Tom Stacks

Tom Stacks was the lead singer, drummer, and sound effects man for many of Harry Reser's late 1920s jazz and novelty bands that included "The Six Jumping Jacks" and "Harry Reser's Rounders" (Reser would use many of the same musicians and simply change the names of the bands so that he could work for several companies at once). Stacks' unusual voice has been described as having a "built-in smile" and also as being "what a man would sound like if his voice box remained in adolescence while the rest of his body matured."

Stacks sang with joyous enthusiasm on hundreds of late-1920s recordings. His rendition of "Horses" displays his ability to make the most out of the comic elements in a novelty song while keeping up with the rapid-fire tempo of Reser's band, nearly leaving him breathless. Typical of Stacks's recordings is "Send for Our Free Booklet," in which the singer lampoons merchandising offers and slogans of the day. It's virtually a spoken monologue with spirited band accompaniment. Doodles Weaver and the Spike Jones band used the same format in the 1940s, with Weaver's puckish delivery even sounding like Tom Stacks.

Stacks could also sing ballads in a lovely, heartfelt tenor, as evidenced in his versions of "Avalon" and "What a Girl! What a Night!"

Tom Stacks was diminutive and just barely weighed 100 pounds. He died in a Chinese restaurant fire in the early thirties. He returned to the burning building to try to recover his drum set and died in the inferno.