"Viper's Drag" is a stride piano composition by the jazz pianist, composer, and arranger Thomas "Fats" Waller. [1]
"Viper's Drag" was written as a dance tune for a ragtime dance called a slow drag, often shortened to "drag" by songwriters of the day. [2]
The song has been performed by Waller and countless other jazz artists, including Cab Calloway, who recorded a big band swing version of the tune on November 12, 1930 as song 10246-1 on the DOMINO label, album 4686 [3] [4] and Judy Carmichael, who recorded it for her Grammy award-nominated Two-Handed Stride on the Progressive label in 1980. [5]
There are two versions by New Orleans piano masters Henry Butler and Allen Toussaint. It is the title cut to an album by Henry Butler/Steven Bernstein and the Hot 9, on Impulse (2014). It can also be found on "American Tunes"—the final recording from New Orleans jazz and R&B pianist Allen Toussaint, released on Nonesuch Records on June 10, 2016.
"Viper's Drag" appears on the following recordings: [6]