Songoftheday 7/1/21 - Baby, baby, it' looks like it's gonna hail...

 

 

"Jump Jive An' Wail" - The Brian Setzer Orchestra

from the album The Dirty Boogie (1998)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #94 (after chart rules changed)

Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #23 (one week)

Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 11

 

Today's song of the day comes from the Brian Setzer Orchestra, named for its frontman, who had big success in the early 1980's with his neo-rockabilly band Stray Cats. The trio scored a trio of top ten pop hits including "Stray Cat Strut" and "Sexy + 17", with the latter hitting the top five in 1983. However, after their 1984 tour the band disintegrated, with Setzer going solo and the other two forming the band Phantom, Rocker, & Slick. Setzer's first solo disc in 1986, The Knife Feels Like Justice on the Cats label EMI America, stopped below the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, while the title track "The Knife Feels Like Justice" went to #13 on Billboard magazine's Mainstream Rock radio chart. A second album Live Nude Guitars only got to #140 with its key track "When The Sky Comes Tumbling Down" stalling down at #36 on the Mainstream Rock list. He also reunited with Stray Cats for three more (probably contractual) albums in that period, with 1989's Blast Off! giving a minor rock radio hit with "Bring It Back Again" (#35 Mainstream Rock). Leaving EMI, Setzer formed a new act in the 1990s, devoted to swing music, which was just starting its revival. The Orchestra's eponymous first album together scraped the bottom quarter of the Billboard 200 at #156 in 1994, but that was just the beginning of what was a local L.A. club resurrection of the genre. By 1998, the fad was in full force, and it even translated to the radio, where bands like the Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Squirrel Nut Zippers scored decent hits. That year signed to Interscope Records, Setzer released the band's third disc The Dirty Boogie. Produced by Peter Collins, an industry veteran who was best known for his work with artier rock acts like Rush and Queensryche, the album was a half and half mix of Setzer originals and remakes of older swing standards. One of those was "Jump Jive An' Wail", written by and made famous by bandleader Louis Prima. Appearing on his 1956 album The Wildest!, Prima's version didn't hit the charts but definitely was a standout in the early days of rock and roll...

Setzer took Prima's song, already popular in the clubs playing the neo-swing revival, and updated it for the CD age. He didn't stray too far from the arrangement save for making it guitar-centric instead of horn-centric, but made it punchier for the new kids...

Since Setzer's "Jump Jive An' Wail" wasn't released as a commercial retail single, it wasn't initially able to place on Billboard magazine's official Hot 100. However, the track got enough radio spins to place in the top-40 of the airplay component of the tally in October of 1998. That December, when the trade bible changed the rules to allow airplay-only cuts, "Jump" spent a few weeks on the list, with a high of #94. The song climbed to #15 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart, while spending a half a year on the older-skewing Adult Top-40 format list, topping out at #14. Internationally, the single went to #22 in Canada and #34 in the UK. The Dirty Boogie album, released in June of that year, went to #9 on the Billboard 200 sales chart, proving the record company right in holding back the single, since it sold over two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 1999, the Orchestra won Best Pop Duo/Group Performance for "Jump Jive An' Wail", beating some formidable competition from #1 hits from Aerosmith, the Goo Goo Dolls, and Barenaked Ladies, along with critic faves the Dave Matthews Band. From the same album, their cover of the instrumental rock classic "Sleep Walk" also won for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

Despite the big success, like all the other neo-swing acts, radio just gave Setzer the one shot at a hit. The Orchestra's next album, Vavoom! got to #62 on the Billboard 200, mostly due to his expanded fanbase, and while stations ignored it, the Grammys gave them another trophy for Best Pop Instrumental for their take on the Duke Ellington nugget "Caravan". Leaving Interscope and going indie on Surfdog Records, Setzer put out a solo one-off billed as the "Brian Setzer '68 Comeback Special" called Ignition! that spent a week on the albums chart at #152 in 2001. A year later, the Orchestra released a holiday set Boogie Woogie Christmas on the label in 2002. From it their version of the "Nutcracker Suite" was nominated in the Pop Instrumental field again, this time losing to the late George Harrison for his posthumous release "Marwa Blues". Brian was also releasing solo material, and his "Rat Pack Boogie" original from 2003's Nitro Burnin' Funny Daddy lost the Grammy for Pop Instrumental a year later to Ben Harper's "11th Commandment". Another seasonal set from the Orchestra, Dig That Crazy Christmas, yielded yet another Pop Instrumental nomination in 2007 for "My Favorite Things", which went home with George Benson and Al Jarreau for their retry of Jarreau's top-40 pop hit from 1983 "Mornin'". That same year they released the album Wolfgang's Big Night Out, which transformed classical music into swing arranged jams. The set was nominated for Best Classical Crossover Album at the Grammys, which another remake set, the Turtle String Quartet's A Love Supreme: The Legacy Of John Coltrane, took the prize. In 2009, the Orchestra released Songs From Lonely Avenue, which went to #123 on the Billboard 200, followed by their Ultimate Christmas Collection a year later, their most recent chart appearance at #160 on that tally. 

Setzer and his Orchestra put out a live set Don't Mess With A Big Band in 2011, and a concert version of "Sleepwalk" from it got nominated again for a Best Pop Instrumental Grammy, losing to guitar god Jeff Beck for his take on the opera classic "Nessum Dorma". A year later, Setzer released the solo-billed Setzer Goes Instru-Mental, which again was half-covers/half originals, and got the nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2012, which went home with soul legend Booker T. Jones for his The Road To Memphis set. Brian's most recent solo album, Rockabilly Riot!, came out in 2014, while the Orchestra put out one more holiday set, Rockin' Rudolph, in 2015. 

During that time, Setzer was also touring with the Stray Cats off and on, releasing a live set Rumble In Brixton in 2004, and finally a proper studio album 40 in 2019, which hit the top ten in Germany and Switzerland, and got to #93 on the American Billboard 200. Brian also does holiday shows with the Orchestra as well. He is planning on releasing a new solo studio record, Gotta Have The Rumble, this coming August.

(8/10)

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Here's Setzer and the Orchestra performing "Jump Jive An' Wail" live for French TV in 1999...

Next up, live at Woodstock '99...

Fast forward to 2010's Montreal Jazz Festival with a performance that's on fire and brings the backing singers back...

 

 

 And lastly, in 2015 Setzer had Louis Prima's son Louis Jr. come on stage to do "Jump" together...

Up tomorrow: R&B vocal group is keeping things to themselves.