Ernest Jansen "Red" Ingle (November 7, 1906 – September 6, 1965) was an American musician, singer and songwriter, arranger, cartoonist and caricaturist.

[3][4] Ingle was also influenced by the country fiddlers he had heard; he was able to play their songs in their style as well as the classics in a traditional pose.

[1] At 15 he was playing professionally with Al Amato, and by his late teens, Ingle was touring steadily with the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, along with future jazz legends Bix Beiderbecke and Frankie Trumbauer.

A pilot since 1924, Ingle wrote the Army Air Forces "I've Got Wings" manual as part of his wartime work at the Civil Aeronautics Administration.

[12] After he failed an eye test for the Air Force, he returned to music with Spike Jones & His City Slickers, where his comedic talents and flair for vocal effects found a welcoming home.

With Ingle's input, the band gradually became a complete stage package that would eventually peak (after his departure in 1946)[13] in the late 1940s and early 1950s with the successful Musical Depreciation Revue.

He would run on in a frightwig, combat boots and a nightgown, while waving a lantern, climaxing the song with the cry "I gotta go!"

[20] Despite the comedy emphasis, the quality of the musicianship was often outstanding, including in some cases Les Paul or Western Swing performers Tex Williams and steel guitarist Noel Boggs.

He reunited with Jo Stafford in 1960 for a performance of "Tim-Tayshun" on Startime;[23][24] by this time he had lost a great deal of weight and was barely recognizable as the former leader of the Natural Seven.

Excerpts from Persuasive Concussion, featuring Ingle, were issued on LP in the 1970s (The Very Best of Spike Jones, on the United Artists label).