"Crazy Rhythm" ('Whispering' Jack Smith, 1928)

"Whispering" Jack Smith embraced the new microphones and recording advances of the 1920's with a unique, elegant, impeccably enunciated style.

His treatment of this Irving Caesar/Joseph Meyer/Roger Wolfe Hahn standard from the lost musical "Here's Howe" merits a perch in the YouTube aviary.

Jack's ably assisted here by Carroll Gibbons and the boys in the New Mayfair Dance Orchestra.

CRAZY RHYTHM
Crazy rhythm, here's the doorway
I'll go my way, you'll go your way
Crazy rhythm, from now on we're through.

Here is where we have a showdown
I'm too high-hat, you're too low-down
Crazy rhythm, here's goodbye to you!

They say that when a high-brow meets a low-brow
Walking along Broadway
Soon the high-brow he has no brow
Ain't it a shame? And you're to blame!

What's the use of Prohibition?
You produce the same condition,
Crazy rhythm, I've gone crazy too!

I feel like the Emperor Nero when Rome was a very hot town.
Father Knickerbocker, you'll have to forgive me, I play while your city burns down.
Through all its night life I fiddle away,
It's not the right life, but think of the pay!
Some day I will bid it goodbye, I'll put my
fiddle away and I'll say:

Crazy rhythm, here's the doorway
I'll go my way, you'll go your way
Crazy rhythm, from now on we're through.

Here is where we have a showdown
I'm too high-hat, you're too low-down
Crazy rhythm, here's goodbye to you!

They say that when a high-brow meets a low-brow
Walking along Broadway
Soon the high-brow he has no brow
Ain't it a shame? And you're to blame!

What's the use of Prohibition?
You produce the same condition,
Crazy rhythm, I've gone crazy too!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Crazy
• Rhythm
• whispering
• jack
• smith
• 1928
• here's
• howe
• carroll
• gibbons
• irving
• caesar
• meyer
• kahn

[paxguns]

To sing like whispering Jack Smith, you would have to have part of your lungs destroyed by by mustard gas in WW1.

[RReady555]

His acoustical recordings were also pretty good, but Jack came into his own with the new Electrical mic's...

[whizbang47]

Big cheer for this big hit, albeit from back when. Five cheers from over here in West Egg

gone by.

[RReady555]

...and you West Eggers would know!

Say "hi" to to my pal Klipspringer--think he's still crashing at Jay's joint.

[whizbang47]

Yeah, well now you have to put up with a new subscriber. And after spending 6 months in Vermont in '71, I know how you love solitude. I

am more than a little surprised to find so many of my father's favorites on your channel. He'd sing 'em. I'd hide in the woods.

[RReady555]

Heh, heh...should have been good for a few merit badges.

Now, if your dad sang just like Whistling Jack I'd have put on a show!

[guitar5289]

Thank you to those that are listening to this 84 years later...you get a pat on the back :)

[whenjazzwasking]

Go get em Jack ! Great tune, I put the cd in my wish list on Amazon

[RupeeLord]

WHAT'S the use of prohibition anyway?

[kirstibear10]

sampled and trampled by me

[iainr222]

He was a hugely popular recording artist in his prime and one would think that a philanthropic show biz group in New York could fund a plaque for his grave if drawn to their attention !

[RockLives4u]

This guy dies at 51 his wife buries him next to his mother (family name Schmidt), in an unmarked grave in the Bronx..They didnt even give Jack a stone to mark is grave

[jsbach15]

Oh, how divine!  2 thumbs way up!

[alshouse]

Could the fiddler have been Joe Venuti? :)

[jgatsby52]

Great tunes. I have several and listen to them on my grafonola! Thanks for posting!

[MsGrinda]

I love the drummer too he is so light hearted, cool and funny.