Charleston (song)

"The Charleston" is a jazz composition that was written to accompany the Charleston dance. It was composed in 1923, with lyrics by Cecil Mack and music by James P. Johnson, who first introduced the stride piano method of playing. The song was featured in the American black Broadway musical comedy show Runnin' Wild.^[1] The music of the dockworkers from South Carolina inspired Johnson to compose the music. The dance known as the Charleston came to characterize the times. It was this song that propelled the dance to international popularity and a place in musical history.^[2] Lyrics, though rarely sung (an exception is Chubby Checker's 1961 recording), were penned by Cecil Mack, himself one of the most accomplished songwriters of the early 1900s. The song's driving rhythm, basically the first bar of a 3 2 clave, came to have widespread use in jazz and is still referenced by name by musicians.

In the classic 1946 Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life with James Stewart and Donna Reed, the song was played during the school dance scene.^[3] In the movie Tea for Two (1950), with Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, the song was a featured production number.^[3][4]

Lyrics

Caroline, Caroline, at last they’ve got you on the map.

With a new tune, a funny blue tune, with a peculiar snap!

You many not be able to buck and wing, fox-trot, two-step, or even swing,

If you ain’t got religion in your feet, you can do this prance and do it neat.

Charleston! Charleston! Made in Carolina.

Some dance, some prance, I’ll say, there’s nothing finer

Than the Charleston, Charleston. Lord, how you can shuffle.

Ev’ry step you do leads to something new, man, I’m telling you it’s a lapazoo.

Buck dance, wing dance, will be a back number,

But the Charleston, the new Charleston, that dance is surely a comer.

Sometime you’ll dance it one time, the dance called the Charleston,

Made in South Caroline.

Charleston! Charleston! Made in Carolina.

Some dance, some prance, I’ll say, there’s nothing finer

Than the Charleston, Charleston. Lord, how you can shuffle.

Ev’ry step you do leads to something new, man, I’m telling you it’s a lapazoo.

Buck dance, wing dance, will be a back number,

But the Charleston, the new Charleston, that dance is surely a comer.

Sometime you’ll dance it one time, the dance called the Charleston,

Made in South Caroline!

Footnotes

1. ^ Runnin' Wild
2. ^ Phillips, Mark. Heinemann GCSE Music, Harcourt Heinemann (2002), page 86 - ISBN 0435813188
3. ^ ^{a b} Studwell, William Emmett (1994). The Popular Song Reader: A Sampler of Well-Known Twentieth-Century Songs. Routledge. p. 117. ISBN 1560243694. 
4. ^ The New York Times: Tea for Two (1950)

See also

• List of 1920s jazz standards