February 2, 1932: Duke Ellington Records "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)"

February 2, 1932: Duke Ellington records "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" with his orchestra. He had written the tune, and Irving Mills had written the words. It becomes one of the most familiar songs in jazz, and its title becomes a cliché. Of course, a saying becomes a cliché by containing some truth.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C. Sidney Zion, a columnist for the New York Daily News, listed him as one of "The Century Seven," 7 people born in 1899, the last year of the 19th Century, whose work guided American popular culture through much of the 20th Century. They were: Duke Ellington, born on April 29; Fred Astaire, May 10; James Cagney, July 17; Alfred Hitchcock, August 13; Hoagy Carmichael, November 22; Noël Coward, December 16; and Humphrey Bogart, December 25.

He was nicknamed "Duke" after Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. He formed his first music group in 1917, and played throughout the Northeastern U.S. He became nationally known for appearing at the Cotton Club in New York's Harlem.

In August 1931, the Duke Ellington Orchestra was playing the Lincoln Tavern in Chicago. During intermissions, Ellington composed and arranged a tune, and he thought of his former trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley, who was suffering from tuberculosis, who liked to say, "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing." Irving Mills, Ellington's agent and music publisher, wrote the lyrics.

The song was recorded for Brunswick Records on February 2, 1932, in New York, with Ivie Anderson singing the vocal, and solos by trombonist Johnny Hodges and alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Miley died on May 20, shortly after the song was released.

It was one of the earliest uses of the term "swing." Music "swung" before it "rocked." Ellington called it "the expression of a sentiment which prevailed among jazz musicians at the time."

The following year, Ellington would record "Sophisticated Lady." In 1941, he recorded what became his signature song, "Take the 'A' Train," written with Billy Strayhorn. He always answered the question, "What's your favorite song?" with, "The next one. The one I'm writing now." But until his death on May 24, 1974, Ellington, and black "big bands" in general, were defined by the credo, "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."

*

February 2, 1932 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 3 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1 at the old Madison Square Garden.

* The New York Americans beat the Boston Bruins, 4-3 at the Boston Garden.

* And the Montreal Maroons beat the Detroit Falcons, 4-3 at the Montreal Forum. The following season, the Falcons were renamed the Detroit Red Wings.