If you watched as many Warner Bros. cartoons growing up as I did, the song "Powerhouse" by Raymond Scott is embedded in your DNA and you never even knew it. Here's the original version by the artist; if you don't have the patience to sit through 3 minutes, forward to about 1:25 and wait for the "A-ha!" moment.
BTW, you may notice that the Raymond Scott Quintet has SIX musicians. The article explains that Mr. Scott feared the word "sextet" was so racy it'd distract listeners' minds from the music.
Here's a link to a great Cartoon Brew article about this remarkable composition and its decades of dedicated service to more entertainment than you can imagine, and below is a compilation of a few places you may have heard it. These Looney Tunes excerpts are just a small sampling. Composed in 1937, the tune is still being used in cartoons today!
3 comments:
Cool. I always thought Powerhouse was by Carl Stallings. Been a favorite bit for years.
Bud, I think Stalling composed many different arrangements of Powerhouse, for many different instruments and tempos--plus, of course, an enormous library of his own compositions. He was one of the greats.
The compilation CD "Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights" is well worth hunting down
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