Sweet Georgia Brown

The 1925 song "Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard and pop tune known to many as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.

Overview

"Sweet Georgia Brown" was written by Maceo Pinkard (music) and Kenneth Casey (words).

The tune was first recorded by bandleader Ben Bernie and his Orchestra. As Bernie's then nationally famous orchestra featuring the number did much to popularize the number, Pinkard cut Bernie in for a share of the tune's royalties by giving him a co-writer credit to the song.

Notable versions

* Of the many early recordings of the tune, the vocal version by Ethel Waters in the 1920s, and instrumental Django Reinhardt in the 1930s, are particularly notable.

* Shortly after the song debuted in 1925, the California Ramblers recorded their own instrumental version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" as well.

* The version used by the Globetrotters is a 1949 instrumental by Brother Bones & His Shadows, featuring whistling and bones by Brother Bones. It was adopted as the Globetrotters theme in 1952.

* The song was covered by The Beatles while working as a back-up band for singer Tony Sheridan. Two versions exist; the first was recorded in 1961 in Germany (June 24, 1961 at the "Friedrich-Ebert-Halle" and December 21, 1961 at the "Musikhalle", in Hamburg, Germany), using the original lyrics. The second (but the first version released) was released in 1964 during the wave of Beatlemania, with Sheridan having re-recorded the vocals with notably more tame lyrics featuring the added verse "in Liverpool she even dares/to criticise the Beatles' hair/with their whole fanclub standing there/oh Sweet Georgia Brown." Recently, bootleggers have utilized the two recordings to produce an instrumental featuring only the Beatles' instruments and backup vocals, entirely eliminating Sheridan. [http://www.dmbeatles.com/disk.php?disk=86 Polydor NH 52-906] Roy Young played the piano.

* Jerry Lee Lewis recorded a version on his album There Must Be More To Love Than This.

* The progressive rock band Gentle Giant covered the song on their live album "Playing the Fool", released in 1977.

* In the 1983 remake of "To Be or Not to Be", Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft do a version of the song in Polish.

*On the Captain Beefheart bootleg album "Captain Hook", an instrumental version, atypical of Beefheart's style.

* The Count Basie Band recorded "Sweet Georgia Brown" on their "Prime Time" album in 1977.

* Dixie Carter once sang an enebriated version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" in an episode of Designing Women.

In animated cartoons

* Caricatures of Fats Waller and the Mills Brothers sing a scat-style rendition of the song in the cartoon "The Isle of Pingo Pongo" from the "Merrie Melodies" series.

*In the TV series "Futurama", Bender is noted for always wanting to be a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, and constantly whistles "Sweet Georgia Brown". One noted reference can be seen in the episode, "Time Keeps on Slippin'" when Bender slowly whistles this tune after Fry's star message to Leela gets blown up and Fry stares out sadly into space.

*"The Simpsons" have made references to "Sweet Georgia Brown" on three occasions:
**"Homer the Clown": The music can be heard during the part where Krusty is watching the Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals match.
**"Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily": Skinner uses "Sweet Georgia Brown" as an oath when he finds Bart and Lisa disheveled and suspects that it has something to do with Homer and Marge neglecting them at home.
**"The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson": The music can be heard in the couch gag where the family, dressed as Harlem Globetrotters, pass a red, white, and blue basketball to each other (with Maggie dunking the ball in the basket above the couch and hitting Homer in the head with it) as they run to the couch.

*In the "Drawn Together" episode "Nipple Ring-Ring Goes to Foster Care", the character Ling-Ling, after being given 21 shots of liquor (for his 21st birthday), is given "the traditional 21 doses of Sweet Georgia Brown," according to Spanky Ham.

Trivia

* In the play "Cabin in the Sky" and its film adaption, the young woman whom Little Joe has an affair with is named Georgia Brown.
* There is also a pomade called Sweet Georgia Brown.
* In the 1948 movie "The Snake Pit" starring Olivia de Havilland, one of the inmates in the correctional facility breaks out into a spontaneous song-and-dance version of the song and is the star of the scene.

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.uspto.gov/go/kids/soundex/74158626.mp3 Audio file of the Brother Bones version] at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (MP3 format)
* [http://www.warnerchappell.com/wcm_2/song_search/song_detail/songview_2.jsp?menu_status=songsearch&esongId=120330300 Song information] from Warner-Chappell Music
* [http://www.songfacts.com/detail.lasso?id=3540 Song information] at Songfacts
* [http://www.perfessorbill.com/lyrics/lyswtgrg.htm "Sweet Georgia Brown" lyrics (original version)]
* [http://www.whistlingrecords.com/brother_bones/brother_bones.htm Brother Bones article] at the Online Guide to Whistling Records