Throwback Track – Brian Setzer Orchestra – “Jump, Jive, And Wail”

THE YEAR IS… 1956 when the original was created! Brian Setzer’s version was released in 1998! 

• A popular nightclub singer/trumpeter in the 1930s and 1940s, by 1954 work had dried up for Louis Prima. However his career revived after he joined with young saxophonist Sam Butera and secured a gig at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. They soon became the most popular act in that city and cut The Wildest! album live in April 1956 at the casino lounge. The record is considered one of Swing music’s finest, and this track became Prima’s signature recording from the set.

•  Setzer’s cover won the prize for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals at the following year’s Grammy Awards.

• Brian Setzer’s cover of this song was used for a GAP commercial. According to the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Original composer Sam Butera, whose arrangement it appropriated, grumbled that he was paid three pairs of pants for the privilege.

• Brian Setzer found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra.