Mel Henke's "La Dolce Henke" (subtitled "The Mad Musical World of Mel Henke") is the deepest cut in the Scamp catalog. No less than the avant-garde musician and critic Eugene Chadbourne had this to say about Henke:
Coming up in a variety of Chicago bands in the '40s, this pianist had an unusual career that included recording downright weird tunes such as "Shock Treatment," "Cocky Coo-Coo Clock," and "Frenzied Flight," as well as creating what might be one of the masterpieces in the genre of lounge music, although experts in this style have been a bit relaxed about establishing an exact opinion. Henke shows up in the rhythm section on some Louis Armstrong records, and meanwhile over in Nashville, he once successfully placed a song with Conway Twitty. Henke was trained to please in writing ad copy, an influence that has been considered both a pro and con factor in his recorded works. Perhaps Henke's greatest influence as a musician was in the advertising field itself, as he was innovative in mixing music and sound effects as an attention-grabbing factor in the commercials of the '60s.
...In 1955 he went to work for Disney's television department, writing material for a great deal of the studio's commercials as well as incidental music for the Disneyland television series. Henke ran his own production company as well, and was known for experimenting with sound effects and the concept of mixing dialogue into musical passages. Inevitably, he created a series of albums combining these techniques with full-length musical performances and instrumental skullduggery. "La Dolce Henke", worth hunting down for its title alone, is considered his masterpiece.
"La Dolce Henke" is one of two records Henke released on Warner Bros. in 1962, and it wouldn't be inappropriate to call it "zany". Henke's trademark was to combine jazzy composition with sound effects and voiceover, something he used to great effect in his later TV commercial. Here, it can be a little grating, while novel. I chalk that up to this working best when delivered in small doses. This reissue lives on my shelves next to Carl Stalling, Raymond Scott, and Spike Jones; all bandleaders who weren't afraid to get mega weird and wild.
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