Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1918
Fidgety Feet
Buy Fidgety Feet now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Fidgety Feet' is a Dixieland jazz standard, first recorded by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in June 1918. The more acclaimed version is the 1924 recording by The Wolverines, with Bix Beiderbecke. It is not to be confused with the George Gershwin song of the same name that appears in the 1926 musical Oh, Kay!.
History
The composition is attributed to Nick LaRocca and Larry Shields, of the Original Dixieland Jass Band, who first recorded it New York on June 25, 1918 and released it on Victor 18564.
The Wolverines, featuring Bix Beiderbecke, recorded a hit version of the song on 18 February 1924. Fletcher Henderson's orchestra recorded the tune on 19 March 1927, and it was released on July 7 of that year.
Notable jazz artists who later recorded it include Bud Freeman, Kid Ory and His Creole Band, Red Allen, Sidney Bechet, and Wingy Manone, and stride pianists Willie "The Lion" Smith and Dick Wellstood.
Composition
It begins in B-flat major and modulates to A-flat major. Beiderbecke biographer Jean Pierre Lion wrote that the 1918 original recording was "played at a jumpy tempo, sounds mechanical , and the trombone' s plaintive breaks are dated" . He approved more of the Wolverines recording which was recorded at a slower tempo, stating that it is more "relaxed and varied, breaks are more sophisticated, and Jimmy Hatwell's solo, using the lower register is deeply original. Lion states that Beiderbecke avoided repetition on the second time through the chorus inserting "some graceful melodic lines within a rich harmony".
References
Category:1910s jazz standards
Category:Dixieland jazz standards
Category:Jazz compositions in B-flat major
Category:1918 songs
Buy Fidgety Feet now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1918