Week seven brings us into the top forty! Silly fun fact – if I total all the plays of all the top 100 songs up to this point, that’s 6,608 total plays. Which feels like quite a lot. As a little icing on the cake, you can listen to this week’s instalment on MixCloud!
I’ve also 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 find it here!
| Track | Artist | Album | Time | BPM | Plays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | Route 66 | Gordon Webster | Live In Philadelphia | 4:02 | 151 | 114 |
| An amazing, gently building live version – lots of Gordon Webster’s trademark piano – but when the horns kick in a minute and a half in… oh boy does this get going. LIsten on BandCamp |
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| 39 | Wild Man Blues | Woody Allen;Eddy Davis;Greg Cohen;Simon Wettenhall;Jerry Zigmont;Todd Robbins;Rob Garcia | Wild Man Blues | 3:36 | 151 | 114 |
| Another great Woody Allen track. Filled with hard-to-predict breaks (and *exactly* at the point when you’ve learned to spot when they’re coming, he pulls the rug out from under your feet, and stops doing them. Which is just evil) Listen on Spotify |
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| 38 | St. James Infirmary | Clancy Hayes | Doing the Hambone at Kelly’s, Vol. 2 | 3:08 | 157 | 115 |
| A fun, jaunty, cheerful version of this generally melancholy song. Listen on Spotify |
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| 37 | You Must Be Losing Your Mind | Fats Waller | Complete Jazz Series 1942 – 1943 | 2:33 | 165 | 116 |
| Definitely one of my favourite Fats Waller songs – partly for the vocals, partly for the energy and sense of fun in the music. Listen on Spotify |
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| 36 | Summit Ridge Drive | Artie Shaw | Non-Stop Flight | 3:19 | 130 | 117 |
| Johnny Guarnierio on jazz harpsichord. Utter brilliance – with an amazing ending. Listen on Spotify |
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| 35 | Hollywood Pastime | Larry Clinton & Bea Wain | Larry Clinton & Bea Wain Transcription Sessions 1937-38, Vol | 3:07 | 165 | 121 |
| This is a nice one – I like it as a gentle energy-builder in a set – or as a slightly more relaxing song when I’ve tired the floor out a bit with crazy energy – it seems to work both ways. Listen on Spotify |
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| 34 | Cole Slaw (Sorghum Switch) | Louis Jordan & His Tympani Five | Jukebox Hits Vol. 2: 1947-1951 | 2:46 | 136 | 127 |
| Classic Louis Jordon R&B. It used to be an article of faith with me that no food song could possibly be really about food. Until I heard Coleslaw – which is about … coleslaw. And nothing else. This confused me. Listen on Spotify |
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| 33 | Rag Mop | Bob Crosby and the Bobcats | Bob Crosby and the Bobcats: The Complete Standard Transcript | 2:15 | 161 | 128 |
| There are a lot of versions of Rag Mop out there. I’ve just never heard a better one than this. Pure Bob Crosby brilliance. Listen on Spotify |
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| 32 | That’s How I Feel Today | Jay Higginbotham | St. Louis Blues (Best Of) | 2:35 | 156 | 131 |
| One of the great swing trombonists, known for a slightly raucous style, which works well in this song. Listen on Spotify |
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| 31 | Love Me Or Leave Me | Sammy Davis, Jr. | Pop Masters: My Funny Valentine | 2:53 | 149 | 132 |
| I’m not really a fan of the crooners – and most crooner-style music is not really aimed at dancers. This is a fantastic exception. Also – massively overplayed. 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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