Tom Stacks was the lead singer, drummer, and sound effects man for many of Harry Reser

Harry Reser

Harry F. Reser was an American banjo player and bandleader. Born in Piqua, Ohio, Reser was best known as the leader of The Clicquot Club Eskimos.- Career :...

's late 1920s jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 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

Adolescence

Adolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...

 while the rest of his body matured."

Thomas De Armen Stacks was born on November 9, 1899 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of Elmer E. and Margaret A. Stacks, both of whom were also Pennsylvania natives. Stacks was an active musician by early 1920 and joined Harry Reser's orchestra by early 1926.

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

Doodles Weaver

Winstead Sheffield Weaver , who used the professional name Doodles Weaver, was an American actor and comedian on radio, recordings, and television. He was the brother of NBC executive Sylvester "Pat" Weaver and the uncle of actress Sigourney Weaver.Born in Los Angeles, Weaver was given the nickname...

 and the Spike Jones

Spike Jones

Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...

 band used the same format in the 1940s, with Weaver's puckish delivery even sounding like Tom Stacks.

Stacks could also sing ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

s 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

American Chinese cuisine

American Chinese cuisine refers to the style of food served by many Chinese restaurants in the United States. This type of cooking typically caters to Western tastes, and differs significantly from the original Chinese cuisine.-History:...

fire in the early thirties. He returned to the burning building to try to recover his drum set and died in the inferno.