Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra: Marshmellow World

Bad quality, but still a lot of fun.

Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby: White Christmas

Too Freaking Cool.  Frank and Bing.  Enjoy.

Ross Sisters: Solid Potato Salad

This is a must see video! Holy cow! swing music, and some very limber girls! Amazing!

Diana Krall: Fly Me To The Moon

Some cool swing piano playing by Diana Krall. She is singing a classic Sinatra song.

The Delta Rhythm Boys: Jersey Bounce

One of my favorite vocal groups from the swing/jump blues era the Delta Rhythm Boys

Nat King Cole: When I Fall In Love

I know, I know, its not blues, but I have a soft spot for Nat King Cole. How can you not love Nat!

Frank Sinatra And Elvis: Love Me Tender/Witchcraft

A very young Elvis with the first real King of Pop. Doing an interesting medley of their pop songs. Frank really swings out Love Me Tender I must admit that I really would liked to have heard Frank do that song that way, I actually like that a lot more!

The reason Frank was the First King of Pop, is that Popular music has been around as long as people have sang songs. Music can be divided by popular music, or folk music, secular music, religious music, etc, etc, When you consider just how popular Frank Sinatra was well before Elvis, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson, then you really have the first royalty of popular music. It is not that before Frank there were not popular performers, but Frank lived in an age where recorded music was reaching its golden age, where TV was just starting to make an impact, and where movies truly made people celebrities worldwide. Frank's loving army of girl fans known as Bobby Soxers, chased after him like girls chased Elvis, and all the rock and rollers who came later.

Hellzapoppin 1941

Here is a clip from the film Hellzapoppin, which features some amazing swing dancing, and some great music. This is an amazing clip check it out!!!

Nat King Cole: The Christmas Song

There was a time before the mid 50s when someone said the King, they weren't talking about Elvis. Jazz, blues, and swing royalty at one time was the Count (Basie), the Duke (Ellington) and the King (Cole). Nat King Cole was the ultimate in cool, and much like Ray Charles he could sing any style of music and it would sell. Capitol records was built not by the Beatles, but by Cole. His hit records built Capitol well before the Beatles came to America.

Nat King Cole The Christmas Song
Uploaded by avajra

Bing Crosby And Frank Sinatra: Christmas Medley

Ultra cool video of Bing and Frank swinging some great Christmas songs. I guess I have a soft spot for stuff like this. This is just way too cool.

FS Santa Claus is coming to town
Uploaded by Philip91

Benny Goodman Quartet: Avalon

Not blues, but it features Lionel Hampton on the Vibes, and of course Benny Goodman on Clarinet. What makes Benny Goodman special is that he was the first white band leader to have an integrated band. Goodman grew up in Chicago and was greatly influenced by the African American musicians who played a new kind of music called Jazz. When he was able to put together his own band he added the best players around regardless of race. He also hired the great Fletcher Henderson to write his arraignments.

Frank Sinatra: New York

Not blues, not really swing, but I feel like posting some Frank:-)

Bobby Darrin: Mack The Knife

This is a cool song that has been covered badly by so many people over the years. The reason Bobby's version is the best is all in the arrangement. This is a classic Bobby Darrin arrangement. Start small with a few instruments, and build it up until everyone is going to town. This is from the 70s, so enjoy the strange fashion and backdrops:-)

Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife
Uploaded by joss51100

Bobby Darin: Beyond The Sea

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I found the ultra cool, hilarious not safe for tv in 1973 video of Bobby Darin singing Beyond The Sea! I have been looking for this since, well you know what happened. If you missed this clip before it was deleted. Then check it out now! This is the last episode of Bobby Darin's TV show. So he put on a heck of show, typical Bobby Darin to give it all even when he was dying. Darin was a tough guy no doubt about it!

Bobby Darin - Beyond The Sea
Uploaded by catrin345

Artist Of The Week: Count Basie

Artist of the week is Count Basie. I thought I would go old school, and bring on some swing! Legend has it that Benny Goodman was traveling through the Midwest when he heard Count Basie on the radio. He told John Hammond who contacted Basie, and arranged for him to play in Chicago. When Basie and the band arrived the producer of the show wanted to know where his music and arrangements were, when Basie informed the producer that they didn't have any, and that the arrangements were in their head! I am sure the producer was a bit shocked when he heard how good these guys were without music!:-) As always the videos are located on the left side of the blog. Also notice that I have another box of videos below that. You can watch those blues videos without leaving the site. It is pretty cool, and has some different videos. I have noticed that it slowly changes videos perhaps a couple a week.

Cab Calloway And Bo Jangles

This is another short clip. This comes from the movie Stormy Weather, and features The Cab Calloway Band, and a brief appearance at the beginning by Bill "Bo Jangles" Robinson.

Cab Calloway 1
Uploaded by BIRDIE29

Gene Krupa: Drum Boogie

Here is one of the video's that Jill mentioned in the comments section. It is Gene Krupa playing drums on the song Drum Boogie. Gary Cooper is the actor that briefly is featured sitting in the audience. Barbra Stanwyck is the singer. The clip comes from the movie Ball Of Fire. You need to stick it out to the end to watch Gene Krupa play drums on a matchbox with a pair of matches!!

Thanks Jan for finding a cool video!

Benny Goodman: Sing Sing Sing

Technically not blues, but a great song from the Swing era. What I like about it is it features some great performances by Benny Goodman (Clarinet) Harry James (Trumpet) and Gene Krupa (Drums) This is a short version, the live version from Carnegie Hall is well over 7 mins, and worth seeing or listening to if you can find it.

Artisit Of The Week: Cab Calloway

I thought I would go back to the Swing Era, and focus on Cab Calloway as our Google video bar artist of the week. Cab's jumping music, and jive talking made him famous throughout the US. Perhaps he could be considered the first rap artists. His jive talking, or talking in rhyme was not invented by him, but he certainly popularized its use in the African American Community. Also his wonderful Zoot suits continue to reappear in popular culture every 20 years almost if on cue. Of the four videos there are 3 different versions of Minnie The Moocher. One is of the band, the other is from a Betty Boop cartoon and the third is from the Blues Brothers.

Cab Calloway and the Nicholas Brothers