isn't benny goodman the best?

sing, sing, sing


as seen in the movie "Hollywood Hotel" 1937 (don't they just look like they are having a good old time? particularly the drummer - Gene Krupa - i could watch a good drummer all day)


bugle call rag:


"i sat on the soft upholstered couch and closed my eyes, trying to drown out the muted sounds rafting up from the crowded bar below. above me, the floorboards creaked as i heard pudge walk across his room and turn on the record player. he slid a benny goodman album on the turntable, rested the needle on the third cut, "sing, sing, sing," and turned the volume on high, knowing i was downstairs and wanting me to hear it. i sat back on the couch and smiled, my eyes still closed as i listed to gene krupa's ground-swelling drum solo mix with goodman's magical clarinet. almost every career criminal i've ever met has a song of choice they play before they go out on a job. it is an important part of their ritual. "sing, sing, sing" was pudge's favorite song and it could always be heard blasting out of his stereo system whenever he and angelo needed to attend to a crucial and often deadly piece of business. by playing it now, he was confirming the importance of my first job and his confidence that i would not fail in my task. it was also a way of handing his song down to me. from now on, it would be what i would play whenever i prepared to head out to help quench a gangster's insatiable thirst for blood and money." - lorenzo carcaterra, "gangster," p 270.

why don't you do right? sung by peggy lee (and yes, that's benny on the clarinet)


from movie, a song is born: "stealin apples" with lionel hampton


from same movie: "history of jazz"