Bob Kames “Dance Little Bird” / “I’ll Never Get Married Again”

Full credits: Bob Kames – The Happy Organ – Featuring Dad & The Kids. It’s an instrumental polka organ record. Though, I guess “Dance Little Bird” AKA “The Chicken Dance” is considered oom-pah music—and was massively popular and sold bajillions of records, worldwide. So, I can appreciate this music in the same way I appreciate someone spinning plates—I could never do it, and I’m amazed by the feat—but I’m not staying up past my bedtime watching YouTube videos. Well, just as I write that, I found a video of Bob Kames performing the song, along with some bird-costumed dancers. Probably one of the best things on that channel. Still, the music—it’s a little hard to swallow. It just occurred to me exactly who the audience is for this record. It’s exactly the person who sees the title, “Happy Organ,” and doesn’t immediately think “erect penis.” Those people are out there—and there’s more than you think. And I’m not proud of not being one of them. But I do have a “dirty” mind. You find lots of Bob Kames records in his hometown of Milwaukee—he cranked out the organ and polka records, I guess. I’m not going to include a bio here, because I’ve no doubt got a Bob Kames LP or two to write about, by and by. His Wikipedia page is well-worth checking out. It wasn’t that long ago you could go in person to the Kames Organ store—I remember not long after moving to Milwaukee, “George” Ruschhapt and I found a nice, smaller Hammond organ at a Salvation Army in Sheboygan, for nothing. It had the little oil lubrication cups, so we went out to Kames Music—I think it was out around Forest Home aways somewhere—and we bought official Hammond oil. It was a cool store—the basement filled with amazing organs. When I have a spare evening, I’ll look up some more history—though, the history of The Chicken Dance—watch out for that one!

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