Continuing our study of Swing Music
I hope you are keeping up and listening to each song this week
I want to give all A's come report card time!
: )
From 1941
This became the signature song for Duke Ellington and his Orchestra
It was written by Billy Strayhorn.
It was his breakthrough song as a composer.
Billy got the idea for the song from Ellington's directions to his place in Harlem as in the first line of lyrics:
"You must take the A Train
To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem.
If you miss the A Train,
You’ll find you've missed the quickest way to Harlem."
In 2000, National Public Radio selected "A" Train as one of the "NPR 100"—the hundred greatest songs of the 20th century.
Duke Ellington and his Orchestra
"Take The A Train"
Trumpet: Ray Nance