One Meatball

This "soundie" from the 1940's features a poor old fellow who can only afford one meatball. Doesn't it at least come with a little sauce!?
Soundies were an early version of the music video: three-minute musical films, produced in New York, Chicago, and Hollywood between 1940 and 1946, often including short dance sequences. (The completed Soundies were generally released within a few months of their filming; the last group was released in March, 1947.) The films were displayed on the Panoram, a coin-operated film jukebox or machine music, in nightclubs, bars, restaurants, factory lounges, and amusement centers.
Several production companies filmed the Soundies shorts: James Roosevelt's Globe Productions (1940-41), Cinemasters (1940-41), Minoco Productions (1941-43), RCM Productions (1941-46), LOL Productions (1943), Glamourettes (1943), Filmcraft Productions (1943-46), and Alexander Productions (1946).
Soundies covered all genres of music, from classical to big-band swing, and from hillbilly novelties to patriotic songs. Jimmy Dorsey, Spike Jones, Liberace, Stan Kenton, Gale Storm, Kay Starr, Doris Day, The Hoosier Hot Shots, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson, Gene Krupa, Anita O'Day, Merle Travis, and Lawrence Welk were a few of the Soundies stars. Many nightclub and recording artists also made Soundies, including Gloria Parker, Charles Magnante, Milton DeLugg, and Gus Van. More than 1800 of the Soundies mini-musicals were made, and many of them have been released to home video.
Today Soundies are perhaps best known for the performances of African-American artists who had fewer opportunities to perform in public venues. Fats Waller, Louis Jordan, Dorothy Dandridge, Big Joe Turner, Meade Lux Lewis, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and Stepin Fetchit all made Soundies.
Beginning in 1941 Soundies experimented with expanding its format, and filmed comedy Soundies with Our Gang star Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Broadway comic Willie Howard, dialect comedians Smith and Dale, and silent-movie comedians The Keystone Kops. Most of these films were non-musical, and were not as well received as the musical Soundies. Soundies abandoned the comedy-sketch idea, but continued to produce filmed versions of comic novelty songs. They were regularly described and reviewed in the entertainment and music trade publications, such as Billboard.

[@PHL76Music]

My dad used to sing this once in a while when I was a kid. He had the perfect, deep voice for it. Dad was born in 1921 and I suspect that, as a child of the Depression, he identified more with the song than he let on.

[@skug9bob]

Amusing coincidence: my father was also born in 1921 and used to sing it occasionally when I was a child. Although he might have (according to my brother) have sung one _fishball_ instead

[@stephensanfilippo1845]

The singer is Patti Clayton. She had considerable popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. I love her low tones. I could listen to her sing all day. She could make the telephone book into a torch song.

[@sushimaui007]

My dad's 93 and still sings this. I didn't like it as a kid, but now that I'm a senior, I can appreciate it 😮❤

[@rhiannonb.61]

Thank you to whoever posted this. My great-grandmother used to sing this to me when I was a child. It was a song that was meant to be humorous back in the WWII era. I was too young to understand and I would cry. LOL. She was my favorite person. Thank you.

[@NuisanceMan]

Maybe you understood better than the grownups. The song is actually quite sad.

[@sadiemarie8124]

My nana used to sing me this aswell! and I used to think it was sad too! 😂

[@kinyutaka]

@@NuisanceMan Dude was so poor that he couldn't even get a full plate of meatballs, and they wouldn't even give him bread to go with it. And then he's loudly ridiculed by the waiter, who announces to the whole restaurant that he's only buying one meatball. I'd say you are empathetic if you felt sadness from the song.

[@johnshaw873]

Believe it or not it was originally written in 1851 as one fish ball

[@gofriskyourself-truepacife6025]

My mother sung this to me as well (She's a millennial), my mother lost her marbles so I can't really ask her about it. I guess I finally know where this song came from. I heard this briefly in a video, and learned this wasn't some song she made up.

[@zmiru]

It spawned a Beatles career!!. A quote from George Harrison. It was the first song he can remember singing. "I liked music since I can remember. I can remember One Meat Ball, very early, Hong Kong Blues, that’s one of the first songs I can remember (I must have been about four) a real bluesy song. Those were happy times. I went out with my parents from when I was a baby and we went out a lot. I remember being at one place or another, dancing at the club or at old Mrs. Such and Such. I remember as a baby standing on a little leather stool, singing ‘One Meat Ball.’" - George Harrison

[@acer3573]

My dad remembered this from when he was a kid. I miss you Dad.

[@soylentteal]

I miss mine, too. He heard this song as a youth in the 40s and actually sang it to me.

[@OofusTwillip]

Candy Candido's version shows off his incredible vocal range: from the deepest basso to the high squeak of a tiny bug!

[@dustee]

Gosh, I remember this song as a kid. In Chicago it was sung by this guy that sung songs for us kids, 'Two Ton Baker' the music maker. They would be super funny songs. He would have on cartoons and the little Rascles, Laurel and Hardy. Good Memories!

[@robertlauritsen3511]

I had an Italian Restaurant in Otego, NY. I ran a special one week. I had spaghetti and 2 meatballs or spaghetti with 1 meatball. No bread with 1 meatball.

[@yayayoma]

I first heard this song when my father started singing it recently. He is 89 years old. I thought he was making it up until I found it on Spotify!

[@melackerman129]

Yup, my 90yo MIL started singing this the other day when we were making spaghetti!

[@valkasolidor6727]

I see from some of the posts that it has been recognized how very old are the origins of this song, and how the universal themes have caused it to be revived through generations. Here's the way that I was introduced to it; around sixty years ago this was presented by a guest on the Captain Kangaroo children's show, and a reference was made to the hard times that folks had in the depression era and since. How wonderful that many entertainers have sought to be role models, teaching empathy and understanding to children, and how shameful that some of the best children's shows of today are being vilified for doing the same thing.

[@esmeephillips5888]

This was originally a Harvard students' song from the 1850s and was about fish balls, Probably the later influx of Italian immigrants changed the substance (spaghetti with meatballs). The art historian Bernard Berenson, who had been a poor Harvard student, used to sing it nostalgically after becoming rich and renowned.

[@emilyspencer305]

yea I understand how this song could get stuck in someone's head for 80 years

[@dianammiller3333]

My husband says he remembers this song from his childhood days during WW2 and afterward. Says he and his dad would sing it everytime his mom made Swedish meatballs for supper.

[@hank1519]

A wonderful blast from the past! Thank you!

[@soylentteal]

The food shortages of WWII partially inspired this, but my parents told me that meatballs were typically very large at that time.

[@SanFranDentist94301]

I actually just read it was originally written in 1855 by a Harvard man.

[@soylentteal]

According to Wikipedia, it was originally "The Lone Fish Ball" when it was written in 1855. It was adapted to this version.

[@harrylazard805]

and full of bread crumbs!

[@soylentteal]

So he *does* “gets bread with one meatball!”

[@lizaelliott6862]

I had NO IDEA this was a song! I read it in a book about codfish in elementary school, except the thing was “one fishball.” Wow, what a discovery!

[@peepaw_of_9]

My grandma played the piano and sang this song every time we stayed with her down by her house.

[@caiogurgel9461]

George Harrison used to sing this song as a child :D. Rip George!

[@mimikiryuu]

OMG. Candy Candido brought me here and I'm loving this.

[@jaykrout8954]

My friends like it when I jam this on the guitar and yell them words! You gets no bread with one meatball

[@georgeharrisonshairyson]

And my grandpa sometimes played it miss you Grandpa he died of colon cancer whenever I was 4 but now I am 10

[@MrZluvu4ever]

Not exactly a warm and fuzzy waiter!

[@gabriellefolino4467]

this is my favorite song!

[@georgeharrisonshairyson]

Same LOL

[@doowopp45]

I love this song. I first heard it by the Andrews Sisters on 78. Its the flip side of Rum And Coca Cola.

[@stephensanfilippo1845]

Very Interesting. "One Meatball" isn't about one meat ball, and "Rum and Coca Cola" isn't about rum and coca cola.

[@grayaj23]

This was in my mother's book of chords and tabs and we sang it regularly when I was a kid. I've looked before and never found the right one, until I saw this.

[@Aurora_redux]

You gets no ketchup with one Mcnugget

[@GrigoriZhukov]

such humour out ot such a sad story...how delightful.

[@sideshowtink]

That was fabulous!

[@ethantaylor9613]

Beard this song working as the aid to a 95 year old man named Jack

[@CESAWCER]

Heard a comedian sing this at The Red Mile in Lexington Ky in the mid 1960s

[@DougEsWhurl]

My father had the glass record and gramophone that you wind (no electricity) to play this record. This was the 80s and we were way behind the times. This song holds a special memory for me though.

[@Globalraff]

+DougEs Whurl I have this on a piano roll :-)

[@fmazzar]

The woman singing is Patti Clayton, the original voice of the Chiquita Banana.....I think!

[@square-on-wheels]

I thought Monica Lewis sang Chiquita 🍌

[@georgeharrisonshairyson]

Listen to The Andrews Sisters version it's good

[@johnshaw873]

I like josh whites version the best.

[@jerrilampon9596]

The saddest song ever written and performed.

[@mc8570]

Add to that, "Brother, can you spare a dime?" kzbin.info/www/bejne/aneXqodmgKaAr9E

[@nancymiller4554]

My Dad used to sing this. USAF 1944-46

[@donnanapoli553]

Can't wait for these classic songs to make their appearance again

[@NoWayOut55]

Used to play this in a Blues Band I was a member of. Great Song....only lacking, "NO SPAGHETTI!"

[@prestongarrison8964]

The sound is all on the right channel.

[@TheGregRoxx]

It doesn't really matter, does it?

[@speedracer_online]

it sounds all right to me

[@kennethen1110]

It was recorded before stereo. IE: It's a "Mono" recording.

[@NuisanceMan]

I'm glad it's not on the wrong channel.

[@harrylangdon491]

@@kennethen1110 Your comment is meaningless. Plenty of mono recordings on YT and elsewhere play out of both speakers.

[@danb.3397]

Haven't heard this since about 1959

[@factorylad5071]

Who could have thumbed tis down such an epic.

[@asterix7842]

One of the first music videos.

[@geedupgaming5431]

Best song

[@paulhowes5094]

My favorite song when I was a wee one. Josh White record

[@harrylazard805]

First heard this song on a Steve Goodman album. Interesting to hear about its history and looking forward to seeing more "Soundies" from the past....

[@mjemigh3304]

Really?!? Was it a live bootleg or something like that? It's the kind of thing he would often jump into during his concerts, but I don't recall hearing him do it on a regular album (and I've got 'em all!).

[@harrylazard805]

@@mjemigh3304 You're right. I looked back at "Somebody Elses Troubles" on Wikipedia and it's not on the playlist. That's the only Goodman album I liked as a whole and played it regularly. I saw Steve a couple of times live but I wouldn't have learned the song in my head from that. I distinctly remember singing along with the album but I don't see it anywhere on youtube. Very strange....

[@mjemigh3304]

@@harrylazard805 The only thing that I see that's even close is Dave Van Ronk, but if you're not a folk music nut (like me), it's unlikely that you heard it there. Oh, well....another mystery from our long-ago lives, I guess. I have them pretty often these days.

[@mjemigh3304]

@@harrylazard805 Oh! One more story. When I was in college, Phil Ochs was scheduled to do a concert. Stevie was his opening act. I hadn't heard of him, and his first album had just recently come out. Stevie went over GREAT! Then, when Ochs hadn't shown up, the Concert Committee offerd to refund anyone who didn't want to stay for a second Goodman set as the main act. NOBODY asked for a refund, and EVERYBODY stayed! I saw him every chance I got after that.

[@harrylazard805]

@@mjemigh3304 I have read Von Ronk's autobiography but hadn't heard his version of this song till about ten years ago...

[@markstengel7680]

Funny. Like version Louie Prima but this was sad & funny. Ole time americana

[@richiejohnson]

gold!

[@eddyeduardo5366]

alto nível !

[@joeymulligan9044]

Grew up listening to music like this with my grand pa. Time to jump into a Rat Pack rabbit hole now.

[@JCKAMK]

So music videos date back to at least the 40's. Who knew?

[@voidmstr]

search for SOUNDIES

[@marthalillard569]

I remember this

[@stephenroot1012]

Back when music videos were in black and white.

[@scrapplepig]

Different era, good old days that will never return.

[@Hannah-rx5wb]

scrapplepig this song was made during The Great Depression

[@senji5741]

@@Hannah-rx5wb yea that guy is an idiot

[@mwiedenhof9840]

Wow, I only knew Calvin Russell’s version. 👍

[@chriswhatley7991]

🤨 If that was all I could afford, I wouldn't even bother to go to a restaurant in the first place.

[@dennisgilpatrick1231]

f The first time I heard this was back in the '50's.Some comic (I don't remember) would sing it on the Ed Sullivan show.The next time I heard it was the Dave Von Ronk version.Since I like Dave I think I like his version the most of all.

[@sirjackson5]

Candy Candido?

[@domitype]

Agree! kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3bCqZR7a9iIgZo

[@rogerthompson1622]

"Without the gravy" !

[@genejhsn47]

Ry Cooder covered this on a album inthe 70s.

[@user-ks4ug7tp6x]

lol my friend was singing this song and he sent me this

[@paulnorman3709]

That looks like Harpo Marx playing the little man.

[@sharlinmaximo8844]

A little man walked up and down And found an eating place in town He looked the menu through and through To see what 15 cents could do One meatball One meatball He could be full with one meatball

[@acer3573]

15 cents

[@sharlinmaximo8844]

acer3573 thank you for the correction

[@flaneurable]

I like this version. Do you get any gravy with one meat ball?

[@eddybernard3965]

My dad used to sing this to me as a child, his lyrics were one meatball without the gravy, did he just make this up?

[@chezsnailez]

Assuming 'gravy' is spaghetti sauce, no?

[@georgeharrisonshairyson]

My parents raised me correctly once again LOL

[@Luce_brebs]

This was 90 years ago bruh

[@justinbieberluva1023]

1:09 lol

[@ImPrincesspooh]

Is there a place where I can download this video? I haven't been able to locate it on iTunes, and as the song is sort of an inside family joke, I'd like to download it for my mother and uncle.

[@geenarose4387]

ImPrincesspooh has your grandma ever sung this at her birthday dinner cause if so SAME

[@petercullen6113]

Ive heard this from Josh White and Ralph Archenhold. Who is the woman singing?

[@stephanielang4507]

She just forgot his watermelon

[@crippleKR3W]

t glass ftw dont tell kinno

[@cambec1000]

we sing this song at camp taconic! thumbs up for 01235

[@Eltingej]

Who's the girl singer?

[@georgeharrisonshairyson]

Patti Clayton

[@carloslevifortes9357]

Também conhecido como "Um croquete" 😁

[@georgeharrisonshairyson]

this is way better than Justin Bieber my parents raised me correctly and play swing music for us LOL

[@mikefitzgerald18]

The Ron Desantis theme song

[@UnfamiliarEyes]

One does not simply order bread with one meatball

[@potrezeb1]

without the gravy !!

[@georgeharrisonshairyson]

Or the WATERMALOOOONE XD

[@misszeexx8387]

we sang this in elementary school hahaha

[@beetube1000]

For more information about "One Meatball" and its writers, please see www.argosymusiccorp.com/HyZaret/HyZaret.html#Meatball I found a video on KZbin showing Frank Sinatra and Lou Costello singing the song, but I'm quite sure Frank Sinatra never recorded it.

[@connormcdoormat7122]

This is romans favorite song

[@joeymulligan9044]

Also.... I can only hear this through 1 ear phone. Mono

[@soylentteal]

"You gets no stereo with one ear phone!"

[@tonibennett3787]

does anyone know if frank sinatra recorded this and where can i get it ????

[@kaymartin7822]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5ObpaiJdqiXj6c

[@kobe51]

funny :)

[@deborahtoscano7117]

lol!

[@2watermelons]

josh white originally wrote this

[@mumsyxc]

No he didn't, but he recorded it best.

[@Univarkian]

American patrol

[@BigAssTuba]

Not exactly a Dish Worth Driving For!

[@Sean-ng4eu]

hehe

[@domitype]

Try this version as well: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3bCqZR7a9iIgZo

[@joestardapaixaodecristo]

Vendo o original depois do podcast sociedade primitiva com os felas mais based

[@Alan62651]

This sounds suspiciously like Ella Fitzgerald.

[@shoechew]

I think 1.25x speed is better.

[@huntingthekaiser6490]

This irritating song was hot stuff for some reason during the era of Jumping Jive. There are lots of allusions to it from the day in other songs. Personally, I don't get what the attraction was. Thanks for putting it on, however. Watch it and think of visiting the skunk cage at the zoo.

[@bigfatdynamo246]

This video is fascinatingly bad. The awkward language of the song, the awkward songstress, the visual gags that don't work on any level... it's an amazing clusterfuck. "Hey Sal, try wiggling your mouth from one side to another for no reason! It's funny!" "Hey Lou! We want this guy to win in the end... so pull a full piece of bread out of your jacket as awkwardly as possible."

[@NuisanceMan]

The inability to judge things by any standards other than those of the pop culture of the present day... fascinatingly bad.

[@georgeharrisonshairyson]

You idiot this is way better than cardi B Justin Bieber Taylor Swift Katy Perry Sia and other artists of today especially rap so you should just keep that to yourself and not comment if you don't like this

[@historyshowsus4678]

Troll

[@brucefleming208]

Professional onanist much?