Song-of-the-day list (songs by recording day!)

[mr. e]

Hi everybody,
Recently I noticed that one of my favorite songs was actually recorded on my birthday. That brought me the idea of building a "recording of the day" list, i.e. a catalog of nice danceable songs sorted by recording date.

Essentially, that gives you a special song for each day, to build your set around, or as a very special birthday song: "Hey look, this song was recorded on your birthday" is a fun thing I guess. But of course it should also be good for a birthday jam then...

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody here has rather complete recording information of danceable songs, or knows of some web site that has swing classics and allows browsing by recording date?

So far, I've usually only been typing the year into my id3 tags from the liner notes, if at all...

[Haydn]

I was wondering if anybody here has rather complete recording information of danceable songs, or knows of some web site that has swing classics and allows browsing by recording date?

So far, I've usually only been typing the year into my id3 tags from the liner notes, if at all...

Like you, I type the year into iTunes. The full date is somtimes available on CD/Vinyl covers and is also available in discographies. Sounds like a fun idea.

[anton]

You can search by recording date in Tom Lord's Jazz Discography. I did an ego search for my birthday, September 26, and found 51 recording sessions between 1930 and 1945. No favorite songs among those though...

[mr. e]

I found some hits on the Jazz Discography site. Use google an a search query such as:

Code: Select all

site:jazzdisco.org inurl:session-index "May 20"

. I havn't looked at jazzdiscography.com yet, which also seems to have extensive data.

I'm currently reindexing my music database so I can search for arbitrary dates, but as expected most songs only contain release year information (or worse, even just the CD rerelease date).
For my birthday, I found a nice danceable Thommy Dorsey song on a Balboa dancing CD. But I figured it would also make a wonderful birthday present to give people a CD with songs recorded on their birthday.

Here are some songs for these days that I found (not yet filtered for dancability):

May 17 1955: Count Basie & his Orchestra, incl. Joe Williams (on TUJA 42-3)
All Right, Okay, You Win
Teach Me Tonight
May 18 1939: Don Redman & his Orchestra, voc: Laurel Watson (on BalSwing Vol. 1)
Jump Session
May 18 1950: Sarah Vaughan with Miles Davis (on TUJA 42-1, CC1166?)
Can't get out of this mood
It might as well be spring
Ain't misbehavin'
May 19 1950: Sarah Vaughan with Miles Davis (on TUJA 42-1, CC1166?)
Mean to me
Come rain or come shine
Nice Work if you can get it
May 19, 1951: Ella Fitzgerald at Birdland
Imagination
How Long Has This Been Going On?
Someone To Watch Over Me
Jumping With Symphony Syd
May 19, 1961: Frank Sinatra with Billy May (on Capitol)
Don't Be That Way
Falling In Love With Love
I Never Knew
Don't Be That Way
It's A Wonderful World
May 20 1957: Frank Sinatra with Nelson Riddle
Witchcraft
Something Wonderful Happens In Summer
Tell Her You Love Her
You're Cheatin' Yourself
May 21 1944: Ella Mae Morse with Freddy Slack (on Swing for Dancers - Medium Tempo)
Cow Cow Boogie
May 21 1974: Frank Sinatra with Don Costa (on Reprise)
You Are The Sunshine Of My Life
What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life
Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree
Satisfy Me One More Time