| “Piccolo Pete” Harry Reser’s Syncopators; Tom Stacks, vocal September 14, 1929 (Columbia 1973 D mx 149004) |
From the Edward Mitchell collection, here is one of two versions that Harry Reser’s band made of a novelty song that was a huge hit for the Ted Weems Orchestra in 1929.
“Piccolo Pete” was composed by Phil Baxter, who led a territory band based in Texas and, later, Kansas City. Baxter is best remembered today as the composer of the 1928 song “I’m a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas,” which has been recorded by a wide variety of artists across the decades.
The first recording of “Piccolo Pete” was made by the Ted Weems Orchestra on June 28, 1929, for Victor and ended up selling over a million copies. Some sources state that it was also the first recording of a novelty song to sell over a million copies.
Back then, the record labels had different distribution and dealer networks. Once a song showed the potential to become a hit, the record labels rushed to bring out their own versions of it.
For “Piccolo Pete,” Brunswick and Columbia both turned to Harry Reser, whose band had become famous for its many recordings of novelty songs with vocals provided by Reser’s drummer, Tom Stacks, who sadly died in 1936 after a Chinese restaurant where he was performing caught fire.
Reser’s Brunswick version was recorded July 22, 1929, and issued under the pseudonym the Six Jumping Jacks. On September 14, 1929, the band recorded the Columbia version featured here, with a completely different, and in my opinion, better, and certainly zanier, arrangement.
At the very beginning of the recording is the maniacal laughter provided by Reser’s trumpeter Bob Effros, which can be heard on other recordings by Reser and others, such as Ben Selvin’s 1931 recording of “Smile Darn You Smile.” Quite appropriately, Effros also played trumpet and provided his trademark laughter on the soundtracks to many Fleischer Studios cartoons such as Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor.
Cashing in on the popularity of “Piccolo Pete,” Baxter composed a follow-up song, “Harmonica Harry,” recorded by Ted Weems and others in 1930, which was also successful, as was a second follow-up song later that year, “The One Man Band.”
In 1936, Baxter and the Weems band attempted to repeat their past success with yet another follow-up, “The Five Piece Band.” It was not as successful. The problem with any novelty shtick is that, eventually, it reaches a point where it is no longer novel.
At 1:25 into the recording, one can hear a brief Harry Reser banjo solo.
Another 1929 version of “Piccolo Pete” was recorded for Columbia’s independent subsidiary label, OKeh, by Fred Hall and His Sugar Babies, who were also known for their zany novelty recordings.