Fidgety Feet

Though it is attributed to Nick LaRocca and Larry Shields,[1] of the Original Dixieland Jass Band, who first recorded it New York on June 25, 1918 and released it on Victor 18564,[2] George Gershwin's biographer Howard Pollack states that Gershwin once woke up at 3 am and penned the tune "Fidgety Feet".[3]

The Wolverines, with Bix Beiderbecke recorded it on 18 February 1924 and had a hit with it.[4] Fletcher Henderson's orchestra recorded the tune on 19 March 1927, and it was released on July 7 of that year.[5] Bud Freeman and The Summa Cum Laude Orchestra recorded the tune and "Big Boy", released it on a '78 named "Wolverine Jazz" in 1940.[6] Benny Strickler & The Yerba Buena Jazz Band recorded it and released it as a single in 1950.[7] It was also covered by the Kid Ory and His Creole Band and stride piano was introduced to it. Willie "The Lion" Smith continued with a stride version backed by a Dixieland band which appeared on his 1957 album Intimate Jazz in Hi Fi.[8]

In 2011, the Berlin Hot Jazz Band, a German dixieland group, recorded it for their album Berlin Blues.[9]

It begins in B-flat major and modulates to A-flat major. Beiderbecke biographer Jean Pierre Lion wrote that the 1918 original recording was "played at a jumpy tempo, sounds mechanical , and the trombone' s plaintive breaks are dated" . He approved more of the Wolverines recording which was recorded at a slower tempo, stating that it is more "relaxed and varied, breaks are more sophisticated, and Jimmy Hatwell's solo, using the lower register is deeply original. Lion states that Beiderbecke avoided repetition on the second time through the chorus inserting "some graceful melodic lines within a rich harmony".[10]