We enjoyed Duke Ellington’s Old Man Blues yesterday, so today we’ll flip that Victor record over to hear the B‑side: another Ellington original, Jungle Nights in Harlem.
I believe that’s another one‑and‑done tune for Duke - he doesn’t seem to have recorded it again, not even for Brunswick under the Jungle Band moniker.
But just because Duke recorded it only once doesn’t mean the record companies released it only once. And that’s where things get interesting.
HMV Gets Creative (1933)
In 1933, HMV - essentially the British counterpart to Victor - paired Jungle Nights in Harlem with another one‑off: Irving Berlin’s Swanee Shuffle, recorded in 1929.
Then in 1936, Victor’s budget label Bluebird reissued Jungle Nights in Harlem with another non‑Duke tune: Hot Feet, by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, also from 1929.
The label credits the scat vocal to Charlie Williams, but he's known to everyone (except maybe his mother) as Cootie!
Tracing the Original Flip (1930)
Hot Feet was originally issued on Victor in 1930 with a different flipside: Barney Bigard’s Sloppy Joe, which also features a scat vocal — this time by drummer Sonny Greer.
Full Circle… Sort Of
We come (sort of) full circle when Bluebird later reissued Sloppy Joe with yet another flip, this time Jazz Lips, which we just heard as the B‑side of Double Check Stomp!
I’ve now flipped so many times, I feel like a stack of pancakes. Pass the syrup, please!
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