Search - Various Artists :: Charleston Era

Runnin' Wild In 1920s Style

Gary F. Taylor | Biloxi, MS USA | 01/06/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While torch songs and ballads were greatly popular during the 1920s, it is the dance music we most often remember--spirited and joyous sounds with unexpected arrangements and comic grace notes, often accompanied by comic lyrics. And it is precisely this that THE CHARLESTON ERA collects: the bright, the bouncy, evokative of Sheiks and Flappers, men with oil-slick hair and girls who wore their stockings rolled down.



Opening with the Paul Whiteman version of "Charleston"--a dance that was soundly condemned as demonic by the kill-joys of the time--this memorable compilation progresses through a host of standards and a good many forgotten but utterly charming favorites of the time. There's Al Jolson, Helen Kane, Gene Austin, and even the great Duke Ellington, who rounds out the line up with a memorable "Runnin' Wild."



The sound quality is remarkably good, particularly when one stops to consider that many of these recordings were made, as the CD cover notes, "in the days before electronic recording." The cuts are lovingly restored and beautifully presented, most of them toe-tappers, all of them guaranteed to flip you back to an era of speak-easies, cloche hats, and shimmy gowns... and, of course, the dance that characterized the era: The Charleston. You just can't listen to it and be blue.



GFT, Amazon Reviewer

In memory of Cujo, 1992-2005

An Orange Cat and a Dear and Faithful Companion, Greatly Missed"

The 1920s kid

Nick Sawatzki | Menomonee Falls, WI United States | 05/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ever since I saw the movie Chicago I have been dancing the Charleston. My friends call me the 1920s kid because all the kids in my class think I am crazy for dancing the Charleston. Of coarse you don't see many 13 year olds dancing to it. I have been searching along time for a cd like this. It is sad to think that this great music has fadded out of American society. I would do anything to live in the 1920s it was such a great decade. I listened to one of the samples from the cd that they give. It was so cool, I must have listened to it ten times. This is definetly a cd to buy. And I thank Amazon.com for helping me locate this CD. Thanks amazon"

I cried...

Gary F. Taylor | 01/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I love the 1920s. I am a kid, but I love it. I have been watching musicals ever since I saw Singin' in the Rain, and I worked my way up from the the 1960s musicals to the the earliest silents of the very late 1800s. But I find that my favorite era is the 1920s. I love the music, movies, clothes, art-deco style, just everything about the 20s. My friends think I am crazy for choosing to listen to Annette Shaw over Beyonce, but they respect my opinion. Even my grandma does not like this stuff!! This music is older than her. This is an AH-MAZING CD. The music is so nostalgic and beautiful. It just takes you back. Back to images of slick-haired men in tuxedos with tails dancing the shag with bob-haired flappers in fringed drop waist gowns, images of prohibition, a sleek silent movie with Rudolph Valentino or Gloria Swanson, fast roadsters, Broadway shows like Good News or No, No Nanette, or the great Ziegfeld Follies. Like I said, the music was just so nostalgic and beautiful that I cried when I listened to the song "Charleston". It was a lovely reminder of one of the greatest decades in the history of the world. Jazz music today is so blah and it has no personality. The 1920s tinny jazz sound is real, RED-HOT JAZZ! This CD really captures the 20s, because the real stuff is the best, not like the movie Chicago, which is okay but does not have real 20s glory like a 20s silent like the Affairs of Anatol. This CD is swell (pardon the old-timey slang) the sound is not static, the music recordings are superb, the price is great, and it's just all nice. My favorite songs are "Charleston", "Everything is Hotsy-Totsy Now", "Charleston Charley", and "Pasadena". Two other good ASV label CDs of 20s music are Runnin' Wild, and Chart-Toppers of the Twenties. Yay! :)"