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Benny Goodman — Bolero
Album: Beethoven Wrote It . . . But It Swings!
Avg rating:
7.6

Your rating:
Total ratings: 431









Released: 1939
Length: 2:39
Plays (last 30 days): 0
(instrumental)
Comments (50)add comment
 neptunejeff wrote:
Benny Goodman is so cool, it's criminal 



I agree!!  EXCELLENT tune!!
 frisbeepilot wrote:
Gotta say, not too many radio stations (streaming or otherwise) would go from 2017 Radiohead to 1939 Benny Goodman in two songs and make it work, but RP managed to do just that. Well done.
 

At least one good person to come from Chicago in my home state of Illinois!!!
Gotta say, not too many radio stations (streaming or otherwise) would go from 2017 Radiohead to 1939 Benny Goodman in two songs and make it work, but RP managed to do just that. Well done.
Benny Goodman is so cool, it's criminal 
NICE Surprise
Very Tom & Jerry
 Kaw wrote:
Don't get the album title. The Bolero & Beethoven... It's more a Ravel thing.
 

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Beethoven-Wrote-It-But-It-Swings/release/7527111

Beethoven didn't write most of the songs on that album. It's got Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and so on (as well as Ravel and Beethoven, of course). I'm guessing that "Beethoven Wrote It... But It Swings!" was decided to be a more effective and pithy title than "Various Dead Geniuses Wrote It... But It Swings!"
BIG smile. Only Goodman could make Ravel swing.
 splooge wrote:
No more Benny please.
 
SO glad RP didn't honor this request.

Totally LOVE this!
Big band be bop bolero?  Who'da thunk it?  That old "greatest generation" sure could pull some strange rabbits out of their hat, couldn't they?  Heh!
Wow. Absolutely brilliant. Superb arrangement and musicianship, of course, is next level.
 redart wrote:
Finally a version of Bolero I can listen to without picturing Torvill & Dean 
 

This feels like the Pole Dancer version... LOL
 Must be the only person alive who hears Bolero and does not picture Bo Derek.



redart wrote:
Finally a version of Bolero I can listen to without picturing Torvill & Dean 
 

Finally a version of Bolero I can listen to without picturing Torvill & Dean 
 Kaw wrote:
Don't get the album title. The Bolero & Beethoven... It's more a Ravel thing.
 

i heard you twice the first time. think back to those times. marketing was called advertising. i don't think the average joe would know who ravel is, but they'd  probably heard of beethoven if they just listen to popular music. it couldn't get by that many people without someone pointing it out. so it's deliberate. so what. it's kind of a cool treatment. 
Hahaha! I love it!
A pleasant surprise.  
better than Max Richter's horrible treatment of Vivaldi.
But I could live without.
Original dramatically improved by the deejay, congrats
Oh my god. So much fun.
not quite a 10
Don't get the album title. The Bolero & Beethoven... It's more a Ravel thing.
egggscellent!!
cathenley wrote:
{#Jump}How lucky for you!!!

ellenaut wrote:
I grew up listening to my dad playing the clarinet. I was amazed by his rendition of Flight of the Bumblebee. That clarinet was a family possession (passed from his brother) which I used from 5th grade until I quit sometime in high school. Dad eventually took up keyboards and returned the clarinet to his brother - sure wish I hadn't let go of that - one of my fondest memories of him - no, it was my closest tie to him. Love you Dad... thanks for making music and passing it on

Cynaera wrote:
My dad was in a big band - I have his clarinet, patched and home-repaired. I was weaned on Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey... This song just makes me wanna take Dad's old clarinet and learn to play...

Thanks, RadioParadise, for the blast from the past. God, I miss my dad...


Those are great stories. I can remember finding my parents' big band albums and torturing my teenage brother on weekend mornings with them—he was trying to catch up on his sleep. I loved the music even as a ten year old, esp. Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller.

If you're new to big band, check out Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. Amazing variety of music, all-star lineup, great audience.




{#Jump}How lucky for you!!!

ellenaut wrote:
I grew up listening to my dad playing the clarinet. I was amazed by his rendition of Flight of the Bumblebee. That clarinet was a family possession (passed from his brother) which I used from 5th grade until I quit sometime in high school. Dad eventually took up keyboards and returned the clarinet to his brother - sure wish I hadn't let go of that - one of my fondest memories of him - no, it was my closest tie to him. Love you Dad... thanks for making music and passing it on

Cynaera wrote:
My dad was in a big band - I have his clarinet, patched and home-repaired. I was weaned on Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey... This song just makes me wanna take Dad's old clarinet and learn to play...

Thanks, RadioParadise, for the blast from the past. God, I miss my dad...



I grew up listening to my dad playing the clarinet. I was amazed by his rendition of Flight of the Bumblebee. That clarinet was a family possession (passed from his brother) which I used from 5th grade until I quit sometime in high school. Dad eventually took up keyboards and returned the clarinet to his brother - sure wish I hadn't let go of that - one of my fondest memories of him - no, it was my closest tie to him. Love you Dad... thanks for making music and passing it on

 Cynaera wrote:
My dad was in a big band - I have his clarinet, patched and home-repaired. I was weaned on Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey... This song just makes me wanna take Dad's old clarinet and learn to play...

Thanks, RadioParadise, for the blast from the past. God, I miss my dad...
 


Wow!
Y E A H !!!





Just like any other time I hear Benny, "This one goes out to you and Charlene, Big Chuck." I know your listening somewhere, in this world or the next.
just fabulous

Fun but just... off kilter. Benny was always yearning for the classics. But missed here I think. Have any Stravinsky?
dionysius wrote:
This version of "Bolero" comes from a compilation album (pictured below) of various swing-era artists doing jazz versions of various classical composers, including Beethoven, including Ravel. The title of this compilation comes from a novelty curio called "Beethoven Wrote It But It Swings" by a WWII girl outfit called Dolly Dawn & Her Dawn Patrol (evidently all the guys were off fighting the war in Glenn Miller's band, so Rosie the Riveter was picking up the swing slack back home). Interesting trivia: this recording of "Bolero" by Goodman was actually a bit of a rarity until this CD came out, never properly released as such stateside at the time, but only as a free V-Disk distributed to the troops serving abroad.



I don't usually like jazz renditions of classical music but this one is almost contemporary with the original. I'm parsimonious with 10-ratings, but this Bolero gets one.

My dad was in a big band - I have his clarinet, patched and home-repaired. I was weaned on Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey... This song just makes me wanna take Dad's old clarinet and learn to play... Thanks, RadioParadise, for the blast from the past. God, I miss my dad...
No more Benny please.
daveesh wrote:
BEAUTIFUL. it's about time we got benny goodman n RP
Don't think we haven't all been trying. Just look at the list of refusals! But his best stuff was with Lionel Hampton. Perhaps one day B&R will allow some Goodman / Hampton to brighten up the playlist. *sigh* One day....
Wow that was so far out of context I was confused. I knew the song, but couldn't for the life of me place it. Of course! Bolero!
I love the Benny Goodman Orchestra but I really prefer the original version of Bolero. There's a build up of tension in the classical version that is just not captured when translated to swing.
Jitterbug and seduce -- at the same time! I like Bolero, and I like Benny Goodman, but this version doesn't do much for me.
Bring on the Glenn Miller next, and lets relive the 40s
VictorLaslo wrote:
Very Cool! Reminds me of what we used to listen to at Rick's back in the day.
Good taste won't get you those Letters of Transit, you principled, idealistic fool!
rocklandlove wrote:
um... Beethoven DIDN'T write Bolero, Mr. Goodman, it was Ravel... Mr. Goodman? Mr. GOODMAN? Are you there...? What do you want, good musicology or good taste?!
This version of "Bolero" comes from a compilation album (pictured below) of various swing-era artists doing jazz versions of various classical composers, including Beethoven, including Ravel. The title of this compilation comes from a novelty curio called "Beethoven Wrote It But It Swings" by a WWII girl outfit called Dolly Dawn & Her Dawn Patrol (evidently all the guys were off fighting the war in Glenn Miller's band, so Rosie the Riveter was picking up the swing slack back home). Interesting trivia: this recording of "Bolero" by Goodman was actually a bit of a rarity until this CD came out, never properly released as such stateside at the time, but only as a free V-Disk distributed to the troops serving abroad.
Very Cool! Reminds me of what we used to listen to at Rick's back in the day.
um... Beethoven DIDN'T write Bolero, Mr. Goodman, it was Ravel... Mr. Goodman? Mr. GOODMAN? Are you there...? What do you want, good musicology or good taste?!
Alright!
BEAUTIFUL. it's about time we got benny goodman n RP
n4ku wrote:
Good job! And thanks. Gets a 10 from me.
That's a double ditto! I love it.
WTF?? Stop it already!
dionysius wrote:
Hey, my upload got added! Boogaloo from me to you, and merci beaucoups, Messieurs Ravel and Goodman!
Good job! And thanks. Gets a 10 from me.
Hey, my upload got added! Boogaloo from me to you, and merci beaucoups, Messieurs Ravel and Goodman!