Songs I'd like to tap dance to
Submitted by UncRoger on Tue, 02/20/2001 - 10:21
Tags:
- Beatles - Octopus's Garden
- Basia - Miles Away
- Olivia Newton-John - Whenever You’re Away From Me
- Olivia Newton-John - Something Better to Do
- Dr. John - Accentuate the Positive
- Proclaimers - It's Saturday Night
- Donald Fagen - Walk Between Raindrops
- Eric Clapton - Reconsider Baby
- Eric Clapton - How Long Blues
- Queen - Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon
- Queen - Seaside Rendezvous
- Queen - Good Company
- Brian Setzer Orchestra - Lady Luck
- Brian Setzer Orchestra - There's a rainbow 'round my shoulder
- The Notting Hillbillies - Weapon of Prayer
- Jimmy Witherspoon - Ain’t Nobody’s Business
- Gary Moore - Jumpin’ at Shadows
- Steely Dan - East St. Louis Toodle-oo
- Ricky Skaggs - Baby, I’m in Love with You
- John Conlee - Got My Heart Set on You
Author Comments:
I like tap dance a lot. But not all of the traditional tap music. These are some more recent songs I think would be good to tap to. (And before you ask, I suck at tap, but my wife is fantastic.)
This sounds like so much fun-- you really do tap dance!
It depends on who you ask. 8^) I'm okay; I've not had as many lessons as I'd like. But, there's a workshop coming up with Sam Weber that I'm going to, so...
UncRoger, which tap dancing scene by which dancer in which movie is the greatest, iyho?
And you've heard, of course, about the Irish tap dancer: he slipped and fell into the sink. (Actually, that joke might fall flat with you, since the things we call 'taps' in my part of the world are called 'faucets' where you live, I think.)
When you own a Land Rover, you tend to hang out with a lot of brits and pick up the lingo, so that is a good one.
As for movie tapping... I'm no expert, so don't go by what I say. There's the scene with Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson (in The Little Colonel?) -- the first time an interracial couple danced together in the movies. Donald O'Connor in Singin' in the Rain is possibly the most comical. Rachel's favorite is the Singin' in the Rain number in that same movie, but she admits it's probably not the "best". I love Gene Kelly, so anything he does is wonderful.
There's a great scene (Royal Wedding?) with Fred Astaire dancing all around the room -- including the walls and ceiling -- but I'm not 100% sure that that was tap and not ballroom. There's another one where he's in a hotel room (iirc) and tap dancing, and gets yelled at for being so loud, so he dumps some sand from the ashtray on the floor and does a soft-shoe number. I like Buddy Ebsen a lot too, so his number with Shirley Temple (Captain January?)is up there (along with the rare dancing bits he did on the Beverly Hillbillies).
All in all, I would have to say the greatest, imnsho, would be the Nicholas Brothers in (iirc) Sun Valley Serenade(?) -- it's a big number and extremely famous.
Since my Dad isn't living with me anymore, I don't watch as much AMC as I used to -- I'm gonna have to pull out the tapes to refresh my memory.
Ah, that Nicholas Brothers routine is very, very hard to beat.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Should I add it to my "to see" list? If so, am I adding it for the movie as a whole, or just that routine?
Sun Valley Serenade is about what you'd expect for the era. If you like light romantic comedies from once upon a time, when stealing a kiss was positively scandalous and so on, then yes, it's definitely worth watching. If not, then I'd recommend one of the documentaries that include that number. I like that kind of genteel sappiness, when men were men and women wrapped them around their little fingers. But not everyone does.
I asked Rachel what she thought was the greatest tap dance number, so she didn't mention what is probably even more her favorite scene than Singin' in the Rain: The tap challenge in Tap!. Sammy Davis Jr. and some of the legends of tap try to outdo each other at tap, taking turns at more and more challenging bits.
UncRoger, thanks to you and Rachel for those three titles. I've seen SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, of course, but the other two will have to go on my list (not yet posted) "To Watch Out For, But Unlikely To See", along with that intellectual musical, 1776.
Your reference to that scene in which Fred Astaire sprinkles sand on his hotel room floor and does a soft-shoe number reminded me of a very funny scene from a documentary I saw on TV years ago. It was one of a collection of famous scenes from British comedy films. This scene was just two straight-faced dancers, dressed as ancient Egyptians, pyramids and sand dunes in the background, and they were doing a rather leisurely soft-shoe shuffle. I don't know why the scene is so funny (and it was deliberately funny, no question), but it is, and I mean laugh-out-loud. Wish I could give you the title, but it's lost in the sands of time, so to speak.