When my pal Sean Bonner switched his cell ringtone to the supremely saccharine “Bananaphone,” I was pretty sure I’d heard the most obnoxious polyphonic atrocity ever. The annoyance rendered was like that of a thousand Für Elises, mixed with wasps, accordions, and Yoko Ono trying to hit a high note.
But played loudly enough, any one of these ice cream truck melodies would melt that record-setter into a puddle of digital goo. Link to WFMU blog post with lots of audio files, and here’s my favorite. Maybe I’ll make it my own ringtone. Then every time someone calls me, I’ll taste Creamsicles or It’s-Its in my brain and imagine a creepy dude hunched over the steering wheel, counting dimes. (thanks, Mike)
Mike Ransom says,
I noticed that WFMU MP3-ized the WAV of “And The Band
Played On” from my Ice Cream page: Link.I found a sample fragment from an urban musicology
album online on 4/29/2000
(Link). I was able
to carefully re-splice it into a whole so it could
play as a continuous loop on the above page.That’s the one I really remember as a kid, plus Mr.
Softee (I also like the less wholesome Kid Creole and
the Cocoanuts tune with the same title.)