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Frankie Manning

Clayzapoppin vs. Hellzapoppin

25.05.2010 by Chris

Clayzapoppin

This was a special video presentation at SVJD's second annual Swing/Jazz Dancing Music-Video Contest.

Description: The famous Lindy Hop scene from Hellzapoppin can't be done better.
But it can be re-done. Here's our rendition.

Participants: Lukas Allenbaugh, Katie McLaughlin, Celeste Olds, Jason Schroeder, Jared Luxenburg, John Platt, Amy Weber

Hellzapoppin

And here is the original dance scene by Whitey's Lindy Hoppers, featuring Frankie Manning (in the Mechanic's Dungarees), from the movie “Hellzapoppin” (1941):




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Related posts:
Article “The King of Swing” on FLYP
Biographie Frankie “Musclehead” Manning – in German
Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging (Documentary)
Song of the Week: Frankie's favourite Song “Shiny Stockings”

Filed Under: Funny Stuff, History/Culture Tagged With: Frankie Manning, Hellzapoppin, Jazz Routine, Lindy Hop, Video

DJ Chrisbe’s Song of the Week #12: Shiny Stockings

24.05.2010 by Chris

Next Wednesday, 26th May, is Frankie Manning‘s birthday, he would have turned 96. Reason enough to declare the whole week as Frankie Manning week on my Swing Blog. In the following five days, I will post every day an entry which is related to Frankie.

Let's start with Frankie Manning's favourite song: Shiny Stockings by Count Basie (1904-1984), Frank Foster, saxophonist and musical director of the Count Basie Orchestra from 1986-1995, is the composer of this Lindy Hop Hymn.

Jazz journalist Bob Bernotas interviewed Frank Foster in 1991. Here is the song relating excerpt of that interview.

In his 11 years with the Count, Foster contributed a tall stack of marvelous charts to the book (“Blues Backstage,” “Down for the Count,” “Blues in Hoss’ Flat,” “Back to the Apple,” “Discommotion,” the entire Easin’ It album), but none suited the Chief’s prerequisites better than “Shiny Stockings.”

“I wrote ‘Shiny Stockings' in 1955 and we had a rehearsal at a place called Pep's Bar in Philadelphia. We had just arrived in town. Everybody was sleepy, tired, hungry, and evil. Nobody felt like rehearsing. We rehearsed ‘Shiny Stockings' and it sounded like a bunch of jumbled notes, just noise, and I said, ‘Wow, all the work I put into this, and it sounds so horrible. I know Basie will never play it.' And then something very strange happened. He continued to play and it came together. Finally, we recorded it and, well, it’s the very best known piece that I have contributed to the Basie book.

“It embodies all the things that were important to him. It builds-it starts soft and ends with and explosion. It leaves space for the rhythm section to do whatever it’s going to do. It has that ensemble writing which the band can sink their teeth into and really make happen-and a wonderful trumpet solo by Thad Jones.” One more thing: it swings.

“Years later,” Foster remembers with pride, “Basie gave me the supreme compliment. Every now and then, he’d say about a chart, ‘Oh, it’s very nice, kid,' and then leave it at that. Well, he grabbed me, he said, ‘Junior, you know that “Shiny Stockings”? You really put one down that time.' You couldn’t receive a better compliment from Count Basie.”

(c) by Bob Bernotas

Check out Bob Bernotas’ book “Reed All About It: Interviews and Master Classes with Jazz's Leading Reed Players” for the full interview.


Count Basie April In ParisTitle: Shiny Stockings
Artist: Count Basie
Recorded: 1955
Album: April In Paris
Tempo: 140 bpm
Dance: Lindy Hop



Click the link to download the song at
iTunes CH/EU ・ Amazon.de (CH/D/A) ・ Amazon.com ・ emusic


Is this your favourite song as well?? What do you think about the series “Song of the Week”? Please share your thoughts!

Every Monday, I post a new “Song of the Week“.
You can find the songs also on my Spotify playlist or on 8tracks.

Related Songs:

Song of the Week #11: “Blue Horizon” by Sidney Bechet
Song of the Week #10: “Do Nothing ‘Till You Hear From Me” by Cootie Williams
Song of the Week #9: “Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho” by Kid Ory
Song of the Week #8: “Alreet” by Anita O'Day with Gene Krupa & His Orchestra
Song of the Week #7: “No More Love” by Buddy Johnson


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Filed Under: Music, Song of the Week Tagged With: Bob Bernotas, Count Basie, DJ Chrisbe, Frank Foster, Frankie Manning, Jazz, Lindy Hop, Swing

Global Shim Sham

10.04.2010 by Chris

Vom 21.-26. Mai 2009 wurde in New York ein riesiges Geburtstags-Festival anlässlich Frankie Mannings 95. Geburtstag organisiert. Dieser Anlass ist allgemein als Frankie Fest oder Frankie 95 bekannt.

Leider verstarb Frankie Manning (16.5.1914-27.4.2009) einen Monat vor dem Anlass und das Geburtstags-Festival wurde kurzum zu einem inzwischen schon legendären Gedenk-Festival.

Die Organisatoren riefen im Vorfeld dazu auf, den Shim Sham in der lokalen Szene auf Video aufzunehmen und auf Youtube zu veröffentlichen, um einen Zusammenschnitt für das Festival herzustellen. Über 160 Videos wurden produziert, u.a. auch vom Schneeschuh-Shim Sham, aufgenommen im März 2009 während dem 1. Geneva Lindy Exchange:



Wie ihr seht, wurden Ausschnitte aus diesem schweizerisch/französischen Beitrag in den Global Shim Sham übernommen.




Jedes Mal, wenn ich den Global Shim Sham sehe, bin ich gerührt!
Wie gefällt euch dieses Video? Schreibt einen Kommentar!

Filed Under: Dance, Event, History/Culture Tagged With: Frankie Manning, Jazz Routine, Shim Sham, Video

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Welcome, I'm Christian Bossert. Since 1999, I‘ve been passionate about Swing dances as well as their culture and history. I‘m a Swing dance instructor and international Swing DJ Chrisbe, based in Zurich Switzerland. Read More…

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