"Organ Grinder's Swing" is a song composed by Will Hudson, with lyrics credited to
Mitchell Parish
Mitchell Parish (born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky; July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen.
Biography
Parish was born to a Jewish family in Lithuania, Russian Empire in July 190 ...
and Irving Mills (Mills was the publisher), published in 1936. It became associated with the
Jimmie Lunceford
James Melvin Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era.
Early life
Lunceford was born on a farm in the Evergreen community, west of the Tombigbee River, near Fulton, Mi ...
orchestra. Hudson based the "Organ Grinder's Swing" on the nursery rhyme "I Love Coffee, I Love Tea".
Recordings
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
recorded the song in November 1936 with her Savoy Eight, and recorded it for a second time with the
Count Basie Orchestra
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 195 ...
for her last album with Basie, 1979's '' A Classy Pair''. Other contemporary versions were recorded by Benny Goodman,
Django Reinhardt
Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most ...
and the
Mills Brothers
The Mills Brothers, sometimes billed the Four Mills Brothers, and originally known as the Four Kings of Harmony, were an American jazz and traditional pop vocal quartet who made more than 2,000 recordings that sold more than 50 million copies a ...
. It was also featured in a 1937
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar.Jimmy Smith recorded "Organ Grinder's Swing" on his 1965 album '' Organ Grinder Swing''. Vibraphonist Milt Jackson recorded it again in 1976 live at the Kosei Nenkin,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
, with
Teddy Edwards
Theodore Marcus Edwards (April 26, 1924 – April 20, 2003) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.
Biography
Edwards was born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States. He learned to play at a very early age, first on alto saxophone and the ...
Billy Higgins
Billy Higgins (October 11, 1936 – May 3, 2001) was an American jazz drummer. He played mainly free jazz and hard bop.
Biography
Higgins was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. Higgins played on Ornette Coleman's first records, ...
.
In popular culture
In the 1935 film ''
The Littlest Rebel
''The Littlest Rebel'' is a 1935 American musical drama film directed by David Butler. The screenplay by Edwin J. Burke was adapted from a play of the same name by Edward Peple.
Cast
* Shirley Temple as Virgie Cary
* John Boles as Herbert Ca ...
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...
tap dance to the tune in order to get enough money for train fare to Washington, DC.
Ina Ray Hutton
Ina Ray Hutton (born Odessa Cowan; March 13, 1916 – February 19, 1984) was an American singer, bandleader, and the elder sister of June Hutton. She led one of the first all-female big bands.
Biography
A native of Chicago, Hutton began da ...
and her
Melodears
There were two independently created and independently operating groups known as the Melodears or Melo-Dears in the 1930s and 1940s, one a band, the other a vocal trio, with similar names only by coincidence. There is no known connection between th ...
performed it in a medley with " Stardust" in their 1937 short ''Swing Hutton Swing''.