Chicago (That Toddlin' Town)

Chicago (That Toddling Town) is a song by American popular music in the genre of Tin Pan Alley, which the emigrant to the United States Cologne Fred Fisher in 1922 composed and wrote the lyrics. The title was written as a 32- taktiges piece of music in 1922 by Fisher and applied for a U.S. copyright on his own music publishing company with ASCAP. The song is now regarded as a jazz standard.

Genesis

The title of Chicago (That Toddling Town) are first - in isolation - no information about whether the lyrics a tribute or a review about the city of Chicago follows. The term " toddling town" ( engl. = toddle fluctuate, stagger, waddle ) has been and is linguistically not used in the context of a city, and Fisher never wore for whitening at. Probably should be " toddling " alliteration represent to " town". Considering isolated the title, the emerging Chicago on the one hand be seen as wavering or the other as the ups and downs of too fast growing metropolis. At the time of the creation of the song, there was Prohibition, and the gangs of Al Capone or John Dillinger dominated the cityscape. In the mentioned in the lyrics Billy Sunday is an evangelist preacher who praised the infamous mayor William Hale "Big Bill" Thompson because of his enforcement of Sunday rest. The preacher Billy Sunday says after the lyrics that even he does not have out of service the city can put ( " Billy Sunday Could not shut down" ), and only the mayor was able to prevail with its formal power to close the Local. The alcoholic Thompson was the first time the saloons from October 1915 close on Sundays and was praised by evangelist Billy Sunday for his courage. Besides the big dance halls increasingly dominated the illegal " speakeasy " Flüsterlokale the cityscape in which the illegally imported or illegally produced " bootleg" alcohol was served. The text reveals in some encoded form for the award, which can get Fisher his first election homeland. Here you lose the first time his sadness, on State Street there things that you do not know on Broadway in New York, and all visitors wanted to stay here permanently.

Original recording

It is not sure who has recorded the original version of Chicago (That Toddling Town). The literature majority comes from Ben Selvin, who received the title in July 1922 in New York as Ray Collins Orchestra (published in November 1922 Banner # 1104). With a rank 5 of the pop charts, it was also the highest-ranking placement of the title of all time. However, the recording of the Bar Harbor Society Orchestra for Vocalion (# 14412 ) was also born in July 1922; they penetrated to rank before 13 (B-side of Ji Ji Bo) of the charts.

Cover versions

The song reached as sheet music editions in the millions. Already in the year of 1922 a number of cover versions was taken. These included versions of Bailey's Lucky Seven ( Gennett # 4933; taken on August 17, 1922), the Paul Whiteman Orchestra (recorded on August 23, 1922), the Original Memphis Five (28 August 1922), the Jazzbo 's Carolina Serenaders ( Cameo # 284; October 1922 ), The Seven Syncopating ( Bennett, November 22, 1922 ) or the Georgians (Columbia # 37751, December 1922 ). Through the London Original Capitol Orchestra of the title in April 1923 probably came the first time to Europe. Muggsy Spanier took his Orchestra ( Decca # 4168 ) on January 2, 1942, a further version on. The many early versions make it clear that Chicago was part of the standard repertoire of the Roaring Twenties, also in Europe.

Was spread throughout the world the song by Frank Sinatra, the Hollywood ( Capitol Tower, Studio A) took him on 13 August 1957, an arrangement by Nelson Riddle. It was the B-side of All The Way ( Capitol # 3193 ) and used independently reached rank 83 of the pop charts. This version of Chicago was used in the movie The Joker Is Wild, which was released in theaters on September 26, 1957. Sinatra sang the song very frequently on his tours, in particular, he thus achieved great success in Chicago itself On June 6 In 1993, Frank Sinatra in Cologne - Fishers hometown - his last European concert as part of his " Diamond Jubilee Tour" at Roncalliplatz which he initiated with Fishers Chicago.

Book and film publication and statistics

Since the successful Tin Pan Alley song about Chicago " Toddling Town" commonly associated with Chicago (official nickname is the Windy City ) is. The Chicago-born Hugh M. Hefner published in 1951 the book That toddlin ' town: A rowdy burlesque of Chicago manners and morals, a cartoon about Chicago, as to imagine tourists. Charles A. Sengstock used the title deed Toddlin 'Town: Chicago 's White Dance Bands And Orchestras, 1900-1950 published in 2004 for his book on the white dance bands, theater orchestras and studio bands in jazz and blues center of Chicago. The song was first film, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle Henry Codman Potter's used in, which was released in theaters on March 29, 1939. For Fred Fisher total of 177 titles are registered copyright at ASCAP. The Cover Info database lists 28 versions of the song.