gts113 “apiarish”
Was into my 30s, before realizing that bees don’t have knees, it’s slang for “business”
01-01 Harry James – Columbia 36004 – Flight Of The Bumblebee (1941)
— Rimsky-Korsakov composition, re-arranged to be a gateway drug to swing jazz, known at the time as the devil’s music.
01-02 The Waistcoats – Jesus Christ Surferstar 03 – What’s The Buzz (2003)
— technically not about bees.
01-03 Chiaki – Bee 01 – Bee (2000)
— more famous as a children’s book author.
01-04 B. Bumble & The Stingers – Rendezvous 140 – Bumble Boogie (1961)
— there was a nice version by Freddy Martin’s orchestra in ’49, but look at this band name!
01-05 Sugar & The Hi Lows – High Roller 01 – Bees Left The Trees (2015)
— best line: “wings are tired don’t mean they can’t fly.”
01-06 Buck Griffin – MGM K12439 – Old Bee Tree (1957)
— reply to previous.
01-07 The Ventures – Twist With The Ventures 206 – Bumble Bee Twist (The Wasp) (1962)
02-01 Edouard Leon-Scott – Vole Petite Abeille (Fly, Little Bee) (excerpt of ‘La Chanson de l’Abeille’ from opera ‘La Reine Topaze’ by Victor Massé 1856) (1860-09-15)
— a “phonautogram” made by scratching waveforms onto a rolling strip of soot-covered paper, he recorded sound but had no way to play it back. Took 150 years for someone to think “hey we could read those soot etchings now, if we use lasers.” Edison and Bell took Scott’s idea in 1876, at first using wax to make a recording which COULD be played back. So a hit record is “hot wax”.
02-02 Freakwater – End Of Time 10 – Queen Bee (1999)
02-03 Pink Floyd – I’m A King Bee (1964)
02-04 Bee Bee Queen – Queen Bee
— tough to get info on this disc, without only two distinct search terms, the results are understandably swamped.
02-05 Devendra Banhart – Cripple Crow 07 – I Do Dig A Certain Girl (2005)
— played on a previous show, it’s a sweet little tune.
02-06 Jana D’Ora – Top Rank International RA2094 – King Bee (1961)
— Jana’s idol list, not sure who Mister Scott is. Edouard Leon-Scott?
02-07 Brian Bonz & The Major Crimes – The Triborough Odyssey 02 – The Honey Bee (2010)
03-01 Anouk – Dino Music 50999 0271517 9 – Killer Bee (2011)
— a queen bee on the prowl, looked into adding a Beyonce tune in the show because of her nickname, but nothing fit.
03-02 Archers Of Loaf – All The Nation’s Airports 05 – Attack Of The Killer Bees (2012)
— one of the few bee instrumentals which doesn’t riff off of Rimsky-Korsakov.
03-03 The Bobs – Songs For Tomorrow Morning 14 – Killer Bees (1988)
— wait, we’re still alive? How so? Them Africanized killer bees were supposed to have wiped out humanity by the 1990s.
03-04 LaVern Baker – Atlantic 2077 – Bumble Bee (1960)
— saw the name, would’ve expected nothing less. Never heard her in front of a glockenspiel before, really sounds like a lost tune of the esteemed Rochester band Colorblind James Experience.
03-05 The Sunny Cowgirls – Summer 12 – Bee Sting (2010)
— Aussie fungirls with toxins in the brain!
03-06 Tommy Durden – D 1076 – The Bee (That Won The Baseball Game) (1959)
03-07 The Baseballs – Strings ‘N’ Stripes 13 – Surfin’ Bee (2012)
— obviously the only tune in the world which could follow Tommy Durden.
04-01 Richard “Rabbit” Brown – Victor 21475 – Never Let The Same Bee Sting You Twice (1928)
— speshully not a dead bee.
04-02 Nemesis Dub Systems – Serenity Dub 1.1 a.m. 02 – Bee Buzz (Recycle Dub) (1995)
— with so many tunes incorporating Rimsky-Korsakov, making the tunes flow into each other was easy bees-knees.
04-03 Wilson Pickett – In Philadelphia 104 – Bumble Bee (Sting Me) (1970)
04-04 Louis Jordan – Decca 18734 – Buzz Me (1946)
— someday, will get Louis Jordan and Louis Prima into the same show, almost happened here.
04-05 Stephen Stills – Just Roll Tape April 26 1968 107 – Bumblebee (Do You Need A Place To Hide) (1968)
04-06 Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Hunnybee (2018)
05-01 Lucinda Williams – Little Honey 05 – Honey Bee (2008)
05-02 Jane Turzy & Eddie Ballantine Orchestra – Coral 9-62039 – Honey Bee (1958)
— brripta!
05-03 Muddy Waters – Sail On 105 – Honey Bee (1969)
— this show’s grounding rod.
05-04 Jatun – Jatun 05 – Bee Bee (2007)
05-05 Hollywood Flames – Two Little Bees
— originally planned to use the Flames’ “Buzz Buzz Buzz”, but this one is a better tune and there’s plenty of other versions of “Buzz Buzz Buzz”.
05-06 Fifth Dead – Bumble Bee (1975)
— Krautrock, they called it.
06-01 Chuck Bowers – Bee Hive Boogie (1952)
— taken off broadcast, the date is conjecture since 1952 is when it was a minor hit for others.
06-02 The Hi-Risers – Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland OH 2009-11-06 12 – Buzz Little Bumblebee (2009)
— you go Zzzzttt ZzzzZttt, Zzzztttt, ZzzZZtttttTt.
06-03 The Cadillacs – Josie 829 – Buzz-Buzz-Buzz (1956)
— lots of candidates for this tune, still disappointed that the many versions of “Buzz Buzz A Diddle It” are all about a telephone busy signal.
06-04 Wink Lewis & Buzz Busby – Tone 1121 – Zztt Zztt Zztt (1956)
— a squeeze, not clearly about bees but a good fit after The Cadillacs and Hi-Risers.
06-05 Aqua – Aquarius 11 – Bumble Bees (2000)
— time travel back to the millen-turn and you’ll hear a bunch of tunes off this album getting airplay, as programming directors responded to the smash hot wax of Aqua’s “Barbie Girl”. No other cuts really caught, but they’re all fun music.
06-06 Billy Mitchell – Blue 110 – The Bumble Bee Invaded A Nudist Colony (1950)
— in the grand tradition of shaving cream.
06-07 Doris Day – Philips B21043H – Be My Little Baby Bumblebee (1953)
— America’s sweetheart, but get her singing lower and she’s a dripping buttercup.
… and a bonus track…
07-01 The Bubblemen – The Bubblemen Are Coming! 102 – Bees (1988)
— prefaced by an SNL bit from 1975, think that’s Paul Simon hosting. Once saw The Bubblemen in concert, The Mighty Lemondrops opened for them. The Bubblemen used this as a ramp-up piece of audio, as they hit the stage in full-body bee costumes. Of course, by then everyone knew that it was the members of the band Love And Rockets.