Jimmy Durante - We're Going UFO-ing (2:25)
Today marks the 61st anniversary of the Roswell Incident, which unofficially served as the beginning of the post-war UFO craze. Many researchers believe that on that on the evening of July 7, 1947 an alien space craft crashed to the earth in the desert outside Roswell, New Mexico. The US Air Force maintains that what fell to earth was not an alien craft at all, but merely the remnants of a high altitude research balloon.
The Jimmy Durante song included here does not specifically reference Roswell, but given the public fascination with UFOs that emerged during the 1950's in the Incident's aftermath, it's not implausible to imagine that had there been no Roswell Incident, there may well have never been a Jimmy Durante 45 about UFOs. Then again, maybe I'm full of crap.
Somebody(s) called CineGraphics put together a video, on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFvt7-WZxTI.
Their notes date this masterpiece to 1964.
Posted by: woid | July 08, 2008 at 03:57 AM
Proof positive that Jimmy Durante was able to take any song mo matter how innocuous and make it charming.
Posted by: phillyradiogeek | July 08, 2008 at 02:28 PM
I thought the unofficial beginning of the UFO craze was Kenneth Arnold seeing flying discs near Oregon in June of 1947, only a month before the Roswell incident, which even gave us the term "flying saucer"-- of course, it was only a month between the two incidents, so whatever.
Posted by: illlich | July 08, 2008 at 02:57 PM
It's all true! I lived in New Mexico and mysterious flaming green and purple objects appear in the sky all the time. Either it's aliens or weird government experimental shit that nobody hears about because the MAN doesn't want you to know. The truth is out there...
Posted by: Nash Roads | July 11, 2008 at 12:48 PM