Ernie Kovacs music

"Oriental Blues"
ernie kovacs theme songErnie Kovacs began using what became his theme song in 1951, and continued to use it for all of his TV shows (except for Take a Good Look) through the ABC Specials in 1961-62.  The piece, called "Oriental Blues" by Jack Newlon, takes part of its first strain from a George Gershwin piano rag called "Rialto Ripples".  The tune was recorded by the Tony DeSimone Trio, and it was this recording that was used on subsequent shows from 1951 to 1955.  An episode of the 15-minute "It's Time For Ernie" has the Tony DeSimone Trio performing the piece; although to be fair, in true Kovacs style they are blatantly "lip-synching" to the record, with the drummer playing his hi-hat with a wrench at one point, and during one chorus Kovacs skips into frame and does a swing-your-partner with DeSimone while he is heard to continue playing.

Another single of the tune was recorded by Leroy Holmes and his Tugboat Eight, who were Ernie's house band when Ernie hosted "Tonight!"  two nights a week from Oct '56 to Jan '57.  Also released, but not used by Kovacs, was a slightly more swingin' arrangement recorded by Jan Pierce for an album he did for Mercury.

The DeSimone recording is in G-flat, as are subsequent recordings of the piece as well as the big band arrangement used for the July-Sept 1956 prime-time "Ernie Kovacs Show", although the sheet music is in F.  This is not unusual, as most sheet music is published in "easy" keys, ones that have few sharps or flats in the key signature; ironically the keys that are physically easier to play have the most flats and sharps (meaning they are played mostly on the black keys); G-flat is one of these musical keys, and is the key in which Irving Berlin played everything in.  Click on the image of the sheet music cover to see the music in PDF format.  (special thanks to EK fan JL in CA for sending me a xerox of her copy of the sheet music)

The mystery recording of "Oriental Blues" is the one used for the ABC specials in 1961.  Irwin Chusid, in researching and preparing "The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection" CD in the late 1990's was unable to turn up any information on who recorded it nor on where any master recording of the piece was.  This version (which is the one I taught my self by ear back in the 1970s, from hearing it on the Best of Ernie Kovacs series) is played in F, and a couple of phrases are slightly changed.  Anyone with info on the musician(s) who recorded this...please e-mail us!
Here is an MP3 of eight bars of "Oriental Blues" than you can download to use as a ringtone.  Right-click or control-click (depending on whether you are a Mac or a PC) to save it.  How you upload or transfer it to your phone depends on your phone and cell provider.

Ernie Kovacs ringtone


"The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection"

In 1997 a CD was released, containing music used on Ernie Kovacs' shows, something every Kovacs fan has been waiting for since...well, ever. It went out of print some months after its release but is a much-sought-after Ko-llectable on eBay, Amazon, etc. The CD, titled The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection, was produced by Irwin Chusid, a major Kovacs fan (and supporter of this website), the man who brought us the CD (re-)releases of the music of Raymond Scott and of Esquivel. The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection CD was released by Varese-Sarabande Records.

Thanks to Irwin Chusid's generosity, below are the CD's credits, track listing, and liner notes.


THE ERNIE KOVACS RECORD COLLECTION
Produced by Irwin Chusid, Edie Adams and Cary E. Mansfield
Varese-Sarabande Records
release date: July 15,1997
package design by Chris Ware
mastering by Bill Inglot

The Ernie Kovacs Record Collection
by Irwin Chusid

Ernie Kovacs, as a TV comedy pioneer, has been profiled in books, network specials, a made-for-TV movie, home videos, and broadcasting museum tributes. The Kovacs Mystique endures through his undeniable charisma: the mustache, those smirks, the gesticulating cigar, the deadpan double-takes and the nonchalance, as well as the man's penchant for silly accents and hamfisted ethnic humor.

Kovacs would saunter off-camera, joke with stagehands, and monkey with the lens in unpredictable ways (forever impressing a youngster in Indianapolis named David Letterman). He was casually disrespectful to sponsors. Despite his confident on-camera manner, he was surrounded by makeshift sets and cheap props that malfunctioned. Most of his humor was intentional, but the serendipitous slip- up resulted in quite a bit of unintentional comedy. He disdained laugh tracks. With his use of (then-)advanced video technology, he left a groundbreaking, almost supernatural legacy--the comedic counterpart of The Twilight Zone.

Kovacs perished when his Corvair met a telephone pole on January 13, 1962, a week shy of his 43rd birthday. Although his posthumous renown has ebbed and flowed in cycles ever since, his reputation as the Tesla of TV comedy has never been disputed.

That said, THIS IS NOT A COMEDY ALBUM. We're presenting a different side of Kovacs, one often unacknowledged.

Ernie had a deep love of music, and it was a key element in his programs. This album contains some of the more evocative themes and sketch music he used in his local and network shows and specials, from roughly 1952 to 1962.

It's not hard to make the case that Ernie Kovacs was the Father of Music Video, that he inadvertently launched a revolution that two decades later would mutate into MTV and VH-1. Kovacs directed shortform videos as visual counterparts to pre-recorded music in the late 1950s and early 1960s -- a decade- and-a-half before Michael Nesmith, Todd Rundgren, and Devo strapped on video cams in the service of developing a "new" popular art form (and selling records).

Kovacs was also a granddaddy of exploring what is nowadays called "Incredibly Strange Music," or "Space Age Pop." He used recordings by Esquivel, Robert Maxwell, and Les Baxter, and featured live performances by such eccentric artists as Peruvian diva Yma Sumac, Ferrante & Teicher (on prepared piano), and off-key chanteuse Leona Anderson. He welcomed R&B legends the Treniers and Louis Jordan to his stage. On this album, weÕve included original studio recordings by Sumac and Ferrante & Teicher of tunes they played live on Ernie's network programs; kinescopes of these performances exist in the private collection of Edie Adams, Ernie's widow and longtime TV partner.

Kovacs -- actor, comedian, writer, videologist, provocateur -- was also a choreographer. He directed his cast in absurdist terpsichore -- and in gorilla suits -- against symphonies, ballets, and impressionistic works. Besides primates, his entourage included file cabinets, clocks, roast turkeys, and toy monkeys (non- union). That he didn't always have perfectly synchronized control over these props made his shows all the more verite..

An Ernie Kovacs music compilation seems an obvious idea, but until now, it has never been explored. Countless viewers who have savored Kovacs over four decades have longed dreamed of such a collection. (Around 1978, Columbia Records issued an LP of Kovacs TV comedy sketches; minus the visuals, it was less than satisfying.) Many of these rare tracks are making their CD debut.

Music was an immeasurable part of Ernie's life. He played piano; according to Adams, there's a video of him playing "Kitten on the Keys" at the Museum of TV & Radio. The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary lists Kovacs as composer of three tunes no one seems to recall: "Ugly Duckling," "Patty Cake," and "The Irving Wong Song." He collected records, especially novelties. Hungarian composers were like long-lost relatives. Kovacs had a terrific sense of rhythm, and loved fast tempos, odd percussion, off-kilter horns, and German oompah music.

He also appropriated the masters, such as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin, and Stravinsky. (One show's closing credits noted music by "Ricky" Strauss, "Hank" Haydn, and "Bubbles" Bartok.) "I made it my job to introduce him to more adventurous music," explained Adams. "I liked really weird, dissonant music, but couldn't get Ernie into any of the good, clever, 20th-century stuff. So, I started with Hungarian composers...like Bartok did some marvelous things with folk tunes. Being Hungarian, Ernie recognized these from his childhood. After that, he adored any Hungarian composer. It opened a door, and I created a monster."

Ultimately, Ernie's favorites defy genre. They weren't jazz, pop, or classical; he gravitated to music that fell between the cracks. To Kovacs enthusiasts, these recordings will evoke nostalgic memories of Eugene, Percy Dovetonsils, the Nairobi Trio, and kinetic furniture. But even if you've never seen a Kovacs re-run in your life, each of these recordings is a gem worth hearing. As a director, Kovacs didn't just have good eyes. He had terrific ears.

TRACK NOTES
  1. Please Stand By...

  2. Oriental Blues (Ernie's Tune) / The Tony DeSimone Trio
    Recorded around 1952 by Tony DeSimone, Ernies music director and pianist at WPTZ-TV (Philadelphia). Based on Gershwin's "Rialto Ripples," it was used as Kovacs' opening and closing theme for a decade.

  3. Mack the Knife (Moritatensanger) /Wolfgang Neuss
    From the German cast of Threepenny Opera, "Mackie" could be heard at the beginning of Kovacs shows accompanying quick gag sketches punctuated by an oscillating soundwave across the screen. The recording also made a cameo in the 1961 Eugene special (ABC-TV, November 24, 1961), a half-hour program with no dialogue.

  4. Song of the Nairobi Trio (Solfeggio) / Robert Maxwell, His Harp and Orchestra
    Used countless times in Ernie's notorious Nairobi Trio sketches, featuring two or three cast members decked out in gorilla masks, derbies and trenchcoats, with one ape getting bopped over the head with a mallet or vase. Maxwell's composition was originally entitled "Solfeggio," but MGM Records changed the title to "Song of the Nairobi Trio (Solfeggio)" to capitalize on Ernie's incessant use of the tune.

  5. Polka (fr. The Golden Age Op. 22) / Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops
    This Shostakovich work was featured prominently during the Eugene program's opening scene.

  6. Oye Negra / Ferrante & Teicher
    Ferrante & Teicher appeared on Kovacs shows many times during the mid-1950s, performing duets on "prepared piano" (with wedges and mutes lodged in the strings to create percussive effects). At least three live performances, including their April 26, 1956, rendition of "Oye Negra," exist on kinescope in the Edie Adams collection.

  7. Hot Cakes and Sausage / Ernie Kovacs with the Tony DeSimone Trio
    Originally released on Top Tunes Records (of Ocean City, NJ), around 1952, on a 78 rpm disc, it was used at odd moments in Ernie's radio programs and early TV shows. "He would plug it outrageously," recalled Adams. "Any excuse to sing or play it. If they could put it on the air and sell it, Ernie was all for it. He was shameless."

  8. Saxophobia / Clancy's Clowns
    "The sound man in New York had the original Rudy Wiedoeft 78 recording," Adams explained. "It was what we called 'elbows out' music...a corny thing, like what Gleason did before he said 'And away we go!' If someone was running around the studio, Ernie'd say, 'We'll be there in a minute, don't go away,' and on would come 'Saxophobia'. It was running-around music."

  9. Medley: Jalousie (Jealousy)/Sentimental Journey / Esquivel!
    These two quirky orchestral arrangements by Juan Garcia Esquivel, spliced together by Ernie, were used as the soundtrack for a music video (June 1961, ABC) in which office furniture and secretarial equipment were kinetically synchronized. Esquivel's album, Infinity in Sound Vol. 2, the source of these recordings, must have been a favorite; Ernie used "Cherokee" from the same LP for a September 1961 music video featuring choreographed kitchen utensils, appliances, and a dancing roast turkey.

  10. The Wrong Man / Edie Adams & Ernie Kovacs
    Another Top Tunes 78 rpm record. Edie hates it. "It was the worst!," she laughed. "I was reading it. I'd never seen it before. I'm off-pitch, Ernie was off-pitch, and there's bad accents! It was awful!" Which largely explains its appeal.

  11. There's A Little Spark of Love Still Burning / Henry Burr
    Featured in the Eugene special, in which Eugene (Ernie) disrupts the sanctity of a men's club parlor by turning on an old radio, out of which emanates this 1915 relic. "Back when we were in New York," Adams recalled, "we would give the sound man a stack of records. When Ernie started ad-libbing, the sound man would just play whatever he thought was appropriate. 'Little Spark' was a favorite."

  12. Fish / Leona Anderson
    This bizarre record was played at odd moments; e.g., Ernie would casually walk over to a standing suit of armor, lift the faceguard, and out would come "Fish," presumably sung by the knight's spirit. The eccentric Miss Anderson occasionally guested on Kovacs programs. "She was a wonderful lady," Adams noted fondly. "She knew she was camp, but she was very funny, and very sweet. She only appeared in the New York shows." The song was recorded in the Manhattan studio of marionettist Bil Baird, with Baird on tenor tuba and Tony Burrello on calliope.

  13. Celestial Nocturne / The Les Baxter Orchestra, with Dr. Samuel Hoffman on Theremin
    This ethereal piece was occasionally played under the tender poetic offerings of lush versifier Percy Dovetonsils.

  14. African Echoes / Ferrante & Teicher
    Another prepared piano duet for which a Kovacs kinescope exists, from July 9, 1956.

  15. Indian Love Call / Edie Adams & Ernie Kovacs with the Henry Mancini Orchestra
    A duet from Edie's album, Music to Listen to Records By.

  16. Tumba (Earthquake) / Yma Sumac
    The enigmatic Yma Sumac performed this tune live on the Kovacs show in 1956, surrounded by an exotica tableau of Tiki masks, flaming torches, and volcanic smoke. A kinescope of the performance exists.

  17. Rats in My Room / Leona Anderson
    This song was performed live by Anderson on the Kovacs show during the mid- 1950s; the recording was used periodically as sketch music.

  18. Mississippi Boogie / Ferrante & Teicher
    A third prepared piano duet for which a kinescope exists (September 10, 1956). Although kinescopes have not surfaced, program logs reveal that F&T also performed "Susanna's Last Stand" (4/20/56), "Ritual Fire Dance" (10/8/56), "Mama yo Quero" (9/10/56), and Rhapsody in Blue (10/9/56).

  19. Lt. Kije, Part III - Kije's Wedding / The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner
    This Prokofiev movement was used as a soundtrack to the pseudoscientific video documentary, "The Story of a Drop of Water" (December 1961, ABC).

  20. Oriental Blues / LeRoy Holmes & His Tug Boat Eight
    This remake of the theme was the 'B'-side of Ernie's "Hey, Taxi!" 45 rpm MGM single.
"Remember: Always brush with Schnitzel-Dent"

Many thanks, again to Irwin Chusid for providing the CD's liner notes, above.  There are a few selections that did not make it onto the CD for various reasons:

Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra -- one of Ernie's most famous and moody video pieces used the first movement of this piece; it's the eerie noir-ish street scene. My guess is the movement's too long. Ernie also used a section of the third movement, illustrated by a young couple and a cop at a water fountain, and he also used a section of Bartok's piece for strings and celeste illustrated by a circus poster of a clown with tears streaming down its face.

The infamous "dinner symphony" -- this is what Irwin called the piece with a number of people of different ethnic background eating dinner in time with some music. At the time of the CD's release, no one could identify the piece -- and I mean no one -- and therefore rights could not be secured. Months later, musicologists Irwin had contacted informed him it was a piece by the Hungarian composer Kara Karajev.

Mona Lisa -- the recording of Mona Lisa sung in Polish Ernie used in his famous bathtub blackouts is also unidentifiable (he used the same recording, but of The Tennessee Waltz, for his "Amazing Submergo" running gag).

Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 3 No. 5 -- the 2nd, or "Andante Cantabile", movement from this quartet known as the "Serenade" (actually written by a Benedictine monk named Hoffstetter and attributed to Hadyn for many years) was used in Ernie's Dutch Masters commercials. Which recording did Ernie use, O great Matzah? This was unknown at the time of the CD's release. Chusid has since found out that it was an LP by the American String Quartet. Find a copy on eBay, if you can. In the meantime, you can listen to a recording by an unidentified string quartet here.

1812 Overture, Russian Dance from the Nutcracker Suite, et al. There are a number of easily recognizable pieces of classical music Ernie used which we can all find ourselves.
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