Vintage Hungry Five Band Publications

Herr Louie and the Hungry Five was a popular comedy act in the 1920’s-30’s in the midwestern United States. They had a light take on the German music tradition playing folk tunes and popular numbers in the styles of polkas and waltzes in live performances and radio shows interspersed with comedy banter. They often utilized an instrumentation of 2 Clarinets, Trumpet, Trombone and Tuba.

This instrumentation became the standard for this small band format, in no small part due to the popularity of Herr Louie, but also on account of the band books first published by Harry L. Alford. “Hungry Five in Germany” (1931) was the first available and “Hungry Five in Spain” (1933) followed. These were followed thereafter with editions for Ireland (1938), Broadway, Ride Again, Italy, Ragtime, and College Fight Songs with songs written/arranged by Alford, Paul Yoder, Wade Marcus and Art Case. Other publishers also released books for this or similar small band formats with Harry O. Henneman’s “Happy Five in Germany,” “Village Band Volume 1 & Volume 2,” “The Schnicklefritz Band Around the World'' and “American Five,” Paul Yoder’s “Oom-Pah-Pah Band Book” and "German Band Encores" from Carroll Butts. Many of these publications have become difficult to acquire in recent years as they have become permanently out of print.

This listing assembles all presently known vintage publications for that 5pc instrumentation included titles, publishers, release years, song listings and cover art. While there are a number of other band and/or small band books published by Vitak-Elsnic such as the Whoopee John, V-E Polka and Little German Band Book, they are not included in this listing as their instrumentation does not conform to the same 5-pc configuration. 

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