SwingDJs

I hate this track, and I don't often hear it played by DJs. When I do hear the song, it's normally being played by a live band. But whether it's recorded or live it invariably fills the floor with excited dancers. You can feel the buzz when people recognise the opening and rush on to the floor. So I wondered why it isn't played more by DJs?

Well - speaking only for myself, I don't like it either (though 'hate' is a bit strong) - it's just not a track that inspires me.

I think - I've just heard it far too much - rarely on the dancefloor, but off it, more times than I can possibly count - from my perspective, it's the definitive overplayed swing track. If I were to hear it today for the first time, my feelings about it might be completely different - but it's impossible to know for sure...

DJs hate it b/c the song has more power than they do to get people on the floor. Foreign DJs really hate it b/c it is the quintessential American song and it trumps the entire recorded output of their homeland in 3:30 minutes.

Teddy Wilson has a decent version.

i think my problem with "in the mood" is more a function of having grown up with a super-dead ghost band version of it around the house than anything more logical? (i've been known to play the oscar aleman version, though. and the ernie fields R&B cover as a novelty.)

Eyeball wrote:DJs hate it b/c the song has more power than they do to get people on the floor. Foreign DJs really hate it b/c it is the quintessential American song and it trumps the entire recorded output of their homeland in 3:30 minutes.

Sad thing is, is that you probably honestly believe that.

CafeSavoy wrote:Teddy Wilson has a decent version.

His and the version off the Glenn Miller Chesterfield Broadcasts CD are the only two versions I'd play... and I do so sparingly.

GuruReuben wrote:

CafeSavoy wrote:Teddy Wilson has a decent version.

His and the version off the Glenn Miller Chesterfield Broadcasts CD are the only two versions I'd play... and I do so sparingly.

Yes, the Chesterfield Broadcasts is decent too.

Eyeball wrote:DJs hate it b/c the song has more power than they do to get people on the floor. Foreign DJs really hate it b/c it is the quintessential American song and it trumps the entire recorded output of their homeland in 3:30 minutes.

Well - that's me told. Here was me thinking I had a mind and tastes of my own...

Thanks for the Teddy Wilson tip - nice version. I can see that getting a little playtime. I'll check out the Chesterfield one next.

I like the version from Ellington -55 - it takes quite a while for the theme to enter, and when it does it usually gives a lot of people a start, which is fun to watch.

Before "In the Mood", the signature riff was also used in Wingy Manone's 1930 "Tar Paper Stomp" and in Fletcher Henderson's 1931 "Hot and Anxious". The latter, for good measure, kicks off with the riff we know from Basie's "Swingin' the Blues". Ah, how those blues phrases float around, like tiny glimmering archetypes in the big collective subconscius of jazz... or something. Fish, perhaps.

Haydn wrote:Who plays Glenn Miller's 'In The Mood'?

Never heard of it...

OneTrueDabe wrote:

Haydn wrote:Who plays Glenn Miller's 'In The Mood'?

Never heard of it...

In that case, definitely start with the Clifton Chenier version.

Don Redman's recording of "Hot and Anxious" is hot. And also, anxious?

CafeSavoy wrote:

OneTrueDabe wrote:

Haydn wrote:Who plays Glenn Miller's 'In The Mood'?

Never heard of it...

In that case, definitely start with the Clifton Chenier version.

Waaait... Maybe I heard it on the "Hooked On Swing" record I had when I was a kid.

Country cornball Ray Stevens, of course, does it with Chickens...

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Ray-Stevens/dp/B00000343Y

GuruReuben wrote:

Eyeball wrote:DJs hate it b/c the song has more power than they do to get people on the floor. Foreign DJs really hate it b/c it is the quintessential American song and it trumps the entire recorded output of their homeland in 3:30 minutes.

Sad thing is, is that you probably honestly believe that.

Amen Brother Brown! That is the indisputable truth!