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Groovy (or, less commonly, groovie or groovey) is a slang colloquialism popular during the 1960s and 1970s. It is roughly synonymous with words such as "excellent", "fashionable", or "amazing", depending on context.
The word originated in the jazz culture of the 1920s, in which it referred to the “groove” of a piece of music (its rhythm and “feel”), plus the response felt by its listeners. [1] It can also reference the physical groove of a record in which the pick-up needle runs. Radio disc jockeys would announce playing “good grooves, hot grooves, cool grooves, etc.” when introducing a record about to play.
Recorded use of the word in its slang context has been found dating back to September 30, 1941, when it was used on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show; band leader Billy Mills used it to describe his summer vacation. In the 1941 song “Let Me Off Uptown” by Gene Krupa, Anita O’Day invites Roy Eldridge to “… come here Roy and get groovy”. The 1942 film Miss Annie Rooney features a teenage Shirley Temple using the term as she impresses Dickie Moore with her jitterbug moves and knowledge of jive. In the 1945 film A Thousand and One Nights , Phil Silvers uses the term to describe an ostentatiously bejeweled turban.
It has been found in print as early as 1946, in Really the Blues, the autobiography of jazz saxophonist Mezz Mezzrow. [2] The word appears in advertising spots for the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street , and in the same year the phrase “Everything’s groovy” was included on a 78 rpm recording of “Open The Door, Richard” sung by Walter Brown with Tiny Grimes Sextet.
![Simon and Garfunkel's 1965 release of "The Sounds of Silence" was backed with "We've Got a Groovey [sic] Thing Goin'". Soundofsilence.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4b/Soundofsilence.jpg)
Starting in the 1940s, variations of the word were used in the titles of many popular songs, including:
An early use of the word is in the trailer to the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street , which depicts various viewers' reactions to the films, wherein a few of the younger viewers use the word “groovy” to describe the film.
The term was also part of the title of a TV program called The Groovy Show , which ran from 1967 to 1970. There was also an American TV cartoon show called Groovie Goolies , which ran from 1970 to 1972.
By the early 1970s, the word was commonplace in American TV advertisements aimed at young audiences, as exemplified by the slogan "Feeling groovy, just had my Cheerios."
An early ironic use of the term appears in the title of the 1974 film The Groove Tube , which satirized the American counterculture of the time.
The term was later used jokingly in films such as Evil Dead II , Army of Darkness , and the Austin Powers films, as well as in the Duke Nukem 3D video game.
It later made its way into the titles of albums, such as Groovy Decay , a 1982 album by Robyn Hitchcock, and Groovy, Laidback and Nasty , a 1990 album by Cabaret Voltaire. Examples of band names include Groovy Aardvark from Canada, The Groovy Little Numbers from Scotland, and Groovy Rednecks and the Flamin' Groovies from the US. There was also a band called Groovy Ruby.
E. B. White used the term in the 1970 novel The Trumpet of the Swan , which takes place in 1968. "'This is real groovy!' cried a boy in the front seat. 'That bird is as good as Louis Armstrong, the famous trumpet player.'"
The Pete the Cat children’s book series often references the term, both in the characters’ dialogues and in the titles, for example, "Pete the Cat’s Groovy Guide to Kindness".
Marvel Comics produced a Silver Age comic book entitled Groovy, subtitled "Cartoons, gags, jokes". Only three issues were published, dated March, May and July 1967.
Arthur Ira Garfunkel is an American singer, actor and poet who is best known for his partnership with Paul Simon in the folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel. Born in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, Garfunkel became acquainted with Simon through an elementary school play, a production of Alice in Wonderland, and sought a partnership. Their combined presence in music began in the 1950s, and throughout the 1960s the duo of Simon & Garfunkel achieved great chart success with tracks such as "The Sound of Silence", "Mrs. Robinson", "Scarborough Fair", "The Boxer" and "Bridge over Troubled Water". The latter song's title also served as the name of Simon & Garfunkel's final album in 1970. Simon & Garfunkel split for personal reasons, but the pair have occasionally reunited in the years since. Both men experienced success in solo careers in the years following the duo's breakup.
Richard Arnold "Groove" Holmes was an American jazz organist who performed in the hard bop and soul jazz genre. He is best known for his 1965 recording of "Misty".
Pato Banton is a reggae singer and toaster from Birmingham, England. He received the nickname Pato Banton from his stepfather: its first name derives from the sound of a Jamaican owl calling "patoo, patoo", while its second comes from the disc jockey slang word "banton", meaning heavyweight lyricist or storyteller. In 1994, he achieved a number 1 on the UK Singles Chart with a cover of The Equals' "Baby, Come Back", featuring Robin and Ali Campbell of UB40.
Milton Mesirow, better known as Mezz Mezzrow, was an American jazz clarinetist and saxophonist from Chicago, Illinois. He is remembered for organizing and financing recording sessions with Tommy Ladnier and Sidney Bechet. He recorded with Bechet as well and briefly acted as manager for Louis Armstrong. Mezzrow is equally known as a colorful character, as portrayed in his autobiography, Really the Blues, co-written with Bernard Wolfe and published in 1946.
Groovie Goolies is an American animated television show that had its original run Saturday mornings on CBS between 1970 and 1972. It was rebroadcast the following season on Sunday mornings. Set at a decrepit castle, the show focused on its monstrous but good-natured and mostly friendly inhabitants. Created by Filmation, Groovie Goolies was an original creation of the studio; its characters would cross over with Filmation's Archie Comics adaptations including Sabrina the Teenage Witch and The Archie Show, as well as with the Looney Tunes cast.
Honky is a racial slur used to refer to white people, predominantly heard in the United States.
Groove or Grooves may refer to:
A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without extensive preparation or predefined arrangements. Original jam sessions, also called "free flow sessions," are often used by musicians to develop new material (music) and find suitable arrangements. Both styles can be used simply as a social gathering and communal practice session. Jam sessions may be based upon existing songs or forms, may be loosely based on an agreed chord progression or chart suggested by one participant, or may be wholly improvisational. Jam sessions can range from very loose gatherings of amateurs to evenings where a jam session coordinator or host acts as a "gatekeeper" so that appropriate-level performers take the stage to sophisticated improvised recording sessions by professionals which are intended to be broadcast live on radio or TV or edited and released to the public.
"Lola" is a song by the English rock band the Kinks, written by frontman Ray Davies for their 1970 album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One. The song details a romantic encounter in a Soho bar between a young man and the eponymous Lola, who is possibly a trans woman or cross-dresser. In the song, the narrator describes his confusion towards Lola, who "walked like a woman but talked like a man", yet he remains infatuated with her.
Harpers Bizarre was an American sunshine pop band of the 1960s, best known for their Broadway/sunshine pop sound and their cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song ."
"A Groovy Kind of Love" is a song written by Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager based on a melody by the classical composer Muzio Clementi.
"The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)" is a song by folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, written by Paul Simon and originally released on their 1966 album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. Cash Box called it a "sparkling, spirited lid".
Mr. Bloe was the name given to the musicians who performed the single "Groovin' with Mr. Bloe", which was a hit in 1970 in the UK for Dick James Music (DJM). These included Harry Pitch on harmonica, and Zack Laurence on piano.
Sounds of Silence is the second studio album by the American folk rock duo Simon & Garfunkel, released on January 17, 1966. The album's title is a slight modification of the title of the duo's first major hit, "The Sound of Silence", which originally was released as "The Sounds of Silence". The song had earlier been released in an acoustic version on the album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., and later on the soundtrack to the movie The Graduate. Without the knowledge of Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel, electric guitars, bass and drums were overdubbed under the direction of Columbia Records staff producer Tom Wilson on June 15, 1965. This new version was released as a single in September 1965, and opens the album.
Charles Coleridge "Red" Richards was an American jazz pianist.
"If You're a Viper" is a jazz song composed by Stuff Smith. It was first recorded by Smith and his Onyx Club Boys in 1936 and released as the b-side to the song "After You've Gone".
Jive talk, also known as Harlem jive or simply Jive, the argot of jazz, jazz jargon, vernacular of the jazz world, slang of jazz, and parlance of hip is an African-American Vernacular English slang or vocabulary that developed in Harlem, where "jive" (jazz) was played and was adopted more widely in African-American society, peaking in the 1940s.
Kenneth Benjamin Laguna is an American songwriter, record producer, and musician, best known for his work with Joan Jett.
This is a summary of 1970 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.
Simon & Garfunkel: The Complete Albums Collection is the fifth box set of Simon & Garfunkel recordings. This 12-CD Set contains all five of their studio albums from 1964 to 1970, as well as the soundtrack album from The Graduate from 1968, the 1972 Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits compilation album, and four previously released live concert recordings. The CDs are packaged in miniature recreations of the original LP jackets, and an annotated booklet is included.
