Composition
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2024) |
The original sheet music for "Ain't Misbehavin'" is written in the key of E-flat major. [4]
| "Ain't Misbehavin'" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Leo Reisman and His Orchestra with Lew Conrad | |
| A-side | "Moanin' Low" |
| Released | 1929 |
| Recorded | New York City, July 9, 1929 [1] |
| Genre | |
| Label | Victor |
| Songwriter(s) |
|
"Ain't Misbehavin'" is a 1929 stride jazz/early swing song. Andy Razaf wrote the lyrics to a score by Thomas "Fats" Waller and Harry Brooks [2] for the Broadway musical comedy play Connie's Hot Chocolates .
As a work from 1929 with its copyright renewed, it will enter the American public domain on January 1, 2025. [3] [a]
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (December 2024) |
The original sheet music for "Ain't Misbehavin'" is written in the key of E-flat major. [4]
The song was first performed at the premiere of Connie's Hot Chocolates in Harlem at Connie's Inn as an opening song by Paul Bass and Margaret Simms, and repeated later in the musical by Russell Wooding's Hallelujah Singers. Connie's Hot Chocolates was transferred to the Hudson Theatre on Broadway during June 1929, where it was renamed to Hot Chocolates and where Louis Armstrong became the orchestra director. The script also required Armstrong to play "Ain't Misbehavin'" in a trumpet solo, and although this was initially slated only to be a reprise of the opening song, Armstrong's performance was so well received that the trumpeter was asked to climb out of the orchestra pit and play the piece on stage. As noted by Thomas Brothers in his book Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism, Armstrong was first taught "Ain't Misbehavin'" by Waller himself, "woodshedding" it until he could "play all around it"; he cherished it "because it was 'one of those songs you could cut loose and swing with.'" [5]
During the first half of the 20th century, when a tune was successful in terms of sheet music sold, it was typically recorded by several different artists. All six "Ain't Misbehavin'" recordings of 1929 were successes in the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) rankings for that year:[ citation needed ]
Waller re-recorded the song with vocals for the 1943 movie Stormy Weather . Waller's recording[ which? ] received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award during 1984. In 2001, it was one of 365 Songs of the Century selected by the RIAA, [6] and it was one of fifty recordings selected for inclusion in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2004. [7]
Ain't Misbehavin' has been recorded by many other performers over the years, including Seger Ellis, Anita O'Day, Sarah Vaughan (for "Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi"; 1950), Bing Crosby (for " Songs I Wish I Had Sung the First Time Around "), Billie Holiday, Eartha Kitt, Ella Fitzgerald, Jo Stafford, Carol Channing, Django Reinhardt, Harry James, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis, Kay Starr, Frankie Laine, Art Tatum, Floyd Pepper, Sonny Stitt, Sam Cooke, Johnnie Ray, Sidney Bechet, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Elkie Brooks, Eyran Katsenelenbogen, Willie Nelson, Kermit Ruffins, Leon Redbone, Freddie White, Dave Brubeck, Johnny Hartman, Hank Williams Jr., Robson Green and Jerome Flynn (Mini TV series UK, 1997), and Bill Haley & His Comets (who recorded a rock and roll version during 1957). Johnnie Ray's version scored No. 17 in the UK Singles Chart during May 1956. [8]
In 1960, Tommy Bruce and the Bruisers had a number 3 hit in the UK Singles Chart with their cover version of the song. [9] During 1976, Leon Redbone performed the song on Saturday Night Live . It served as the title song of the successful 1978 musical Ain't Misbehavin' . Country music artist Hank Williams Jr. recorded a version for his 1985 studio album Five-O. Released as a single, the song peaked at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart and earned Williams a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Vocal Performance, Male. [10] [11]
Andy Razaf was an American poet, composer, and lyricist of such well-known songs as "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose".
Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, and singer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz piano. A widely popular star in the jazz and swing eras, he toured internationally, achieving critical and commercial success in the United States and Europe. His best-known compositions, "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Honeysuckle Rose", were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1984 and 1999.
Harry Brooks was an American writer of popular songs, jazz pianist and composer in the 1920s to the early 1950s.
You Were Meant for Me is a 1948 musical film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Dan Dailey and Jeanne Crain as a bandleader and his wife. It was released by 20th Century Fox. The film includes performances of "You Were Meant for Me", "I'll Get By ", and "Ain't Misbehavin'".
"Honeysuckle Rose" is a 1929 song composed by Thomas "Fats" Waller with lyrics by Andy Razaf. It was introduced in the 1929 Off-Broadway revue "Load of Coal" at Connie's Inn as a soft-shoe dance number. Waller's 1934 recording was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.
On the Track is the debut album by Leon Redbone, released on Warner Bros. Records in 1975, and reissued on CD in 1988.
Five-O is the thirty-eighth studio album by American musician Hank Williams Jr. It was released by Warner Bros. Records on April 29, 1985. "I'm for Love," "This Ain't Dallas" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" were released as singles, reaching No. 1, No. 4 and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. The album reached No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, becoming his second No. 1 album, and has been certified Gold by the RIAA.
"(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue" is a 1929 jazz standard and racial protest song composed by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks with lyrics by Andy Razaf.
Ain't Misbehavin' is a 1979 album by Clark Terry, focusing on the music on Fats Waller. Terry is joined by pianist Oscar Peterson and the singer Johnny Hartman.
Plays Fats Waller is an album by American jazz organist Jimmy Smith featuring performances of tunes associated with Fats Waller, recorded on January 23, 1962 and released on Blue Note later that year.
The period from the end of the First World War until the start of the Depression in 1929 is known as the "Jazz Age". Jazz had become popular music in America, although older generations considered the music immoral and threatening to cultural values. Dances such as the Charleston and the Black Bottom were very popular during the period, and jazz bands typically consisted of seven to twelve musicians. Important orchestras in New York were led by Fletcher Henderson, Paul Whiteman and Duke Ellington. Many New Orleans jazzmen had moved to Chicago during the late 1910s in search of employment; among others, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band and Jelly Roll Morton recorded in the city. However, Chicago's importance as a center of jazz music started to diminish toward the end of the 1920s in favor of New York.
Sarah Vaughan in Hi-Fi is a 12 track compilation album by Sarah Vaughan released in 1955 and recorded from December 21, 1949 to December 1952.
"Your Feet's Too Big" is a song composed in 1936 by Fred Fisher with lyrics by Ada Benson. It has been recorded by many artists, notably the Ink Spots and by Fats Waller in 1939. The song became associated with Waller who ad-libbed his own lyrics such as "Your pedal extremities are colossal, to me you look just like a fossil" and his catchphrase, "You know, your pedal extremities really are obnoxious. One never knows, do one?" It was performed in the 1978 revue of Waller tunes, Ain't Misbehavin'. Animator Nancy Beiman created a short for Your Feet's Too Big in 1983.
Dinah Washington Sings Fats Waller is a seventh studio album by blues, R&B and jazz singer Dinah Washington released on the Emarcy label, and reissued by Verve Records in 1990 as The Fats Waller Songbook. In the album Washington covers 12 songs that have been penned or performed by jazz pianist, organist, singer and songwriter Fats Waller. Allmusic details the album in its review as saying: "Dinah Washington Sings Fats Waller appropriately brings together Waller's vivacious songs and Washington's demonstrative vocal talents. The jazz diva effortlessly handles Waller classics while turning in particularly emotive renditions. Adding nice variety to the already strong set, Washington's husband at the time, saxophonist Eddie Chamblee, joins the singer for playful duets on "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Everybody Loves My Baby".
Hot Fives & Sevens is a 2000 box set collection of recordings made by American jazz trumpeter and singer Louis Armstrong with his Hot Five, Hot Seven, and other groups between 1925 and 1930. First released on JSP Records on 22 August 2000, the set was subsequently reissued on Definitive in 2001. A four-disc compilation, the set has received a "crown" as an author's pick in The Penguin Guide to Jazz and is also included in the book's "core collection" recommended for jazz fans. Allmusic concurs that it is "beyond indispensable", adding that "you can't have a Louis Armstrong collection without this historic set" or "any kind of respectable jazz collection." Alternatively, Ben Ratliff, writing in 2002, preferred Columbia's release The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings.
Hot Chocolates is a musical revue with music by Fats Waller and Harry Brooks and book by Andy Razaf. It was originally titled Tan Town Topics in hopes it would be picked up by Broadway. Performed at the Hudson Theater in New York City, it was directed by Leonard Harper and ran for 219 performances from June 20, 1929, to December 14, 1929. It is also referred to as Connie's Hot Chocolates. It was staged, directed and produced by Leonard Harper. While the revue featured music and singing, including the subsequent hit "Aint Misbehavin'", it was praised for the cast's dancing, including its male and female chorus lines.
Ain't Misbehavin' is an album by pianist Hank Jones featuring tunes associated with Fats Waller recorded in 1978 for the Galaxy label and released in 1985.
The Satchmo Legacy is the final studio album by trumpeter Benny Bailey featuring performances associated with Louis Armstrong which was recorded in late 1999 and originally released on the Enja label.
The Joint is Jumpin' may refer to:
