Charleston (1923 song)
| The Charleston | |
|---|---|
Stride piano | |
| Text | by Cecil Mack |
| Composed | 1923 |
| Premiere | |
| Date | October 29, 1923 |
| Location | New Colonial Theatre, New York |
"The Charleston" is a jazz composition that was written to accompany the
The song was featured in the American black Broadway musical comedy show Runnin' Wild, which had its premiere at the New Colonial Theatre in New York on October 29, 1923.[2][3] The music of the dockworkers from South Carolina inspired Johnson to compose the music. The dance known as the Charleston came to characterize the times. Lyrics, though rarely sung (an exception is Chubby Checker's 1961 recording), were penned by Cecil Mack, himself one of the most accomplished songwriters of the early 1900s. The song's driving rhythm, basically the first bar of a 3 2 clave, came to have widespread use in jazz comping and musicians still reference it by name.[4] Harmonically, the song features a five-chord ragtime progression (I-III7-VI7-II7-V7-I).[5]
Recordings from 1923 of The Charleston entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.[6]
In popular culture
The song has been used in a number of films set in the 1920s.
One of the most famous recordings of the song was by The Golden Gate Orchestra in 1925, which has been inducted into the National Recording Registry.[12]
See also
Footnotes
- ISBN 9780976642008.
- ^ Runnin' Wild
- ^ "Charleston | dance". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
- ISBN 9780757993152.
- ISBN 9780882844008.
- ^ Jenkins, Jennifer (January 1, 2024). "Public Domain 2024". Duke. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
- ^ Ginger Rogers - Charleston Scene from Roxie Hart (1942). YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-11.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-56024-369-4.
- ^ The New York Times: Tea for Two (1950)
- ^ "Midnight in Paris - Original Soundtrack Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
- ^ Jones, Lucy (3 May 2013). "'The Great Gatsby' Soundtrack - First Listen, Track-By-Track". NME. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
- ^ Rawlins, Robert. "Charleston --The Golden Gate Orchestra" (PDF). Library Of Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-11-17.
