Item 3234: 63-Note "La Cucaracha" Cylinder (Hirschelbaum 243), Ca. 1953

Beginning with his 1947 15-note rendition of "The Muffin Man", Shlomo "Slow-Mo" Hirschelbaum deftly transformed world-famous melodies into mini-masterpieces that all but defined the soundtrack of bygone Summers. His earliest charts graced the prickly brass cylinders of the "Eulalie" Electrically Amplified Mobile Music Box (Cunningham Transportable Musical Advertising Company, Cleveland, OH) of the early 1950s. Few of these precious artifacts survived the musical mass-extinction that accompanied the advent of electronic music boxes. Sadly, most of us know Hirschelbaum's oeuvre only through the tinny bleating of those noisome contrivances.

Item 3234 is a Ca. 1953 Eulalie cylinder bearing Hirschelbaum's magnum opus: his 63-note, (nominally) 25-second "La Cucaracha", still a perennial California-Land favorite. Noted as much for the notes he excised as for those he left behind, Hirschelbaum's "Roach Song" (as he loved to call it) is especially appreciated for his daring decision to set it in Waltz time and for the unusual anacrusis that begins each musical cycle.

A scant 258 of the 63-note Hirschelbaum Cucaracha cylinders were issued, and only in 1953 and 1954, until the publisher withdrew them from production due to complaints from ice cream van drivers, who reported that a full cycle of the song could stretch an entire city block, reducing sales. Indeed, the song's distasteful subject matter (a disabled cockroach) and the fact that it conjured images of spicy Mexican food, rather than refreshing ice cream, probably also contributed to its short run, while dramatically increasing the rarity and value of Eulalie cylinders of the tune. Surprisingly, a slightly modified rendition of the 63-Note Hirschelbaum "Cucaracha" is still available on certain electronic music boxes.

This particular cylinder (serial number 187) has been field-modified by filing or hammering down certain note-pins in measure 5 to reproduce the rhythm of the opening anacrusis and hard-soldering three additional pins after the last measure to provide an (unnecessary) transition between the verse and chorus that would likely have left the otherwise mild-mannered Maestro Hirshchenbaum sputtering with rage. Given the rarity and historical significance of the present item, the Museum's Curator grudgingly acknowledges the modification as an "acceptable variant" of the original cylinder.

A recent audio recording of item 3234, played on a late-model Eulalie unit (with the Morrison traction adapter to accommodate this early-model cylinder's large girth and lack of a gear drive) is available in the Museum Curator's office, and may be auditioned upon written request.