Ten Cents a Dance

By Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart
1930

This song tells the melancholy tale of a "taxi dancer"--women who were employed in the early 20th century in dance halls in which male customers paid to dance with them. It was introduced by the legendary Ruth Etting in the Florenz Ziegfeld-produced stage musical Simple Simon. Etting replaced Lee Morse, the actress for whom the song was written, when Morse showed up to the Boston premiere intoxicated. Etting later had a major hit with the song, and the following year it inspired a film starring Barbara Stanwyck. Doris Day performed the song in the 1955 Etting biopic, Love Me or Leave Me.

Lyrics: 

I work at the Palace ballroom, but gee that palace is cheap
When I get back to my chilly hall room, I'm much too tired to sleep
I'm one of those lady teachers, a beautiful hostess you knowOne that the palace features, at exactly a dime a throw.

Ten cents a dance, that's what they pay me
Gosh how they weigh me down.Ten cents a dance, pansies and rough guys, tough guys who tear my gown.

Seven to midnight I hear drums, loudly the saxophone blows,
Trumpets are tearing my ear-drums, customers crush my toes.
Sometimes I think, I've found my hero
But it's a queer romanceAll that you need is a ticket,
Come on big boy, ten cents a dance.

Fighters and sailers and bow-legged tailors
Can pay for their tickets & rent me
Butchers and barbers and rats from the harbor
Are sweethearts my good luck has sent me
Thought I've a chorus of elderly bows
Stockings are porous with holes at the toes
I'm here till closing time
Dance and be merry it's only a dime
Sometimes I think, I've found my hero
But it's a queer romance

All that you need is a ticket.
Come on, come on big boy, ten cents a dance.

Recorded By:

Ella Fitzgerald
Anita O'Day
Shirley Horn
Twiggy
Ralph Sharon Trio

I'm Yours

By Johnny Green & E.Y. "Yip" Harburg
1930

For the 400th post here at Standard of the Day, I give you this warm and innocent ballad, written by one-time Ethel Merman accompanist, bandleader and pianist Johnny Green (pictured), who dedicated it to his wife Bonnie. His lyricist was long-time Harold Arlen collaborator E.Y. Harburg. Green is best known for "Body and Soul", which along with this song was one of his first two compositions, written at age 22 after deciding to disobey his father, drop out of military school and pursue music. It was introduced by the great Ruth Etting.

Lyrics:

Ask the sky above
And ask the earth below
Why I'm so in love
And why I love you so
Couldn't tell you though I tried do
Just why I'm yours.

When you went away
You left a glowing spark
Trying to be gay as
Whistling in the dark
I am only what you make me
Come take me
I'm yours

How can I happy
I would be to beg or borrow
For sorrow
With you
Even though I knew
Tomorrow
You'd say we were through.

If we drift apart
Then I'll be lost and alone
Though you use my heart
Just for a steppin' stone
How can I help dreaming of you
I love you
I'm yours

Recorded By:

Ruth Etting
Billie Holiday
Bert Lown Orchestra
Artie Shaw Orchestra
Dean Martin

Shaking the Blues Away

By Irving Berlin 1927

A lively, irresistible dance number that's the epitome of the Roaring '20s. It was written for Ruth Etting, perhaps the era's top female vocalist. She introduced it onstage in the Ziegfeld Follies, and recorded it soon after. It was revived 20 years later by Ann Miller in the movie Easter Parade. The original lyrics, though meant light-heartedly, are a tad racially insensitive by modern standards, and so have been slightly altered in later years.

Lyrics:

There's an old superstition 'way down south
Ev'ry darkie believes that trouble won't stay
If you shake it away
When they hold a revival way down south
Ev'ry darkie with care and trouble that day
Tries to shake it away

Shaking the blues away, unhappy news away
If you are blue, it's easy to
Shake off your cares and troubles

Telling the blues to go, they may refuse to go
But as a rule, they'll go if you'll
Shake them away

Do like the darkies do, list'ning to a preacher way down south
They shake their bodies so, to and fro
With every shake, a lucky break

Proving that there's a way to chase your cares away
If you would lose your weary blues
Shake them away

I gotta blues, you gotta blues
All God's chillun gotta blues
Come and join a rebel and we'll shake off the devil
And we'll shake all over God's Heaven, Heaven, Heaven
Anyone objectin' to shakin' ain't going there, Heaven, Heaven
Gonna shake all over God's Heaven
I gotta shake, you gotta shake
All God's chillun gotta shake, shake, shake
Nothing could be sweeter than to shake with Saint Peter
When we shake all over God's Heaven, Heaven, Heaven
Anyone objectin' to shakin' ain't going there, Heaven, Heaven
Gonna shake all over God's Heaven

Recorded By:

Doris Day
Maude Maggart
Paul Whiteman
Harry Reser's Syncopaters
Irving Berlin

The Song Is Ended

By Irving Berlin & Beda Loehner
1927

Unlike most of Berlin's compositions, he worked with a lyricist on this characteristically sweet and gentle ballad, introduced by Ruth Etting (pictured), one of the era's most popular singers. The song would be later referenced in the verse to another standard by the Gershwin's, "They Can't Take That Away from Me".

Lyrics:

My thoughts go back to a heavenly dance,
A moment of bliss we spent.
Our hearts were filled with a song of romance,
As into the night we went,
And sang to our hearts' content.

The song is ended,
But the melody lingers on.
You and the song are gone,
But the melody lingers on.

The night was splendid,
And the melody seemed to say,
"Summer will pass away,
Take your happiness while you may."

There 'neath the light of the moon,
We sang a love song that ended too soon.

The moon descended,
And I found with the break of dawn,
You and the song had gone,
But the melody lingers on.

Recorded By:

Frank Sinatra
Tony Bennett
Ella Fitzgerald
Nat King Cole
Dinah Shore