X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Harry Gibson


Harry Gibson

However, in New York in 1944, he filmed three songs for the Soundies film jukeboxes, and he went to Hollywood in 1946 to guest star in the feature-length film musical Junior Prom.

Those two albums include some jazz, blues, ragtime, and rock and roll songs about reefer, nude bathing, hippie communes, strip clubs, male chauvinists, "rocking the 88s", and even about how hip Shirley MacLaine is.

His career went into a tailspin in 1947, when his song "Who Put the Benzedrine in Mrs. Murphy's Ovaltine" put him on the music industry blacklist.


Down the Road a Piece

Although the original lyrics were used by Harry Gibson and Stan Kenton, both in 1945 and the Glenn Miller Orchestra (led by Ray McKinley) in 1946, subsequent recordings of "Down the Road a Piece" usually changed the lyrics that referred to the musicians.

Musicraft Records

Artists who recorded for Musicraft include singer Mel Torme, vocalist Sarah Vaughan, Duke Ellington, bebop comic Harry "the Hipster" Gibson, pianist Teddy Wilson, blues pioneer Lead Belly, poet Carl Sandburg, Dizzy Gillespie, Georgie Auld, Artie Shaw, Buddy Greco, Billie Rogers, and others.


see also