Music: Groovy Grimm

“Grandma, what frantic eyes you have,” said Red Riding Hood. “The better to dig you with, my dear.” said the wolf. “And Grandma,” said Red. “what a long nose you have.” “Yeah.” said the wolf, “it’s a gasser.” “And Grandma,” said Red, “your ears are the most, to say the least.” “How you do come on.” said the wolf. “I know my ears aren’t the greatest, but what’re ya gonna do? Let’s just say somebody goofed.”

Thus, with the poetic license of storytellers through the ages, TV Comedian Steve Allen updated the Grimm fairy tale in jazzdom’s Down Beat magazine last spring. It was intended only as a private joke for bopsters, told in the latest Tin Pan Alley argot, where “cool” means good, “crazy” means wonderful and anything that is really tops is simply called “the most.” But the tale quickly reached a larger public when Manhattan Disk Jockey Al “Jazzbo” Collins read it over the air, then recorded it for Brunswick. The record has sold a reported 200,000 copies to become a solid popular hit.

By last week Collins and Allen were in a hot competition to turn out the grooviest session. On a Brunswick side of his own, Funnyman Allen told how Goldilocks wandered into the three bears’ house, found that “the largest bowl [of soup] was very hot, the next bowl was very cool and the littlest bowl was just right. Naturally she chose the cool bowl.” Meanwhile Jazzbo had switched over to Capitol Records, picked up a new scriptwriter (Douglas Jones), and last week released his second pair of “Grimm Fairy Tales for Hip Kids”: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack, on first seeing the beanstalk: “Man, what crazy asparagus!”