Calling all Sheiks and Shebas: it's the cat's meow and the Real McCoy!

[tzikeh]

It's that time again: time for me to create my annual New Year's Eve themed-dinner-party song list! This year the theme is Delmonico's, the first "fine dining" restaurant in the U.S., with menus from the 1920s. I need music--music that reminds you of the 1920s.

I could easily go to Wikipedia's entry for 1920s songs, but I don't want create "songs written in the 1920s including a bunch nobody's ever heard of;" so let me know--what songs remind you of the 1920s? They can be from the era or right up til now, as long as what they bring to mind is the feel of the 20s and into the early 30s.

Previous New Year's Eve themes have included Obama-Rama, Food You Hate, Kids' Food, The Giant Pig Roast, and then plainer themes like Italian, Chinese, etc.

All suggestions welcome in comments!

N.B.: Obvious Charleston is obvious.

Comments

[amilyn.livejournal.com]

"Night and Day" sung by Fred Astaire

[hubbit.livejournal.com]

My problem is, I'm a music collector so I am familiar with ALL KINDS of 1920s music that nobody's ever heard of. The average person may be familiar with "Tea for Two" or "The Shiek of Araby", but will not have heard of "San" or "Twelfth Street Rag".

Oh: "My Blue Heaven". Gene Austin's 1928 version for the Victor Talking Machine Company was the first record ever certified to sell one million copies.

"Minnie The Moocher" may pop into some people's heads, even though that song's first recording was in 1931. I honestly don't know how long Cab Calloway may have been performing it before then.

BTW, I would totally offer to help provide music for this, except that the bulk of my 1920s music is actually on fragile shellac 78s. I have nothing with which to transfer them to digital. (If your host has something on which to play them and will swear to treat them carefully, I could lend you the actual records.)

[dorcas-gustine.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking of 'Minnie The Moocher' too, and I guess it could have been possible he'd been permorming it before the recording. IDK.

It shouldn't be that hard transferring them though, and if you've got a couple of hundred bucks to spare (maybe even less) you could probably get everything you need.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Most of the OST for the "Jeeves and Wooster" TV series is either actual Jazz Age music or a very good pastiche thereof.

Also, "Puttin' On the Ritz".

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

omg Jeeves & Wooster = BRILLIANT.

[rosawestphalen.livejournal.com]

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy has a Cab Calloway homage album that could provide some good songs for a 1920s theme cd.

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

I just got back from seeing The Princess and the Frog, which was set in the '20s and had some fun music. Maybe something from the soundtrack? It's very...Disney. But some people like that!

[ramblinsuze.livejournal.com]

I perused the Wikipedia list and pulled out the ones that I think folks would most readily recognize and associate with the '20s/Jazz Age:

Ain't Misbehavin
Ain't We Got Fun
Am I Blue?
Baby Face
California, Here I Come
Charleston (of course!)
I Wanna Be Loved By You
It Had to Be You
Mack the Knife
Makin' Whoopie
Me and My Shadow
My Blue Heaven
Puttin' on the Ritz
'S Wonderful
Side By Side
Someone to Watch Over Me
Tea For Two
Yes! We Have No Bananas!

I was surprised at how many more I recognized. I guess that's what happens when you have grandparents who were young adults during this time, sung the song to my mother, who in turn sung them to me (and my siblings are now singing them to their kids!).

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

Dude, I am forever jealous of your awesome New Year's Parties.

"Love Me Or Leave Me" - Billie Holliday
"Le Jazz Hot" - Julie Andrews
"Steam Heat" - Gwen Verdon
Anything Cole Porter, but especially "You're the Top"
"All that Jazz" - any of the Chicago recordings
"Minnie the Moocher" - Cab Calloway

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

"Yes, We Have No Bananas", "Blue Skies" and "I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby" are two that spring immediately to mind.

[klia.livejournal.com]

Aww, man, it sounds like an awesome party!

When I think '20s, I always think folks like George Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Eddie Cantor, Cole Porter, and Rudy Vallée.

Then there's the wacky stuff like Yes! We Have No Bananas, Indian Love Call, I'm Looking Over A Four-Leaf Clover, Tip Toe Through the Tulips, and Does The Spearmint Lose Its Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight?.

And more familiar songs: Second Hand Rose; Tea For Two; Ain't She Sweet; Me and My Shadow; Sweet Georgia Brown; Makin' Whoopee; Am I Blue; Let's Misbehave; Chicago (That Toddlin' Town); Toot Toot Tootsie, Goo'bye; It Had To Be You; Who's Sorry Now; Someone To Watch Over Me; and Blue Skies.