Powerhouse (instrumental)

"Powerhouse"
Brunswick 78 rpm issue of Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse"
Single by The Raymond Scott Quintette
B-side	"The Toy Trumpet"
Released	1937
Recorded	February 20, 1937
Genre	Jazz
Length	2:56
Label	Master Records Brunswick Columbia
Writer(s)	Raymond Scott

"Powerhouse" (1937) is an instrumental musical composition by Raymond Scott, perhaps best known today as the iconic "assembly line" music in animated cartoons released by Warner Bros.

In scripted comments read on the First Anniversary Special of CBS Radio's Saturday Night Swing Club, on which the Raymond Scott Quintette performed, host Paul Douglas announced that "Powerhouse" had been premiered on that program in January or early February 1937.

Scott's Quintette (actually a sextet) first recorded "Powerhouse" in New York on February 20, 1937, along with three other titles. This recording was first commercially issued on the Irving Mills-owned Master Records label as Master 111 (mx. M-120-1), coupled with another Scott composition, "The Toy Trumpet". After the demise of the Master label late in 1937, "Powerhouse" was reissued on Brunswick 7993, and subsequently on Columbia 36311 (after the CBS purchase of ARC, which included the Brunswick catalog). The same take was issued on all releases. (An unreleased 1939 recording by the original Scott Quintette was issued in 2002 on the 2-CD Scott compilation Microphone Music.)

Both "Powerhouse" and "The Toy Trumpet" remained in Scott's repertoire for decades, both were adapted for Warner Bros. cartoon soundtracks by WB music director Carl Stalling along with a dozen other Scott titles, and both have been recorded by numerous other artists. Stalling, who spiced his scores with "Powerhouse" dozens of times, never created a complete version of the work, with all his adaptations existing as excerpts.

The United States publisher of the title is Music Sales Corporation. Outside the U.S., the title is controlled by Warner/Chappell Music.