B. Bumble and the Stingers were an instrumental ensemble from the early 1960s, who specialized in rocking up classical melodies. At Rendezvous Records in Los Angeles, the house band had a hit record with a rocked-up version of "In The Mood", credited to the Ernie Fields Orchestra. Band members Earl Palmer, Rene Hall and Plas Johnson then came up with the idea of taking the same approach to a piece of classical music, and approached pianist Jack Fina who had successfully arranged a swing version of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee" - as "Bumble Boogie" - in 1946. ...show more

B. Bumble and the Stingers were an instrumental ensemble from the early 1960s, who specialized in rocking up classical melodies. At Rendezvous Records in Los Angeles, the house band had a hit record with a rocked-up version of "In The Mood", credited to the Ernie Fields Orchestra. Band members Earl Palmer, Rene Hall and Plas Johnson then came up with the idea of taking the same approach to a piece of classical music, and approached pianist Jack Fina who had successfully arranged a swing version of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumble Bee" - as "Bumble Boogie" - in 1946.

Producer Kim Fowley instructed pianist Ernie Freeman to use Fina's arrangement, but recorded him on two tracks, one using a grand piano for the rhythm part, whilst the other featured a doctored upright with thumb tacks attached to the hammers. Credited to B. Bumble and the Stingers, "Bumble Boogie" went to # 21 on the Billboard charts in 1961. A teen band from Oklahoma, who had played no part in the recording itself, were recruited to handle promotion and public appearances.

Their names were given as Fred Richard, Ron Brady, and the unlikely-sounding William "Billy" Bumble. The follow-ups, "Boogie Woogie" and "Caravan", flopped, and the record company lost interest. Fowley then secured the copyright to an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's "March of the Wooden Soldiers", and recorded it on the Del-Rio label with H. B. ...show less