"Powerhouse" (1937) is an instrumental musical composition by Raymond Scott, perhaps best known today as the "assembly line" music in animated cartoons released by Warner Bros. History 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 two-CD Scott compilation Microphone Music.) The personnel on the February 20, 1937, version are: Raymond Scott - piano Dave Harris - saxophone Pete Pumiglio - clarinet Dave Wade - trumpet Louis Shoobe - double bass Johnny Williams - drums "Powerhouse" and "The Toy Trumpet" remained in Scott's repertoire for decades, and 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 Wise Music Group. Outside the U.S., the title is controlled by Warner/Chappell Music. Structure Structurally, "Powerhouse" consists of two distinct – and seemingly unrelated – musical themes, played at different tempos. Both have been used in numerous cartoons. The first theme, sometimes referred to as "Powerhouse A", is a frantic passage typically employed in chase and high-speed vehicle scenes to imply whirlwind velocity. The slower theme, "Powerhouse B", is the "assembly line" music, which sometimes accompanies scenes of repetitive, machine-like activity. "Powerhouse" in its entirety places "B" in the center while "A" opens and closes the work (ternary form). Use in cartoon works The first use of "Powerhouse" in a cartoon occurred in the 1943 Warner Bros.