Martha Raye - Mr. Paganini, You'll Have To Swing It

"Mr. Paganini, You'll Have To Swing It" is a song that is mostly associated with Ella Fitzgerald, but here is an hilarious rendition of that song by actress Martha Raye in a scene from the movie Four Jills in a Jeep (1944).



Watch Martha Raye's slap stick version of "Mr. Paganini, You'll Have To Swing It".

The band behind her is the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.

You might recognize Martha Raye from when she sang "Watch the Birdie" in "Hellzapoppin'".

One unusual fact that I didn't know was that she inspired Anita O'day to be a singer.

What do you think of the video clip from with Four Jills in a Jeep with Martha Raye? Tell me.

Watch the Birdie - Hellzapoppin

Usually you will hear the song Watch the Birdie sung by Anita O'day but it first appeared in the movie Hellzapoppin'. Here is a video clip from Hellzapoppin' with Watch the Birdie, the song is sung by Martha Raye.



Before I knew about this clip I always felt like there where something more to the story than what was told in the lyrics, now having seen the clip from Hellzapoppin' (1941), the lyrics make perfect sense.

In this clip there is lindy hop dance sequence where Betty (Martha Raye) dances with Dean Collins. When experienced lindy hoppers think of Hellzapoppin they mostly think of another famous dance sequence from this movie with Frankie Manning, Norma Miller and Al Minns and the rest of the dance troupe Harlem Cangeroos. Therefor I thought it would be nice to show some other swing dancing from that movie.

The Anita O'day version of Watch the Birdie is a great one (Gene Krupas Orchestra is playing), but be careful when you are djing it if you got a lot of beginning dancers on the dance floor because it has some tricky breaks in it.

And while we are talking about birds and photography (well, kind of...), I must show you a cartoon that is played at every Christmas Eve on Swedish television at 3 o'clock. It, together with some other cartoons, has been shown for 30 years, it's a modern tradition.



What do you think of Watch the Birdie (both the Hellzapoppin' and Anita O'day version)? Tell me.