On to week four of this series – I can’t believe we’re over a month into this lockdown. I hope you’re all doing OK! Anyway – here are the next ten songs in my 100 Most DJ’d countdown.
As I’ve been DJing since 2007, and have had a pretty steep learning curve in that time, this will probably throw up some bizarre choices and guilty secrets. It’s just about possible I could be secretly brushing aside the worst of those – but only the very worst. Where possible, I’ll put in links where you can listen to the tracks.
These are not necessarily my all-time favourite tracks, and I would not claim that they’re all the best dance tracks ever. They’re just the ones I’ve played the most over the last thirteen years.
I’ve created a Spotify playlist to host all the tracks (or all the ones i can find on Spotify anyway) – and each week, I’ll keep adding the tracks for the week. You can listen to it here!
| Track | Artist | Album | Time | BPM | Plays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70 | How Come? (René) | Anita O’Day | Anita O’Day : 1945 – 1950 | 2:43 | 142 | 91 |
| Lightweight, fun. I like rhythmic the vocal style. Listen on Spotify |
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| 69 | I’m Livin’ in a Great Big Way | Buddy Clark with Benny Goodman & Orchestra | 101 – The Essential Benny Goodman | 2:35 | 171 | 92 |
| Classic track – and probably my favourite version for dancing. My favourite version for listening or watching would be from Fats Waller – his humour and sense of fun clinch that one for me. Listen on Spotify |
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| 68 | Make Me Know It | Tommy Dorsey | So Little Time | 3:59 | 146 | 93 |
| So I was playing this one at an event once, and a gentleman came up to me and asked me where I got the track. I don’t remember what I replied but his response was: “I bet you got it from me.” To this day, I don’t know who he was. Anyway – it’s a quirky little low-tempo song, but which builds to a phenomenal energy. I tend to use it to build the energy in a set. Listen on Spotify |
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| 67 | Bouncin’ Around – Philippe Brun | Philippe Brun | The Swinging Mister Alix | 3:17 | 131 | 94 |
| A good, solid, chunky low tempo number with nice energy. It’s one of my staple low-tempo favourites. Listen on Spotify |
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| 66 | Six Appeal | Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five, featuring Hilary Alexander | Crazy Rhythm | 3:29 | 137 | 95 |
| A great version of this classic, from one of the all-time greatest modern swing bands. Fun fact – Six Appeal is basically a sped-up version of My Daddy Rocks Me, with the vocals removed. I’ve often wondered why it was called Six Appeal, and my best guess is that it’s a a play the obvious innuendo (drawn from the obvious innuendo in the original title) and the fact that it’s a twelve bar blues. But I could be completely wrong. Listen on Spotify |
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| 65 | Life Is Fine | Jimmie Lunceford | Back Door Stuff | 2:39 | 148 | 96 |
| At it’s height, Lunceford’s orchestra was a powerhouse – one of the absolute best swing bands of its time. I’ve always love this one – another slow-mid tempo gently building tracks. Great fun to dance to and to DJ. Listen on Spotify |
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| 64 | Troubled | Frankie Trumbauer & His Orchestra | The Jazz Sound Lexicon > 1934 Vol. 4 | 2:45 | 187 | 97 |
| Probably my all-time favourite swing track. Featuring a galaxy of swing stars – Artie Shaw (playing both sax and clarinet solos, Bunny Berigan, Frankie Trumbauer, Artie Bernstein, Glen Miller… it’s an amazing, exciting piece of music, and I love listening to it. Very very loudly. Listen on Spotify |
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| 63 | Grand Terrace | Bob Crosby & His Orchestra | Stomp Off Let’s Go! | 3:00 | 133 | 98 |
| Bing’s lesser-known brother had a fantastic band – and I DJ a lot of their songs. A low-tempo favourite – another that’s good for energy building at the start of a wave. There’s a lot of great versions of this one – this is one of the slowest I know. Listen on Spotify |
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| 62 | King Size Papa | Julia Lee And Her Boyfriends | Kansas City’s First Lady Of The Blues | 2:42 | 145 | 98 |
| Back to jump blues – and Julia Lee had an earthy sense of humour, which is very clear from this song. Fun, with great lyrics. Listen on Spotify |
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| 61 | A Blue Serge Suit | Cab Calloway & His Orchestra | Jazz Masters: The Jumpin’ Jive | 2:37 | 162 | 99 |
| Cab Calloway verbally shredding some poor guy for his lack of fashion sense. The lyrics are gleefully savage: “He’d be just as sharp in the sack, as in the blue serge suit with a belt in the back.”, and sung with Calloway’s incredible vocal style and sense of rhythm – and so much fun to dance to. Listen on Spotify |
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Footnote: – For anyone who doesn’t know the term, BPM is short for Beats Per Minute, and is a standard way for DJs to measure track speed.
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