AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Phil Harris

Artist:Phil Harris

Song:The Thing

Album:The Thing About Phil Harris

Most folks should be familiar with Phil Harris as the voice of Baloo from the 1967 film The Jungle Book. I wrote about his performance of Bare Necessities. But there's more to Harris than that film and he topped the charts with the 1950 novelty song The Thing. He was in big bands and appeared on radio, TV and films. He was born June 24, 1904 in Linton, IN. but he grew up in Nashville. His parents were circus performers. His dad led the circus band and Harris' first job was in that band. He moved to California and played drums in Henry Halstead's band in Sab Francisco. Then he formed a band with Carol Lofner at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. They recorded for Columbia, Victor, Decca and Vocalion. After they split up in 1932, Harris moved to Los Angeles and led his own band. Harris appeared in the 1933 short film So This Is Harris! and it won an Oscar for Best Short Subject. It was directed by Mark Sandrich who went in to direct several Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers films. In 1936, Harris became musical director of the radio show The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny. Harris played a wise cracking hipster and led the band. He appeared in the Jack Benny films Man About Town (1939) and Buck Benny Rides Again (1940). After Harris married actress Alice Faye in 1940, they led the radio show The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Alice sang and Harris did the comedy. This show ran for several years. This led to a record deal with RCA Victor recording songs like the 1947 top ten hit Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette). But the big one was when The Thing topped the charts in 1950. The Thing is based on the English folk song The Lincolnshire Poacher. Charles Randolph Grean wrote the lyrics. Grean was an arranger at RCA for Eddy Arnold. He also arranged Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song. The Thing was his only big hit as a songwriter. This was arranged and conducted by Walter Scharf. He was musical director on The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. And he composed film scores like the 1950 film Winchester '73. The Thing is on several Phil Harris comps including this one on the reissue label ASV-Living Era. It also appears on several various artists comps of novelty songs. Harris continued to appear in films and on TV. He was a regular on 60s TV variety shows. Then he got the call from Disney to provide the voice of Baloo in the 1967 film The Jungle Book. He's still famous for that. He provided voices for several more animated films. And he led his own band in Las Vegas. Harris died on Aug. 11, 1995 at age 91. Here's Phil Harris performing The Thing in the 1951 film The Wild Blue Yonder. This was a WWII film starring Wendell Corey, Vera Ralston and Forrest Tucker. Harris had a supporting role as comedy relief. He performed a couple of songs in the film.