That's the one element of the show I feel it could do without. Danny breaking into some lame song, with an invisible, non-existent orchestra playing the background. Aside from the songs themselves, I think the full accompaniment was a hokey aspect.

Danny Thomas was originally known as a nightclub performer comic/singer before becoming an actor and since his character was just that I guess he wanted to incorporate songs into the show, even in the episodes where he is NOT in the nightclub. I think it was pure sentimentality. Funny, when the series was first syndicated they kept in the songs but cut scenes with dialogue. Luckily in recent times they're showing unedited episodes on Prime and Paul Bownstein's channel/streamer!