PopCult Rudy Panucci on Pop Culture

100 Years Of Swing and 100 Episodes of The Swing Shift

We have a big-deal landmark episode of The Swing Shift Tuesday on The AIR. The Swing Shift has made it to 100 episodes. Tuesday afternoon you can hear episode 99, followed by our big episode 100. In order to hear these two new hours of great Swing Music, you simply have to move your cursor over and tune in at the website, or you could just stay on this page, and  listen to this copascetic little embedded radio player…

Since day one, the tagline for The Swing Shift has been “The Best Swing Music from the past Century!” As we started to get close to our 100th episode, I decided to put that into practice, and do a three-part series that would bring us Swing tunes from the biggest names of each of the last ten decades. We’d devote episodes 99, 100 and 101 to this almost educational jitterbug through the history of Swing.

That was the plan. When it came time to execute that plan, I discovered that I was going to have to expand this series to four episodes. So this week you’ll get parts one and two, and next week you’ll get parts three and four.

At 3 PM our first new hour of The Swing Shift takes you back to the early days of Swing, covering the 1920s and 1930s. In fact, our opening number was recorded one hundred years ago. I give you a little bit of historical background, but I didn’t want to get in the way of the music, so I keep it to a minimum. Check out this playlist:

The Swing Shift 099

1920s
Mamie Smith “Crazy Blues”
Paul Whiteman with Bing Crosby and the Rhythm Boys “Changes”
Pinetop Smith “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie”
Meade Lux Lewis “Honky Tonk Train Blues”
The Casa Loma Orchestra “Casa Loma Stomp”

1930s
Fletcher Henderson “Blue Lou”
Louis Armstrong “Mahogany Hall Stomp”
Earl “Fantha” Hines “Rosetta”
Duke Ellington “Rockin’ in Rhythm”
Chick Webb “If Dreams Come True”
Raymond Scott “Powerhouse”
Benny Goodman “Sing, Sing, Sing”
Tommy Dorsey “Hawaiian War Chant”
Count Basie “Swingin’ The Blues”
Artie Shaw “What Is This Thing Called Love”
Jimmy Dorsey “John Silver”

At 4 PM, we hit episode 100 of The Swing Shift, and take a look at Swing Music from the 1940s to the 1970s. I feel a little guilty glossing over much of the 60s and 70s, but there was so much great stuff in the 1940s that I didn’t want to have any major omissions. In the coming weeks, I’ll go back and try to fill in the gaps. However, I don’t make any apologies for the playlist for this episode of the show, because it really swings. Check out the playlist:

The Swing Shift 100

1940s
Glenn Miller “In The Mood”
Harry James “Two O’Clock Jump”
Woody Herman “Blues On Parade”
Lionel Hampton “Flying Home”
Gene Krupa “After You’ve Gone”
Nat King Cole “It’s Only A Paper Moon”
Stan Kenton “Eager Beaver”
Jimmie Lunceford “Well All Right Then”
Benny Goodman “Rachel’s Dream”
Tommny Dorsey “Chicago”
Duke Ellington “Jack The Bear”

1950s
Louis Prima “Jump, Jive and Wail”
Louis Jordan “Teardrops From My Eyes”
Dean Martin “Hey Brother, Pour The Wine”

1960s
Frank Sinatra and Count Basie “Fly Me To The Moon”
Buddy Rich “Big Swing Face”

1970s
Toni Basil “Wham Rebop Boom Bam”

iIn our first hour next week we are going to cover the 1980s and 1990s, which are packed with Swing Revival music, and then our second hour will bring us up to today, because Swing is still a thing, doncha know? In the coming weeks, we are going to do an entire episode devoted to the Women of Swing, so bear with me as I try to cover all of the best Swing Music of the last century.

You can hear The Swing Shift Tuesday at 3 PM, with replays Wednesday at 8 AM and 6 PM, Thursday at 7 PM and Saturday at 5 PM, only on The AIR. You can also hear all-night marathons, seven hours each, starting at Midnight Thursday and Sunday evenings.