| "Chinatown, My Chinatown" | |
|---|---|
 Sheet music cover, 1910 | |
| Song | |
| Published | 1910 |
| Composer(s) | Jean Schwartz |
| Lyricist(s) | William Jerome |
"Chinatown, My Chinatown" is a popular song written by William Jerome (words) and Jean Schwartz (music) in 1906 and later interpolated into the musical Up and Down Broadway (1910). [1] [2] The song has been recorded by numerous artists and is considered an early jazz standard.
Tin Pan Alley songwriters Jean Schwartz and William Jerome began their partnership in 1901, and collaborated successfully for more than a decade. They composed many popular songs together, including million-sellers "Mister Dooley" and "Bedelia". [lower-alpha 1] "Chinatown, My Chinatown" is considered their biggest hit, but it did not catch on when they wrote it in 1906, and the musical revue it was added to in 1910, Up and Down Broadway, was not especially successful. [3] By the time "Chinatown, My Chinatown" became a national hit in 1915, the two were no longer collaborating.
The melody of the song uses pentatonicism, while the harmonies employ many parallel fourths and fifths, a common exoticist technique of the time based on Western stereotypes of Chinese and other East Asian musics. [lower-alpha 2] Through these musical techniques as well as racist lyrics, the song participates in the history of Orientalism.
The original tempo of the song was slow; later it was adapted to a fox-trot tempo, reflecting the popularity of the dance. [5] Still later, jazz musicians played the song at a "hot jazz" tempo. [6] [7]
"Chinatown, My Chinatown" has been recorded by numerous artists. Several recordings in late 1914 presaged its popularity in 1915 when the American Quartet with Billy Murray had a number one record on Victor, and Grace Kerns and John Barnes Wells also had a popular recording on Columbia. [1] The same year, Columbia also released a version by Prince's Orchestra, [8] in a one-step medley with Alabama Jubilee and Sam Ash recorded an abbreviated version of it for the Columbia-affiliated, bargain-priced Little Wonder Records. [9]
At least 25 jazz recordings of the song were done between 1928 and 1942; seven were recorded in 1935 alone. [10] Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Lionel Hampton were among the many jazz artists who recorded this song in the 1930s. [11] Its recording history is one of the elements that qualifies it as an early jazz standard. [12]
Subsequently, the accordionist John Serry Sr. also recorded an easy listening arrangement of the song for RCA Thesaurus in 1954. [13]
Jean Schwartz was a Hungarian-born Jewish American composer and pianist. He is best known for his work writing the scores for more than 30 Broadway musicals, and for his creation of more than 1,000 popular songs with the lyricist William Jerome. Schwartz and Jerome also performed together on the vaudeville stage in the United States and in Europe; sometimes in collaboration with Maude Nugent, Jerome's wife, and the Dolly Sisters. Schwartz was married to Jenny Dolly from 1913-1921.
William Jerome Flannery, September 30, 1865 – June 25, 1932) was an American songwriter, born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, New York of Irish immigrant parents, Mary Donnellan and Patrick Flannery. He collaborated with numerous well-known composers and performers of the era but is best remembered for his decade-long association with Jean Schwartz with whom he created many popular songs and musical shows in the 1900s and early 1910s.
Benjamin Bernard Selvin was an American musician, bandleader, and record producer. He was known as the Dean of Recorded Music.
"Singin' in the Rain" is a song with lyrics by Arthur Freed and music by Nacio Herb Brown. Doris Eaton Travis introduced the song on Broadway in The Hollywood Music Box Revue in 1929. It was then widely popularized by Cliff Edwards and the Brox Sisters in The Hollywood Revue of 1929. Many contemporary artists have since recorded the song.
John Serry Sr. was an American concert accordionist, arranger, composer, organist, and educator. He performed on the CBS Radio and Television networks and contributed to Voice of America's cultural diplomacy initiatives during the Golden Age of Radio. He also concertized on the accordion as a member of several orchestras and jazz ensembles for nearly forty years between the 1930s and 1960s.
Alexander Emil Caiola was an American guitarist, composer and arranger, who spanned a variety of music genres including jazz, country, rock, and pop. He recorded over fifty albums and worked with some of the biggest names in music during the 20th century, including Elvis Presley, Ray Conniff, Ferrante & Teicher, Frank Sinatra, Percy Faith, Buddy Holly, Mitch Miller, and Tony Bennett.
RCA Thesaurus, a brand owned by RCA Victor, was a supplier of electrical transcriptions. It enjoyed a long history of producing electrical transcriptions of music for radio broadcasting which dated back to NBC's Radio Recording Division.
"My Melancholy Baby" is a popular song published in 1912 and first sung publicly by William Frawley. The music was written by Ernie Burnett (1884–1959), the lyrics by George A. Norton.
"Chicago" is a popular song written by Fred Fisher and published in 1922. The original sheet music variously spelled the title "Todd'ling" or "Toddling." The song has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known versions are by Frank Sinatra, Ben Selvin and Judy Garland. The song alludes to the city's colorful past, feigning "... the surprise of my life / I saw a man dancing with his own wife", mentioning evangelist Billy Sunday as having not been able to "shut down" the city, and State Street where "they do things they don't do on Broadway".
"Nobody's Sweetheart", also known as "Nobody's Sweetheart Now" and "You're Nobody's Sweetheart Now", is a popular song, written in 1924, with music by Billy Meyers and Elmer Schoebel, and lyrics by Gus Kahn and Ernie Erdman. The song is a jazz and pop standard.
The Charleston Chasers was a studio recording ensemble that recorded music on Columbia Records between 1925 and 1931. They recorded early versions of songs such as "After You've Gone", "Ain't Misbehavin'", and "My Melancholy Baby". Their 1931 recording of "Basin Street Blues" featured Benny Goodman, who stated that it was the first time that he was able to show his own musical personality on record.
"Oh, You Beautiful Doll" is a ragtime love song published in 1911 with words by Seymour Brown and music by Nat D. Ayer. The song was one of the first with a twelve-bar opening.
"That's a Plenty" is a 1914 ragtime piano composition by Lew Pollack. Lyrics by Ray Gilbert were added decades later. Several popular vocal versions have been recorded, but it is more often performed as an instrumental.
"When It's Sleepy Time Down South", also known as "Sleepy Time Down South", is a 1931 jazz song written by Clarence Muse, Leon René and Otis René. It was sung in the 1931 movie Safe in Hell by Nina Mae McKinney, and became the signature song of Louis Armstrong, who recorded it almost a hundred times during his career. The song is now considered a jazz standard and it has been recorded by a plethora of artists. A popular recording in 1931 was by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra.
"A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody" is a popular song written by Irving Berlin in 1919 which became the theme song of the Ziegfeld Follies. The first verse and refrain are considered part of the Great American Songbook and are often covered as a jazz standard.
"Limehouse Blues" is a popular British song written by the London-based duo of Douglas Furber (lyrics) and Philip Braham (music).
Clarinet Marmalade, later Clarinet Marmalade Blues, is a 1918 dixieland jazz standard composed by Larry Shields and Henry Ragas of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. It is played in the key of F major. It was recorded by Fletcher Henderson in 1926 and Frankie Trumbauer in 1927.
Up and Down Broadway is a musical revue in two acts with music by Jean Schwartz, lyrics by William Jerome, and a book Edgar Smith. The musical's loose plot concerns the god Apollo who arrives in New York City in the accompany of other Greek deities vowing to improve the theatrical tastes of the American public. In the end they decide Broadway knows more about great entertainment than the Greek gods do. The musical was written as a starring vehicle for Eddie Foy who portrayed the main servant of Apollo, Momus, and provided much of the work's comedic thrust.
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