What the Caked Crusader chose to bake to this week (19 Jan 2008)

It’s never going to score me any points for coolness, but I don’t care – I love The Mills Brothers
Often copied, never bettered, they are one of the few vocal groups who can really swing yet also perform ballads. Most of the early recordings are simply a guitar and vocals yet you’ll swear there are more instruments – there aren’t, it’s just the remarkable talents of those Mills boys! Later recordings had them singing with a band and I always feel that this detracts from the brilliance of their harmonies. Having said that, their album with Count Basie would be in my all time top ten list of albums. It’s quite hard to get hold of in the UK but Amazon US has it. Do whatever you must to get a copy (beg, borrow but don’t steal – that’s just wrong) you won’t regret it.

You may be thinking to yourself, “but I haven’t got a clue who these Mills Brothers are”; and my response would be that I bet you have! Their recordings are often used in TV commercials – remember the employment agency ad of a few years back with the “Get a job, bahda da da, sha la la la la” or the recent car ad with the toy tiger left on the roof “hold that tiger, hold that tiger” – starting to sound familiar?

I was delighted to see that there are various Mills Brothers performances available on Youtube
Worth watching if only to see how TV musical performances have changed!