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Darktown Strutters' Ball
1917 single by Original Dixieland Jazz Band From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Darktown Strutters' Ball" is a popular song by Shelton Brooks, published in 1917. The song has been recorded many times and is considered a popular and jazz standard. There are many variations of the title, including "At the Darktown Strutters' Ball", "The Darktown Strutters' Ball", and just "Strutters' Ball".
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History
Soon after its 1917 publication, "Darktown Strutters' Ball" was included by Sophie Tucker in her Vaudeville routine.[1] The song was recorded on May 9 that year by the Six Brown Brothers.[2][3] The best-known recording, by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, which was recorded on May 30, 1917, and released by Columbia Records as catalog number A-2297,[1] was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006.
The song is very obviously a stylistic generic copy of the 1914 British hit by Nat D. Ayer entitled "At The Foxtrot Ball, That's All"
More than three million copies of the sheet music were sold.[4]
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Recorded versions
- American Republic Band (recorded December 1917, released by Pathe Records as catalog number 20282, with the flip side "Homeward Bound"[5])
- Ray Anthony in Australia on Capitol CP-139, flip side "Deep Night" and in the US as the flip side to the single "Count Every Star".[6]
- Allen Broome & His Dixieland All-Stars released a version on his debut solo album BucketMouth in June, 2013.
- Boswell Sisters recorded a version (complete with a rumba section!) on May 23, 1934, in New York but was only issued in Australia on Columbia DO-1255.
- Joe Brown on Decca F 11207, 1960, flip side "Swagger"; this was Brown's first single to chart.
- The Brown Dots (released by Manor Records as catalog number 1166, with the flip side "As Tho' You Don't Know"[7]).
- Phil Brito (released by MGM Records as catalog number 11687, with the flip side "Memories of Sorrento"[8])
- Castle Jazz Band (recorded January 11, 1949, released by Castle Records as catalog number 3, with the flip side "Kansas City Stomps"[9])
- Larry Clinton and Orchestra (vocal by Sylvia Syms and the Carillons; recorded January 1954, released by Bell Records as catalog number 1035, with the flip side "Answer Me, My Love"[10])
- Arthur Collins & Byron G. Harlan (recorded December 1917, released by Columbia Records as catalog number A-2478, with the flip side "I'm All Bound Round with the Mason Dixon Line"[11])
- Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album On the Happy Side (1962).
- Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra with June Richmond; (released by Coral Records as catalog number 60000, with the flip side "Dusk in Upper Sandusky"[12])
- Arthur Fields (released by Pathe Records as catalog number 20315B, with the flip side "In the Land o' Yamo Yamo"[5])
- James Gelfand made a version for the Canadian movie Jack Paradise (Les nuits de Montréal) (2004).
- Connie Haines, Alan Dale, the Ray Bloch Seven, and Sy Oliver's Orchestra (released by Signature Records as catalog number 15197A, with the flip side "Little Boy Blues"[13]
- Phil Harris and his Orchestra (recorded February 27, 1937, released by Vocalion Records as catalog number 3565, with the flip side "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea"[14])
- Hoosier Hotshots (recorded December 16, 1935, released by Vocalion Records as catalog number 03734, with the flip side "Nobody's Sweetheart";[14] re-recorded February 26, 1936, released by Conqueror Records as catalog number 8661, with the flip side "You're Driving Me Crazy"[15])
- Pee Wee Hunt (released by Capitol Records as catalog number 1691, with the flip side "Oh!" and as catalog number 1741, with the flip side "Basin Street Blues"[16])
- Alberta Hunter recorded the song on her 1978 comeback album Amtrak Blues (on Columbia). (The album was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2009.)
- Brown & Terry Jazzola Boys (recorded June 1921, released by OKeh Records as catalog number 8006B, with the flip side "Hesitatin' Blues".[17]
- Jaudas' Society Orchestra issued a version in 1918 on Edison Records.
- Martin & Brown ("The Harmonica Duo") (released by Tennessee Records as catalog number 793, with the flip side "I'll See You in My Dreams"[18])
- Lou Monte recorded "Darktown Strutter's Ball (Italian Syle)" in 1954. The RCA release was a major hit, reaching No. 12 on retail sales. He parodies the lyrics, including "I'll be down to get you in a pushcart honey", and asks "Are you from Lyndhurst?", the city of his birth.
- Russ Morgan and his Orchestra (recorded December 21, 1953, released by Decca Records as catalog number 29032, with the flip side "There'll Be Some Changes Made"[19])
- Ruby Newman and his Orchestra (recorded January 21, 1939, released by Decca Records as catalog number 23621, with the flip side "I'm Just Wild about Harry"[20])
- Original Dixieland Jazz Band (recorded May 30, 1917, released by Columbia Records as catalog number A-2297, with the flip side "Indiana One Step"[6]). The ODJB recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2006.
Columbia 78, A2297, Original Dixieland Jass Band, 1917. - Orlando's Orchestra (recorded January 1920, released by Silvertone Records as catalog number 5007B, with the flip side "Missouri Waltz".[21] This version was also released, with the name of the orchestra given as the Federal Band, by Federal Records under the same catalog number, with the same flip side[22])
- Preacher Rollo and the Five Saints (Recorded April 18, 1951 in Miami,[23] released by MGM Records as catalog number 30448B, with the flip side "Original Dixieland One-Step"[24])
- The Six Brown Brothers, a comedic musical ensemble, recorded the song in 1917.[25]
- Gid Tanner's Skillet Lickers (recorded March 29, 1927, released by Columbia Records as catalog number 15188D, with the flip side "Drink 'Er Down"[26])
- Toots' Quartet (released by Decca Records as catalog number 28157, with the flip side "Toselli Jump"[27])
- Fats Waller (recorded November 3, 1939, originally released by Bluebird Records as catalog number 10573B, with the flip side "I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby"[28])
- Chick Webb recorded a version on January 15, 1934, in New York but was only issued in England on Columbia CB-754.
- The Ted Mulry Gang released a rock 'n' roll version of the song catalog number Albert AP11004, produced by Ted Albert in Australia, in February 1976, reaching no. 3 on the Kent Music Report.[29]
- The Beatles performed "Darktown Strutters' Ball" in their early Liverpool and Hamburg performances, though no recording has ever surfaced.
- Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys 1940s.
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In popular culture
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2020) |
- The Darktown Strutters' Ball was the squadron tune of the RFC's elite No. 56 Squadron during the later stages of the First World War.[30]
- Tom and Jerry 1950 animated cartoon Saturday Evening Puss - Background music as Mammy Two Shoes gets ready for an evening out.
- Bing Crosby and Nicole Maurey sang the song in the 1953 film Little Boy Lost.
- In a 1975 episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show ("Edie Gets Married"; Season 6, Episode 1) as the answer to a "knock-knock" joke: Knock-knock / Who's there? / Anna Maria Alberghetti / Anna Maria Alberghetti Who? / (sung) "Anna Maria Alberghetti in a taxi, Honey..." (similar to the first line of the song).
- The tune features in the 1971 Vincent Price horror film The Abominable Dr. Phibes.
- Robert Redford is singing it as he gets ill by the piano in the 1984 movie The Natural.
- Kristin Scott Thomas sings a portion of it to Ralph Fiennes as they are driving through the desert in 1996 film The English Patient.
- Abe Simpson sings it while getting ready for his date with Beatrice in the "Old Money" episode of The Simpsons.
- The opening lines of the song are quoted on the rear cover of The Band's eponymous 1969 album.
- In the premiere episode of the TV series M*A*S*H* (1971), it is background music (sung in Japanese) during a party scene.
- Performed by Anissa Jones and Pepe Brown in the Elvis movie The Trouble with Girls.
- Performed by Antoinette Brown (portrayed by Maura G Hooper) in episode 3 of AMC's Interview with the Vampire (2022)
- Played by a dance band at the Summer Ball in the 1954 novel Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis.
See also
References
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