The Varsity Drag
The Varsity Drag is a pop song written by Ray Henderson (music), Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown (lyrics) and released in 1927.
background
The songwriting team Henderson, DeSylva and Brown wrote the song Varsity Drag for the musical Good News , from which the song The Best Things in Life Are Free was also taken. The first performance of the musical took place on September 6, 1927 at Chanin's 46th Street Theater (now the Richard Rodgers Theater) in New York. On the show, The Varsity Drag was the final act with a Charleston- like dance choreography; The number was used in the musical when Zelma O'Neal said to the other students: Let the professors worry about their dusty old books, we'll make Tait famous for the Varsity Drag. The lyrics say that in college, buffalo isn't everything - you have to learn to dance too. Then a new dance, The Varsity Drag, is introduced in the chorus of the song , which begins with the lines:
- Down with the heels, up on the toes,
- Stay after school, see how it goes.
- That's the way to do the varsity drag .
First recordings and later cover versions
The orchestras of George Olsen with singer Fran Frey (# 4; Victor 20875) and Cass Hagan ( Columbia , with Red Nichols ) were among the musicians who successfully covered the song from 1928 onwards . Further recordings were made in 1927/28 with Zelma O'Neal (Brunswick 3864), the Original American Jazz Band, The Revelers , Frank Black Orchestra (Brunswick), Ernie Golden and His Hotel McAlpin Orchestra (Diamond 52109), Sam Lanin ( OKeh resp. Banner ), Johnny Ringer ( Gennett ), Abe Lyman ( Brunswick ), Edna Fischer (Victor 21384) and Ruth Etting (Columbia 1237D), in London by Jack Hylton , Turner Layton (Columbia), Ciro's Club Dance Band and in Berlin by Julian Fuhs (Beka) and Ben Berlin (gramophone). The song was also used in the film versions of the musical Good News from 1930 and 1947, as well as in the film musical You're My Everything (1949). It was nominated for the Best Songs of All Time list by the American Film Institute .
The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 76 (as of 2016) cover versions in the field of jazz , from 1929 a. a. by Jean Wiener / Clément Doucet , Benny Goodman , Patti Page , Gerry Mulligan , Stan Getz / Bob Brookmeyer , Les Elgart , Gene Harris , Wally Rose / Clancy Hayes , Russell Jones , Jess Sutton / Marty Grosz , Anita O'Day , Jean Goldkette , Billy May , Teresa Brewer & The World's Greatest Jazz Band and the Pasadena Roof Orchestra . Even Lou Gold & His Orchestra , Beatrice Kay , Spike Jones and His City Slickers, The Crew-Cuts , Sid Ramin and Tito Puente coverten the song.
Notes and individual references
- ↑ a b c d Don Tyler: Hit Songs, 1900–1955: American Popular Music of the Pre-Rock Era . Jefferson, North Carolina & London, McFarland, 2007, p. 148
- ↑ Five songs from the show were successful, the title track, Lucky in Love , Just Imagine , The Best Things in Life Are Free and The Varsity Drag . See Gerald Martin Bordman, Richard Norton American Musical Theater: A Chronicle 2010, p. 483.
- ↑ James Ciment: Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age: From the End of World War I to the Great Crash . Routledge 2015.
- ↑ Frank Black was musical director at the Century Theater in New York and then a band leader on NBC Radio.
- ↑ a b Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)