Artist:Tom Glazer
Song:On Top of Spaghetti
Album:Tom Glazer Sings Honk-Hiss-Tweet-GGGGGGGGGG...and Other Children's Favorites
Tom Glazer was a folksinger who was more influential than famous. Many of his songs were hits for others. But the 1963 top twenty single On Top of Spaghetti was his only chart single. He recorded a lot of children's music. He was born Sept. 2, 1914 in Philadelphia. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants. After his father died during the 1918 flu pandemic, Glazer and his brothers were raised by their mother and other relatives. They also spent time in an orphanage. Glazer moved to New York where he worked at Macy's while finishing high school. He attended City College of New York for three years. Glazer moved to Washington, DC to take a job with the Library of Congress. That's where he met musicologist Alan Lomax who catalogued folk songs. Glazer started performing including at The White House for Eleanor Roosevelt. He had the radio show Tom Glazer's Ballad Box from 1945-47. At the time his songs were social and political commentary. But Glazer never was famous like Woody Guthrie. So he turned to children's music and the radio show Tom, Timmie & Mae with Mae Questel, best known as the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. Glazer also wrote the songs sung by Andy Griffith in the 1957 film A Face in the Crowd. Some of his songs were hits for others like More for Perry Como and Melody of Love for The Four Aces. Glazer continued to record children's music. But he scored his only chart single in 1963 with On Top of Spaghetti set to the tune of Pete Seeger's On Top of Old Smokey. It reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100. You can get it on this CD from Smithsonian Folkways. Glazer continued to perform and record children's music until he died on Feb. 21, 2008 at age 88. Here's a video of On Top of Spaghetti by Tom Glazer.
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