Boogie Woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, waned in popularity in the 1930s, but enjoyed a resurgence and its greatest acclaim in the 1940s, reaching audiences around the world. Among its most famous acts were Albert Ammons, and Meade “Lux” Lewis who we hear today on The Phantom Dancer on 1939 radio. The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week. LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 9 September and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

BOOGIE

In sheet music literature prior to 1900, there are at least three examples of the word “boogie” in music titles in the archives of the Library of Congress. In 1901, “Hoogie Boogie” appeared in the title of published sheet music, the first known instance where a redoubling of the word “Boogie” occurs in the title of published music. (In 1880, “The Boogie Man” had occurred as the title of published music.) The first use of “Boogie” in a recording title appears to be a “blue cylinder” recording made by Edison of the “American Quartet” performing “That Syncopated Boogie Boo” in 1913. The Oxford English Dictionary states that the word is a reduplication of boogie, which was used for “rent parties” as early as 1913. “Boogie” next occurs in the title of Wilbur Sweatman’s April 1917 recording of “Boogie Rag”. None of these sheet music or audio recording examples contain the musical elements that would identify them as boogie-woogie. The 1919 recordings (two takes) of “Weary Blues” by the Louisiana Five contained the same boogie-woogie bass figure as appears in the 1915 “Weary Blues” sheet music by Artie Matthews. These 1919 recordings are the earliest sound recordings which contain a boogie-woogie bass figure. Blind Lemon Jefferson used the term “Booga Rooga” to refer to a guitar bass figure that he used in “Match Box Blues”. Jefferson may have heard the term from Huddie “Lead Belly” Ledbetter, who played frequently with Jefferson. Lead Belly, who was born in Mooringsport, La., and grew up in Harrison County, Texas, in the community of Leigh, said he first heard boogie-woogie piano in the Caddo Lake area of northeast Texas in 1899. He said it influenced his guitar-playing. Lead Belly also said he heard boogie-woogie piano in the Fannin Street district of Shreveport, Louisiana. Some of the players he heard were Dave Alexander, who recorded for Decca in 1937 as “Black Ivory King”, and a piano player called Pine Top (not Pine Top Smith, who was not born until 1904, but possibly Pine Top Williams or Pine Top Hill). Lead Belly was among the first guitar-players to adapt the rolling bass of boogie-woogie piano. Texas, as the state of origin, became reinforced by Jelly Roll Morton, who said he heard the boogie piano style there early in the 20th century, as did Leadbelly and Bunk Johnson. The first time the modern-day spelling of “boogie-woogie” was used in a title of a published audio recording of music appears to be Pine Top Smith’s December 1928 recording titled “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie”, a song whose lyrics contain dance instructions to “boogie-woogie”. The earliest documented inquiries into the geographical origin of boogie-woogie occurred in the late 1930s when oral histories from the oldest living Americans of both African and European descent revealed a broad consensus that boogie-woogie piano was first played in Texas in the early 1870s. Additional citations place the origins of boogie-woogie in the Piney Woods of northeast Texas.

WOOGIE

Boogie-woogie gained further public attention in 1938, thanks to the From Spirituals to Swing concert in Carnegie Hall promoted by record producer John Hammond. The concert featured Meade Lux Lewis performing “Honky Tonk Train Blues” and Albert Ammons playing “Swanee River Boogie”. Incredibly, “Roll ‘Em Pete” is now considered to be an early rock and roll song. Ammons and Lewis took up residence in the Café Society night club in New York City where they were popular with the sophisticated set. They often played in combinations of two and even three pianos, creating a richly textured piano performance. After the Carnegie Hall concert, it was only natural for swing bands to incorporate the boogie-woogie beat into some of their music. Tommy Dorsey’s band recorded an updated version of “Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie” in 1938, which (as “Boogie Woogie”) became a hit in 1943 and 1945, and was to become the swing era’s second best seller, only second to Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood”. In 1939, at the suggestion of Columbia Records producer John Hammond, Harry James recorded the singles Boo-Woo and Woo-Woo with Pete Johnson and Albert Ammons. Also from 1939, the Will Bradley orchestra had a string of boogie hits such as the original versions of “Beat Me Daddy (Eight To The Bar)” and “Down the Road a Piece”, both 1940, and “Scrub Me Mamma with a Boogie Beat”, in 1941. That same year, The Andrews Sisters had a top 10 hit single with their recording of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. The popularity of the Carnegie Hall concert meant work for many of the fellow boogie players and also led to the adaptation of boogie-woogie sounds to many other forms of music. Tommy Dorsey’s band had a hit with “T.D.’s Boogie Woogie” as arranged by Sy Oliver, and soon there were boogie-woogie songs, recorded and printed, of many different stripes. These included most famously, in the big-band genre, the ubiquitous “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”.

9 September PLAY LIST

Play List – The Phantom Dancer 107.3 2SER-FM Sydney LISTEN ONLINE Community Radio Network Show CRN #729
107.3 2SER Tuesday 9 September 2025 12:04 – 2:00pm (+10 hours GMT) National Program 5UV Adelaide Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 5GTR Mt Gambier Monday 2:30 – 3:30am 3MBR Murrayville Monday 3 – 4am 2OCB Orange Monday 3 – 4am 2MIA Griffith Monday 3 – 4am 2BRW Braidwood Monday 3 – 4am 2YYY Young Monday 3 – 4am 2BOB Taree Monday 3 – 4 am 3WAY Warrnambool Monday 3 – 4am 3VKV Alpine Radio Monday 6 – 7pm 7MID Oatlands Monday 3am – 4 and 6 -7pm 2RDJ Burwood Wednesday 12 – 1pm 2MCE Bathurst Thursday 9 – 10am 2BAR Edge FM Bega Thursday 9 – 10pm Reading Radio (QLD) Friday 1 – 2am 5LCM Mt Lofty Friday 1 – 2pm 6GME Radio Goolarri Broome Saturday 4 – 5am 7LTN Launceston Sunday 6 – 7am 3MGB Mallacoota Sunday 6 – 7am 3BBR West Gippsland Sunday 5 – 6pm 2DRY Broken Hill Sunday 9 – 10pm 2SEA Sapphire Coast Eden Sunday 9 – 10pm 1ART Artsound FM Canberra Sunday 11pm – 12am
Set 1	Swing Orchestras on 1937-38 Radio
Jamboree	Frank Coughlan’s Trocadero Orchestra (voc) Frank Coughlan	Featuradio Radio Transcription Sydney mid-1937
Open + Old Fashioned Swing	Ted Weems Orchestra (voc) Perry Como (whistling) Elmo Tanner	Trianon Ballroom MBS Chicago 10 Feb 1937
St Louis Blues + Close	Earl Hines Orchestra	Grand Terrace Ballroon WMAQ NBC Chicago 3 Aug 1938
Set 2	1950s Beatnik Radio
Instrumental	Miles Davis Quintet	‘Bandstand USA’ Cafe Bohemia WOR Mutual NY 20 Juk 1957
Rockin’ In Rhythm	Duke Ellington piano and Orchestra	Basin Street WCBS CBS NY 16 Apr 1956
Set 3	Sweet Dance Bands on Post-War Radio
It Only Happens When I Dance With You	Sherman Hayes Orchestra (voc) Trio	Martinique Restaurant WGN Mutual Chicago 1947
Sunset Serenade (theme) + Doodle-Do-Do	Frankie Carle piano and Orchestra	‘One Night Stand’ Cocoanut Grove Ambassador Hotel LA AFRS Re-broadcast 1951
Dancing Tambourine + Close	Henry Russell Orchestra	‘Let’s Dance’ KFI NBC LA 1948
Set 4	Trad Jazz on 1944 and 1955 Radio
Open + I Found A New Baby	Eddie Condon Group	‘Eddie Condon Jazz Concert’ Town Hall WJZ Blue NY 24 Jun 1944
Mamas Gone, Goodbye + St Louis Blues	Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band	Club Hangover KCBS CBS san Francisco 5 Feb 1955
I’ll See You In My Dreams	Greg Poppleton (voc) and the Bakelite Broadcasters	From the new album ‘Back In Your Own Backyard’ Pre-order Bandcamp
Set 5	Louis Armstrong On-Air
When It’s Sleepy Time Down South (theme) + Indiana	Louis Armstrong All-Stars	‘Guest Star’ Radio Transcription New York City 12 Dec 1954
A Song Is Born	Louis Armstrong All-Stars (voc) Louis Armstrong and Jack Teagarden	‘Damon Runyon Memorial Jazz Concert’ ABC Chicago 11 Dec 1948
I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) LA	‘Spotlight Bands’ Blue Network Dallas 17 Aug 1943
Skeleton In The Closet	Louis Armstrong Orchestra (voc) LA	‘Norge Program’ Radio Transcription New York City 1937
Set 6	Boogie Woogie on the Wireless
Pine Top’s Boogie Woogie	Pine Top Smith	Comm Rec Chicago 29 Dec 1928
Honky Tony Train Blues	Meade Lux Lewis	‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 3 Jan 1939
Central Avenue Boogie	International Sweethearts of Rhythm (voc) Anna Mae Winburn	‘Jubilee’ AFRS Hollywood Feb 1945
Roll ‘Em	Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis	‘Camel Caravan’ WABC CBS NY 3 Jan 1939
Set 7	Sweet Bands on 1940s Radio
My Future Just Passed	Shep Fields and the Rippling Orchestra	Glen Island Casino New Rochelle, New York Aircheck 1944
The Old Lamplighter	Ray Herbeck and his Music with Romance Orchestra	Radio Rendezvous Salt Lake City Aircheck 25 Feb 1947
Once In Love With Amy	Freddy Martin Orchestra (voc) Merv Griffin	Mural Room Hotel St Francis San Francisco AFRS Re-broadcast 1945
Medley + So Long For Now	Eddy Howard Orchestra (voc) Eddy Howard	Aragon Ballroom WGN MBS Chicago 5 Dec 1945
Set 8	Lester Young on the Air
Three Little Words	Lester Young Quartet	‘Bandstand USA’ Cafe Bohemia WOR Mutual New York City 1956
Lullaby of Birdland (Open) + Up ‘n’ Adam	Lester Young Quintet	Birdland WABC ABC NY 15 Apr 1953
Lester Leaps In	Lester Young Sextet	‘Symphony Sid Show’ Royal Roost WMCA New York City 27 Nov 1948
Polkadots and Moonbeams	Lester Young Quintet	Birdland WABC ABC NY 7 Aug 1956
Let’s Have Another Cup of Coffee + Strike Me Pink + Caucasian March	A&P Gypsies	NBC 1933