Swingin' show tunes!

Everything about the swinging music we love to DJ

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Eyeball
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Swingin' show tunes!

#1 Post by Eyeball » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:32 am

Someone in another post 'joked' about a DJ using show tunes at a Swing dance and how inappropriate it was.

Discounting all the sides that Artie Shaw did that were show tunes - and he played piles of show tunes in his band all the time- does anyone know of any 'swinging show tunes' that would work at a Swing dance?

It's late and I am not in a thinking mood.

There were *many* albums by Jazz and Swing artists in the 50s and 60s where the 'swung' the tunes from a certain B'way show or soundtrack - quite a vogue for quite some time; usually not too good. Ersatz Swing...more swingy/swinging than Swing.

Ellington had his "Mary Poppins" LP which I avoided for years until I heard it. Great stuff!

Teddy Wilson did a few of these - can't remember which shows.

B'way was *big-time* in the 50s, so people were muscling in on the action, see?

So if you know of any titles......
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J-h:n
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#2 Post by J-h:n » Tue Jul 17, 2007 6:24 am

Aren't a very considerable percent of the jazz standards show tunes to begin with? Start with the Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern songbooks...

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Eyeball
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#3 Post by Eyeball » Tue Jul 17, 2007 7:37 am

J-h:n wrote:Aren't a very considerable percent of the jazz standards show tunes to begin with? Start with the Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Harold Arlen and Jerome Kern songbooks...
A very high percentage if the songs that are played by Jazz men are sourced from the stage and film ad Tin Pan Alley.
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#4 Post by djstarr » Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:07 pm

Summertime for example. Yes, I'd say a large majority of standards [if not 100%] are from musicals, including music from the songwriters listed above.

Another tad later example is "Surrey with the Fringe on the Top". From Oklahoma! Mary Stalling's version is very popular.

And then of course there is "Love for Sale". I play both the O.P. and Sidney Bechet version. From "My Fair Lady".


And Ain't Misbehavin' was first a musical wasn't it? If you were going to edit out all the "show tunes" in your collection you'd be hurting.

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Sumjugei
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#5 Post by Sumjugei » Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:33 pm

love for sale is from cole porter's the new yourkers.

there are even some modern musicals hailing back to the swing era, but i haven't listened through them for dance tunes...

modern millie and contact are two that come to mind. i think ryan and jenny did some of the choreography for contact.

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Eyeball
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#6 Post by Eyeball » Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:00 pm

yeah - love for sale 1930 Porter from the new yorkers scandalous lyrics

otoh - my fair lady was a show that was jazzed up a lot to sell LPs by jazz dudes. it's a great score, but it wasnt jazz, but jazz people likied the tunes...ergo...

most of the standards from that ear came from shows or films or were already established...some came from operattas...quite a few came from tin pan alley....just about everything else was either a jazz standard, a blues tunes or some jazz original
------------------------------------

Sumjugei-

what is modern musical b/c i am ot sure what you mean...modern musicals that are from the swing era? how could they ber modern then?
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Sumjugei
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#7 Post by Sumjugei » Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:13 pm

i mean thoroughly modern millie, movie in 1960s, broadway 2000's, is set in the 20's. so it is a modern musical, but most likely has a dance-able tune.

contact, came in 2000, if i remember correctly, it is in multiple time periods, but i think part of it had swing music in it.

so they are modern musicals, set to swing music.
i guess technically they are 'contemporary' as opposed to 'modern'. oops.

showtunes people play without necessarily knowing it:
the lady is a tramp and johnny one note both from babes in arms
have you met miss jones? from i'd rather be right

also hellzapoppin was originally a musical

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#8 Post by ktron » Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:59 pm

"Hello Dolly" -- I threw it in as part of a desperation set tonight (left my laptop's power cord an hour's roundtrip away and came in with low batteries, doh... thus i was playing from the selection of songs that were on my mp3 player, most because i was getting to know them/reacquainting myself with them). It was well-received, possibly because it was slightly more familiar than most of the set. But I enjoyed dancing it!

I couldn't guarantee it was the recording from the film soundtrack (at least not until I get the laptop recharged), but it was Louis Armstrong.

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#9 Post by Eyeball » Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:14 pm

Sumjugei wrote:i mean thoroughly modern millie, movie in 1960s, broadway 2000's, is set in the 20's. so it is a modern musical, but most likely has a dance-able tune.

contact, came in 2000, if i remember correctly, it is in multiple time periods, but i think part of it had swing music in it.

so they are modern musicals, set to swing music.
i guess technically they are 'contemporary' as opposed to 'modern'. oops.

showtunes people play without necessarily knowing it:
the lady is a tramp and johnny one note both from babes in arms
have you met miss jones? from i'd rather be right

also hellzapoppin was originally a musical
TMM - I only knew of the film. Never heard of contact the show. I am hip to the other tunes shows origins.
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#10 Post by Eyeball » Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:21 pm

ktron wrote:"Hello Dolly" -- I threw it in as part of a desperation set tonight (left my laptop's power cord an hour's roundtrip away and came in with low batteries, doh... thus i was playing from the selection of songs that were on my mp3 player, most because i was getting to know them/reacquainting myself with them). It was well-received, possibly because it was slightly more familiar than most of the set. But I enjoyed dancing it!

I couldn't guarantee it was the recording from the film soundtrack (at least not until I get the laptop recharged), but it was Louis Armstrong.
"Hello, Dolly!" Man...that takes me back 40 years. That song was everywhere by everyone!@ You could not turn ion the TV without some singer coming on and doing Dolly. Too much!

It's not a bad song...in fact it is happy song to listen to and hear.

Armstrong! Isn't that the record that knocked some Beatles tune of of the #! position?

HD
is one of the tunes that I first heard played by a big band on a record I bought. It is a good arrangement played by the Glenn Miller ghost band led by drummer Ray McKinley with Bobby Hackett soloing. I have been listening to it since 1965 so I cant really tell you if it is 'good'....but it would be good for a dance and it is on CD.
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#11 Post by Albert System » Thu Jul 19, 2007 7:56 am

Most of Cole Porter and George Gershwin songs were originally written for shows.

Some Examples from Cole Porter that you probably have some recordings of:

"I Get A Kick Out OF You" From Anything Goes
"It's All Right With Me" From Can Can
"It's De- Lovely" From Red, Hot and Blue
"I've Got You Under My Skin" from Born to Dance
"Just One Of Those Things" from Jubilee
"Let's Do It" From Paris
"Let's Misbehave" from Paris
"Night and Day" from the Gay Divorcee
"What Is This Thing Called Love" from Wake Up and Dream
"You Do Something To Me" from 50 Million Frenchmen

Ain't Misbehavin' was written by Fats Waller for a show called Hot Chocolates. It was Louis Armstrong's big number in the show. The show also featured the song "Black and Blue" which was quite a scandal at the time.

These shows from the 20's and early 30's are very different from what Broadway became in the 50's. They were basically just musical reviews with no plot or dialogue.

So you may be playing lotsa show tunes already and not even know it!

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#12 Post by dancin_hanson » Thu Jul 19, 2007 6:17 pm

Eyeball wrote:
"Hello, Dolly!" Man...that takes me back 40 years. That song was everywhere by everyone!@ You could not turn ion the TV without some singer coming on and doing Dolly. Too much!

It's not a bad song...in fact it is happy song to listen to and hear.

Armstrong! Isn't that the record that knocked some Beatles tune of of the #! position?
Yep, that's right. "She Loves You" battled it out with Armstrong's "Hello Dolly" for many weeks for the #1 spot on the pop charts in early 1964.

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#13 Post by remysun » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:45 pm

I recently had a row about trying to get Avenue Q some play time. The raunchiness, too much dialog, etc., inappropriate for Ann Arbor. Finally, at the end of a slow night at Virgo/Atomic Dog, we played "You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You're Making Love)".

Let us know what happens if you play it in a crowd. High energy, with lots of breaks-- It's a total license to go crazy.

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#14 Post by Lindyguy » Fri Oct 19, 2007 7:41 am

I just played Surrey with the Fringe on Top by Mary Stallings last night. About 5 years ago, that was played about as much as Wade in the Water has been the last couple years.
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#15 Post by kitkat » Sun Oct 21, 2007 1:07 pm

The idea of avoiding show tunes in swing DJing is laughable.

Even if certain hit tunes didn't swing well enough to dance to when they were performed/recorded the first few times, someone who performed with a good swing for lindy hopping almost always covered the song eventually.

And then the song would be one of the tunes that's good for DJing at lindy dances (provided you find the right cover).

Who on earth said that playing them was inappropriate?




(Now, if what was meant by "show tunes" was "show tunes that still have the same feel to their swing that they do when performed in the show," I can see where the comment came from. 80% of show tunes performed in their original show style aren't good for lindy hopping.)

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