists, it’s always fun to take a short drive through the legendary artists, since they influenced those other artists!

But a song doesn’t have to be old or done by a legendary Theme Attic Hall of Fame member to be thus honored.

I can think of several songs that are only a few years old or less that I could identify as One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded.

This will be fun, and hopefully you will join me on my journey!

If you like what you see, don’t forget to spread the word by hitting the “like” button on my Facebook page, Phil Maq!

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When I was a kid and exploring every record I could find in the house (and other people’s homes, too. No one could escape my music obsession!), there was always a stack of what seemed like records in the back of a cabinet, but no one ever played them.

Most of them didn’t have sleeves or protective jackets which was unusual for my house.

No one even appeared interested in them, and I thought that was also strange.

When I asked about the 78s–records that played sound at 78 revolutions per minute and were made out of shellac which made them very brittle, I was usually told that they weren’t worth listening to.

Of course, that made me want to listen to them even more!

When I was finally given some direction from one of my older brothers, I was finally able to unlock the “secrets of the 78s!”

Not every record player in the house had the 78 speed choice.

I’ve written before that I grew up with a Curtis-Mathes TV/Stereo Console as my first main sound system.

Although there was a 78 speed option on the turntable, the needle on the system wasn’t heavy enough to play the records properly, and it apparently would wreak havoc on the stylus.

The decoder to this adventure was a self-contained RCA record player that the same brother owned.

It had an option for flipping over to a seperate heavy duty 78 needle, too!

Going through the stack of black shellac discs, I encountered a couple that had pieces missing.

They really were very brittle.

I enjoyed the frenetic pace of the turntable, and as much as I liked the way the arm and the records dropped on the spindle, I figured the 78s would survive better without falling down on each other.

For the most part, there wasn’t anything particularly exciting in the older format.

There was a Li’l Wally record with his face on the label that looked kind of demonic as it kept spinning around.

In addition, I learned that my family was a little more mainstream back in the day than I thought they were.

Yes, there were several other Polish 78s, but they were right there with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and Phil Harris.

Sadly, no Elvis!

Even though some of the records had pieces broken off, I would safely place the needle where I could still hear the music.

One of those records was todays song, “Happy New Year” by Theme Attic Hall of Fame Member, Spike Jones and His City Slickers!

I’m sure the record was bought for the hit side, “All I Want for Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth),” but I preferred the other much more silly side, “Happy New Year!”

There was just a chip on the side, so I didn’t lose any of the jokes, of which there were sevearal!

This instantly became my favorite 78, and I enjoy it still–except it’s in other formats now!

One of the Greatest Songs Ever Recorded is “Happy New Year” by Spike Jones and His  City Slickers!!!

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I have plenty of other musical areas to explore:

Here’s a link for my weekly list of Fave Songs:

https://philmaq.com/phils-lists/phils-faves-songs/

Here’s a link for my weekly Fave Album lists:
philmaq.com/phils-lists/phils-faves-albums

My somewhat unusual Hall of Fame can be explored here: https://philmaq.com/hall-of-fame/!

Lastly, but most importantly, is my Philby Awards link! A Philby is my annual award for outstanding musical achievement! https://philmaq.com/philbys/!