"Doin' The Raccoon," Roaring 20s college flapper song, 1928 dance band hit
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ย. 2024
- Roaring 20's popular dance song in the Charleston style! "Doin' The Raccoon" was originally performed by dance bands of the 1920s, including George Olsen's band and Rudy Vallee and his Collegians. Music is by J. Fred Coots and the lyric is by Raymond Klages.
"Doin' The Raccoon" is an obvious imitation of the hit Charleston from the 1927 Broadway musical Good News, "The Varsity Drag:"
• "The Varsity Drag," da...
#1920smusic #tinpanalley #roaring20smusic #pianomusic #jazzage
Look at the parallel lines "you can pass any class"/"you can pass many a class" and "Tho; your Greek may be weak" / "Why should a sheik learn how to speak Latin and Greek badly?". Olsen and his band had even performed in Good News on Broadway. Colleges, both state and private schools, expanded and became accessible to more people in the 1920s, and an increasing number of colleges began admitting women. Jazz-influenced dance music was also increasingly popular among young people, as were Charleston rhythms and novelty dances (Ethan Mordden dubs this type of song "The New Dance Sensation"). "The Varsity Drag" and "Doin' The Raccoon" bring all these elements together into popular, contemporary hits that spoke to the zeitgeist of the times.
The titular "Raccoon" is a reference to the raccoon fur coat craze among college students of the 1920s. Remember the scene in the Marx brothers movie Horse Feathers where Chico enrolls in college to play football, and Groucho hands him his raccoon coat, beanie, and pennant? Audiences knew every college student had to have a raccoon coat! That being said, I'm not a fur coat-wearer, and I don't condone making fur coats; I like animals too much!
I'm playing and singing the full version found on the published sheet music dated 1928 by Remick Music Corp., though I have seen alternate lyrics as well.
College men
knowledge men
Do a dance called Raccoon;
It's the craze
nowadays,
And it will get you soon.
Buy a coat and try it,
I'll bet you'll be a riot,
It's a wow
learn to do it right now!
High brow, low brow, intermediate,
Make believe they're all collegiate, soon,
To do the raccoon!
Raccoon coats don't care who's wearing 'em,
Hallroom boys will all be sharing 'em soon,
To do the Raccoon!
Ev'ry day you'll have your downs and your ups
Ev'ry day those Raccoon coats will have pups (hot pups)
Date a girl then start to hurry 'er
Right down town to some big furrier soon
To do the Raccoon!
You can pass
Any class
Wearing a Raccoon coat
Tho' your Greek
May be weak
Why let it get your goat
Let your coat by raggy
Let your knees by baggy
At the "Hop,"
All the coeds you'll cop!
Rough guys, tough guys, men of dignity,
Join the raccoon coat fraternity, soon,
To do the raccoon.
Racoon coats with Moe and Mike in them
Make the whole world look alike in them soon
To do the Raccoon
Ev'ry day its popularity grows
What a dance to keep you up on your toes
Fifteen bucks and then the coat is yours
Be like all those College Sophomores soon
To do the Raccoon!
Oh, they wear 'em down at Princeton,
And they share 'em up at Yale,
They eat in them at Harvard,
And they sleep in them in jail!
Alpha Beta
Delta Frata
What's the matter
With Alma Mater?
Boola Boola
You're a Foola
Go to school-a
And learn "The Raccoon"
From ev'ry college campus comes a cheer
The season for the Raccoon coats is here
What an energetic song!
I'm glad you enjoyed it, Thomas!
With my erratic schedule I probably miss some of your uploads, but when I do take the opportunity to listen and watch, I’m always totally entertained! Thank you for another wonderful rendition of old time music. 😊
Thank you, John! Feel free to watch whenever you have the time; it's nice to see my view numbers going up even between uploads!
And thank you for all that info in the description 👍
You're welcome! I think with these older songs, adding some context helps people understand the history and humor.
You are amazing!
Thank you; I appreciate it!
America got so very rich as gold poured into America from war torn Europe for food and supplies and that sparked the roaring 1920's with it's happy upbeat music. Great video.
Thank you, Arnold, and thanks for adding that historical context!
Swell! Is your copy of the sheet music from the 1920s? I know that image of 1920s college students wearing fur, but I wonder how common that really was. Thanks for providing context and lyrics -- and for your lovely singing and playing.
Thank you very much! I found the 1928 sheet music on a university archive website and printed out my own copy; I think it was Mississippi State's Scholars Junction site (scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/11000/). Libraries and archives do great work digitizing old sheet music and making it available to everyone!
@@sheetmusiclady2924 Thanks for the resource! The drawing on the cover of the sheet music is great. I hope you have a friend who can play the ukulele accompaniment.