Crazy Rhythm
"Crazy Rhythm" | |
---|---|
Swing | |
Label | Victor |
Songwriter(s) | Irving Caesar, Joseph Meyer, Roger Wolfe Kahn |
"Crazy Rhythm" is a thirty-two-bar
Performances
Crazy Rhythm was first recorded for Victor by Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra in New York City in April 1928 with Franklyn Baur singing the chorus:[1][2]
- Crazy rhythm, here's the doorway
- I'll go my way, you'll go your way
- Crazy rhythm, from now on
- We're through.
A version of the song was recorded by Whispering Jack Smith;[a] his recording became one of the most popular.
It has been covered by a full range of artists from mainstream jazz to
Of special note is the performance by
Bing Crosby recorded the song in 1956[4] for use on his radio show and it was subsequently included in the box set The Bing Crosby CBS Radio Recordings (1954-56) issued by Mosaic Records (catalog MD7-245) in 2009.[5]
Tony Bennett recorded the song for his 1957 album The Beat of My Heart. This notable recording is included on many of his (jazz) hit compilations.
Crazy Rhythm was frequently used as the closing music for BBC's humorous The Goon Show, performed live by Max Geldray or Ray Ellington, and is commonly associated with the show.
Another notable recording of the song is on 1961's Further Definitions, by Benny Carter with Coleman Hawkins. This is one of Carter's most acclaimed recordings.[6][7]
Encounters of Every Kind is an album by Meco, released in 1978. It was recorded after the success of Meco's platinum-selling album Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk, and in a similar fashion to that album, contained disco-styled interpretations of the original score from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. On side B the first song is a cheerful rendition of "Crazy Rhythm", with gunshots in stereo and the lyrics with music in slow transition to the Meco's funk-jazz style.
In the 1979 American comedy film The Jerk starring Steve Martin as Navin R. Johnson, the white adopted son of a black sharecropping family in Mississippi discovers he can dance in perfect rhythm to a song he hears on the radio, a champagne style rendition of "Crazy Rhythm."
"Crazy Rhythm" is, for the working jazz musician, inescapable. At a 2006
Another use of the tune was by Stephen Temperley in his 2004 play Souvenir. Its lead character, pianist, songwriter and singer Cosmé McMoon, sings and accompanies himself in this song throughout the play in snippet form while he tells the story and acts with the other character in the play, soprano Florence Foster Jenkins.
See also
Notes
- ^ So named for his soft, "whispered" delivery over the air waves.
References
- ^ a b Roger Wolfe Kahn & His Orchestra at The Red Hot Jazz Archive
- ^ Victor label at The Victor Orthophonic Page
- ^ Tea for Two Archived 2006-06-15 at the Wayback Machine at Tap Wonderland
- ^ "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
- ^ "allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved October 11, 2017.
- Encyclopædia Britannica Online
- ^ Diamond Jubilee of Jazz Archived 2007-02-18 at the Wayback Machine at American Heritage
- ^ Brilliant Corners, David Yaffe's review of Hill's 2006 Birdland concert at The Nation