SwingDJs

So I'm curious if anyone knows of song titles with swing dancer's nicknames in the title? I know there are plenty of song titles with names of musician's in them (a la Duke's Place, Lester Leaps In, etc) so I'm curious about dancer names in titles.

Shorty George by Count Basie is the only one that comes to mind at the moment. Are there others?

thanks for indulging me in my 2:30am ponderings.

From the "official" Savoy Ballroom website, article written by Terry Monaghan:

[...] Everyone danced "The Shorty George" step that Snowden innovated, the only Lindy Hopper in fact to have a step named after him. The Count Basie number "The Shorty George" though was not named after Snowden. "Shorty George" was a popular mythical figure in African-American folk law as the early 1920's blues number of the same name testifies. It's possible that Count Basie Orchestra 1938 recording however, was a measure of recognition for Snowden who retired from professional dancing on doctor's orders that year, as indicated the following year by Erskine Hawkins Orchestra's recording of "Saboo," (an alternative name for the "Shorty George" step). Fred Astaire possibly confused this issue in a 1942 film by dancing and singing about the Shorty George, whereas Frank Sinatra sang only about the mythical "Shorty George." The step was also a favourite of the Andrews Sisters, who can be seen dancing it in the film "Buck Privates." [...]

/Jonas

There's "Bojangles" by Ellington, but Bill Robinson might not classify as a swing dancer.

"bojangles" was the only one to come to mind immediately. some browsing through my itunes library revealed:

"blues for bojangles", anita o'day with paul jordan and his orchestra. it's in the "young anita" proper box.

"baby at birdland" i've only heard one recording of, so it may have been made for baby laurence for just that one time. it's on a cd called "special tap dance" or "four dancing masters" on the black & blue label. the amazon listing is all messed up, with the band leaders listed as the artists instead of the dancers. anyway -- spiffy disc if you're into tap.

Although I'm 99% certain it's not true, I like to pretend that Blues in Frankie's Flat by Count Basie is named for Mr. Manning.

More likely Frank Foster.

I've always heard that Ellington's Stompy Jones was named for a dancer. No idea who he was, though (and just assuming it was a "he").

Oh, hi guys. I'm new here. Hello Jonas, nice meeting you at Swingin' Spring!

you could just start making up stories - plenty of names of people in titles - Sweet Sue, Honeysuckle Rose, Caldonia, Rosetta, Daphne, Mack the Knife, Ol Man Mose, Sister Kate, etc. Maybe they were all dancers ;-0

I know of one that is pending here in town...

...but from back in the day it is not.



We should look into show dancers, too, by the way. The Silver Belles said in a documentary about them that For Dancers Only was titled with stage dancers (like showgirls, for example) in mind, not partner dancers.

Dumb question, but who are Satch and Josh?

Surreal wrote:Dumb question, but who are Satch and Josh?

good question for baseball season. Thoroughly covered in this thread:

http://www.swingdjs.com/phpbb2/viewtopi ... satch+josh

I'm reading Frankie's autobiography and just learned that Basie's "Miss Thing" was named for a dancer. You'd never have guessed who: the "eccentric dancer" Rubberlegs Williams:

Rubberlegs performed with most of the big bands in many nighclubs and theaters in Harlem, including Small's Paradise and the Apollo. Basie, who he worked with quite a bit, came up with a head tune about Rubberlegs, who was gay, called "Miss Thing". He didn't have any special music that he danced to, so Basie and the bend would just play this song whenever Rubberlegs performed with them. Eventually, Basie had it arranged and recorded it.

Kinda changes the way you think about that song, doesn't it?