Mary, you should hear their rendition of the opera classic "Greeeeeeeasy Pastraaaaaami, don't want ham or salaaaaaami" OMG it's too funny. Yeah, BOTH of them were totally awesome musicians on their respective instruments. They were almost god-like to my dad. He had a lot of their recordings.
Fret, I have no idea how they managed to fit those chords into basic country stuff. I've worked with a lot of bluegrass players in this area, & every single time you get a "jazzy" guitar player involved, it sounds just awful! He was so frikken tasty with them, though. I guess it's a style that's been lost, cuz there used to be a lot of country guitarists who were top-notch in this style until '50's & 60's rock ruined the entire genre, imho, by dumbing it all down for the less accomplished players.
I love the Peter Lorre vocal on "My Old Flame," too. It's one of my earliest memories of music. (I remember scaring my lil sister by imitating that voice...it still works on little kids...heh heh heh) Spike Jones was a master at his craft, but a jerk to work for, I've read. He had a whole orchestra of ppl playing trash cans & slide whistles & weird stuff with traditional synphony instruments. Check out more of his stuff - it's out there - & it's all good.
..People use to actually laugh at this stuff.No F*** S*** D*** unreal!!! No wonder I turned out so well adjusted....... 
Thanks for sharing.
