This Song Makes Me Want To Dance

Sing, Sing, Sing

I am sure that you recognize it. It is a standard that is played at thousands of parties. Play this and I can guarantee that you will find a ton of people on the dance floor, many of them completely oblivious to their lack of rhythm.

Unfortunately I am not one of them. Ok, let me clarify. I am well aware of my lack of rhythm. I wish that it were otherwise. Truly I wish that it were. I wouldn’t mind being one of those guys who could just sashay out there and tear up the floor.

I don’t spend too much time out on the dance floor because normally I feel out of place. I know how the limbs should move. I know what I want to look like but the execution of these moves just doesn’t work the way I want it to.

When I was younger it bothered me enough that I didn’t go out without a couple of drinks in my system. The beauty of age is that I just don’t care anymore. If I feel like dancing then I dance. Now I just get irritated, but that is the joy of being a curmudgeon.

FWIW, I do just fine in the slow dancing department, not to mention that I can do a decent two-step. All things being equal, you won’t find me on Dancing with The Stars any time soon, but that is ok.

BTW, here is a little blurb from Wikipedia that you might find to be interesting.

“Sing, Sing, Sing” is a 1936 song written by Louis Prima that has become one of the definitive songs of the big band and Swing Era. Although written by Prima, it is often most associated with Benny Goodman. The song has since been covered by numerous artists.

On July 6, 1937 “Sing, Sing, Sing” was recorded in Hollywood with Benny Goodman on clarinet; Harry James, Ziggy Elman, and Chris Griffin on trumpet; Red Ballard and Murray McEachern on trombone; Hymie Schertzer and George Koenig on alto saxophone; Art Rollini and Vido Musso on tenor saxophone; Jess Stacy on piano; Allan Reuss on guitar; Harry Goodman on bass; and Gene Krupa on drums. The song was arranged by Jimmy Mundy. Unlike most big band arrangements of that era, which were limited in length to about 3 minutes so that they could be recorded on one side of a standard 10-inch 78-rpm record, the Goodman band’s version of “Sing, Sing, Sing” was a extended work. The 1937 recording lasted 8 min 43 sec, and took up both sides of a 12-inch 78. Mundy’s arrangement incorporated “Christopher Columbus”, a piece written by Chu Berry for the Fletcher Henderson band, as well as Prima’s work.

Benny Goodman is quoted as saying, “‘Sing, Sing, Sing’ (which we started doing back at the Palomar on our second trip there in 1936) was a big thing, and no one-nighter was complete without it….” Many swing afficionadoes consider the definitive performance of “Sing, Sing, Sing” to be from Goodman’s famous 1938 Carnegie Hall jazz concert, in a performance that was very different from both the previous year’s commercial release and from subsequent performances with the Goodman band. The personnel of the Goodman band for the Carnegie Hall concert was the same as for the 1937 recording session, except that Vernon Brown had replaced Murray McEachern on trombone, and Babe Russin had replaced Vido Musso on tenor sax.”

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