Havana Swing playing It Don't Mean A Thing in Dundee, Scotland
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"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" is a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington with lyrics by Irving Mills, now accepted as a jazz standard. The music was written and arranged by Ellington in August 1931 during intermissions at Chicago's Lincoln Tavern and was first recorded by Ellington and his orchestra for Brunswick Records (Br 6265) on February 2, 1932. Ivie Anderson sang the vocal and trombonist Joe Nanton and alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges played the instrumental solos. The title was based on the oft stated credo of Ellington's former trumpeter Bubber Miley, who was dying of tuberculosis. The song became famous, Ellington wrote, "as the expression of a sentiment which prevailed among jazz musicians at the time." Probably the first song to use the phrase "swing" in the title, it introduced the term into everyday language and presaged the swing era by three years. The Ellington band played the song continuously over the years and recorded it numerous times, most often with trumpeter Ray Nance as vocalist.
Notable recordings of the song by other artists include:
Washboard Rhythm Kings - Washboard Rhythm Kings Vol. 3 (1932)
Django Reinhardt with Stephane Grappelli - Swing from Paris (1935)
Thelonious Monk - Thelonious Monk plays the Music of Duke Ellington (1955)
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (1957), Ella and Duke at the Cote D'Azur (1967), Ella in London (1974)
Nina Simone - Nina Simone Sings Ellington (1962)
Carmen McRae, Betty Carter - The Carmen McRae-Betty Carter Duets (1987)
Tony Bennett - MTV Unplugged: Tony Bennett (1995), Bennett Sings Ellington: Hot & Cool (1999)
The SuperJazz Big Band of Birmingham, Alabama recorded the song on the CD, "UAB SuperJazz, Featuring Ellis Marsalis." (2001)
Eva Cassidy - American Tune (2003)
The Mills Brothers - Golden Greats (2002), Goodbye, Blues (2005)
Gabin - Doo Uap, Doo Uap, Doo Uap (2007)
Club des Belugas - SWOP! (feat. Brenda Boykin) (2008)
Asuka Sakai - "A Crimson Rose and Gin Tonic"
The Puppini Sisters - The Rise and Fall of Ruby Woo (incorporating some new lyrics and music and lyrics from "Puttin' On the Ritz", "Over the Rainbow", "Mambo Italiano" and "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby")
The song's refrain was sung several times by various characters in the 1993 movie Swing Kids.
The musical similarity suggest this piece may have inspired the 1955 piece "Leningradskie Vechera" ("Leningrad Nights") by composer Vasily Solovyov, which was changed to "Moscow Nights" and subsequently widely popularized in the West in 1961 by "Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen 7" as "Midnight in Moscow."
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