Cliff Edwards - Night Owl 1933 Ukulele Ike

Cliff Edwards (June 14, 1895 -- July 17, 1971), also known as "Ukulele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929. He also did voices for animated cartoons later in his career, and is best known as the voice of Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio (1940). Edwards suffered from alcoholism and drug addiction in his later years, living in a home for indigent actors. He had disappeared from the public eye at the time of his 1971 death as a charity patient at the Virgil Convalescent Hospital in Hollywood, California. His body was initially unclaimed and donated to the University of California, Los Angeles medical school. When Walt Disney Productions, which had been quietly paying many of his medical expenses, found out about this, it offered to purchase the corpse and pay for the burial; but this was actually done by the Actors' Fund of America (which had also aided Edwards) and the Motion Picture and Television Relief Fund. The Disney company paid for his grave marker.

[@MystMoonstruck]

This could be my theme song! My mom is a morning lark, and I'm definitely a night owl. However, I don't party. I just haunt the Internet, wander around on UA-cam, and enjoy the dark and the quiet.

[@popgems]

Learning this on ukulele (from this video), such a great song, fun to play, and I am a night owl, "just like that great bird, I am a late bird too"... Long Live Cliff Edwards!

[@mlg2592]

I learned ukulele just for this song!

[@shmuelpapirnikov1168]

GREAT ARTIST HE WAS.

[@cheayunju]

+SHMUEL PAPIRNIKOV I agree. Wow! This guy was great.

[@stompyjones100]

Beautiful song, beautiful performance.

[@drednm]

Great song. Edwards performed this in the film TAKE A CHANCE (1933).

[@jonnymomentum3843]

Great stuff. Thanks for putting this up.

[@aaron4wilkins]

during the 1920s and early '30s he had one hit after another. "June Night" sold 3.2 million records, but 'June Night' is not to found on you tube-??

[@markvisax1934]

Such great songs get buried by UA-cam junk. Que pesar

[@Lanocheselvatica]

+mark visax qué pesar, indeed

[@noirkiss3]

I live this song. There's a few great versions with this being one.

[@tomkent4656]

I heard a big band version, but don't know whose.

[@alphaomega3374]

@@tomkent4656 Paul whiteman and the rhythm boys did a rendition of this tune. Perhaps that is who you are thinking of?

[@tomkent4656]

@@alphaomega3374 Yes, that's the one. Thanks.