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Sweet Georgia Brown
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"Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard and pop tune written in 1925, known to many as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.
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Encyclopedia
"Sweet Georgia Brown" is a jazz standard and pop tune written in 1925, known to many as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.
Overview
"Sweet Georgia Brown" was co-written by Ben Bernie & Maceo Pinkard (music) and Kenneth Casey (lyrics).
The tune was first recorded in 1926 by bandleader Ben Bernie, resulting in a five-week No. 1 for Ben Bernie & his Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra. As Bernie's then nationally famous orchestra featuring the number did much to popularize the number, Pinkard cut Bernie in for a share of the tune's royalties by giving him a co-writer credit to the song.
Notable versions
- Of the many early recordings of the tune, the vocal version by Ethel Waters in the 1920s, and instrumental Django Reinhardt in the 1930s, are particularly notable.
- Shortly after the song debuted in 1925, the California Ramblers recorded their own instrumental version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" as well.
- The version used by the Globetrotters is a 1949 instrumental by Brother Bones & His Shadows, featuring whistling and bones by Brother Bones. It was adopted as the Globetrotters theme in 1952 and today remains about as inextricably associated with the Harlem Globetrotters as the finale of Rossini's William Tell Overture is with The Lone Ranger.
- The song was covered by The Beatles while working as a back-up band for singer Tony Sheridan. Two versions exist; the first was recorded on May 24, 1962 in Hamburg, Germany, using the original lyrics. The second (but the first version released) was released in 1964 during the wave of Beatlemania, with Sheridan having re-recorded the vocals with notably more tame lyrics featuring the added verse "in Liverpool she even dares / to criticise the Beatles' hair / with their whole fanclub standing there / oh Sweet Georgia Brown." Recently, bootleggers have utilized the two recordings to produce an instrumental featuring only the Beatles' instruments and backup vocals, entirely eliminating Sheridan. Roy Young played the piano.
- Jerry Lee Lewis recorded a version on his album There Must Be More To Love Than This.
- On the Captain Beefheart bootleg album Captain Hook, an instrumental version, atypical of Beefheart's style.
- The Count Basie Band recorded "Sweet Georgia Brown" on their Prime Time album in 1977.
- Guitarist John Lowery, better known as John 5 did a modern-bluegrass variation cover of Sweet Georgia Brown on his 2004 debut record, Vertigo.
In animated cartoons
- The robot Bender of TV science fiction cartoon Futurama harbors a desire to join the Harlem Globetrotters, and often whistles Sweet Georgia Brown while performing various tasks.
- The Simpsons have made references to "Sweet Georgia Brown" on three occasions:
- "Homie the Clown": The music can be heard during the part where Krusty is watching the Globetrotters vs. Washington Generals match.
- "Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily": Skinner uses "Sweet Georgia Brown" as an oath when he finds Bart and Lisa disheveled and suspects that it has something to do with Homer and Marge neglecting them at home.
- "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson": The music can be heard in the couch gag where the family, dressed as Harlem Globetrotters, pass a red, white, and blue basketball to each other (with Maggie dunking the ball in the basket above the couch and hitting Homer in the head with it) as they run to the couch.
- In the Drawn Together episode "Nipple Ring-Ring Goes to Foster Care", the character Ling-Ling, after being given 21 shots of liquor (for his 21st birthday), is given "the traditional 21 doses of Sweet Georgia Brown," according to Spanky Ham.
Trivia
- In the play Cabin in the Sky and its film adaption, the young woman whom Little Joe has an affair with is named Georgia Brown.
- There is also a pomade called Sweet Georgia Brown.
- In the 1948 movie The Snake Pit starring Olivia de Havilland, one of the inmates in the correctional facility breaks out into a spontaneous song-and-dance version of the song and is the star of the scene.
- In the 1984 movie The Flamingo Kid, Matt Dillon wins "the big game", and triumphantly announces "Sweet Georgia Brown, Phil".
- A version of the song can be heard during a tap dancing scene in the Grand Finales of the Miss U.S. Television contest.
External links
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