It’s been a long ten weeks, putting together this set of blog posts – and I can barely believe I’ve reached the end of it. Here then, is the last installment. As ever, all the songs can be heard on a MixCloud mix, and on my now complete(ish) Spotify list. Enjoy!
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Six Appeal (My Daddy Rocks Me) | Benny Goodman;Charlie Christian;Benny Goodman Sextet | Guitar & Bass | 3:18 | 145 | 185 |
| In case you haven’t spotted the similarity between My Daddy Rocks me and Six Appeal, they are, in fact, the same song. Six Appeal is simply a lot faster, and purely instrumental -and both can be great fun to dance to. Listen on Spotify |
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| 9 | I Like Pie, I Like Cake | Four Clefs | Roots, Volume 2 the 1930’s | 2:44 | 151 | 189 |
| When I first started DJing, one of the first things I did was find everyone’s lists of overplayed songs, and buy them all – on the basis that if they were worth overplaying, they were definitely worth playing. Which probably explains why I played this one quite so much before I found the Jetter-Pillars version. Listen on Spotify |
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| 8 | Banana Split For My Baby – Louis Prima | Louis Prima | The Best Of | 2:32 | 138 | 191 |
| I’m afraid the top ten list will be very heavy on the “classic overplayed” songs. Here’s another. Listen on Spotify |
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| 7 | Study In Red | Larry Clinton | Studies In Clinton | 3:15 | 166 | 197 |
| Steve Coombs of Shirt Tail Stompers’ fame pointed out to me recently that Study in Red is perhaps the ultimate riff tune – almost no solos, just riff after riff after riff, which just build and build and build. For all that, it’s still a great song. Listen on Spotify |
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| 6 | Till Tom Special | Lionel Hampton | The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937-1941 | 3:23 | 160 | 207 |
| A heavy, heavy groove, written by Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman, and a great, solid, dependable dance tune. Listen on Spotify |
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| 5 | Gimme A Pigfoot | LaVern Baker | Precious Memories / LaVern Sings Bessie Smith | 3:09 | 120 | 210 |
| A Bessie Smith classic. Many many years ago, after DJing this, one of the (very well known) international teachers came up, asked me what it was, then told me repeatedly that it was a “***ink amazing track”…. (happy times) Listen on Spotify |
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| 4 | Hallelujah I Love Him So | Ella Fitzgerald | Twelve Nights in Hollywood | 2:19 | 140 | 215 |
| All Ella’s vocal talent and timing is on display here, which makes this version an utter joy to listen to and dance to. Listen on Spotify |
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| 3 | On Revival Day | LaVern Baker | Precious Memories / LaVern Sings Bessie Smith | 3:16 | 143 | 222 |
| Another of Lavern Baker’s wonderful Bessie Smith covers. Listen on Spotify |
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| 2 | Hoodle Addle | Ray McKinley | Ray McKinley And His Orchestra 1946-49 | 2:43 | 146 | 230 |
| Ray McKinley was one of the great swing era drummers – playing a great deal with WIll Bradley and contributing hugely to Jimmy Dorsey’s, as well as his own orchestra. Listen on Spotify |
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| 1 | Joshua (Straycat Edit) | Ralph Flanagan & His Orchestra | Devil’s Holiday | 2:44 | 134 | 264 |
| I’ve always loved the many, many versions of Joshua – but this one is a great version, completely ruined by a trumpet fanfare that keeps coming back to spoil the day for anyone trying to dance to it. It’s the first edit I ever did, because I can’t bear to play it without removing that fanfare. The Spotify version will, of course, have the fanfare in. The MixCloud one is my own special edit. 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.
Thanks for posting these – a great chance to benefit from all your hard work!
Found a few new avenues to explore, can’t wait to play for a live room again, can’t come soon enough…