Fascinatin' Rhythm
Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards

From "Lady Be Good"
(Ira Gershwin/George Gershwin)

Cliff Edwards, ukulele and vocals
Joe Tarto, tuba

Recorded December 12, 1924 in New York City.

"Fascinating Rhythm" is a popular song written by George Gershwin in 1924 with lyrics by Ira Gershwin.

It was first introduced by Cliff Edwards, Fred Astaire and Adele Astaire in the Broadway musical Lady Be Good. The Astaires also recorded the song on April 19, 1926, in London with George Gershwin on the piano (English Columbia 3968 or 8969)

Many recorded versions exist. One of the rarest recordings is by Joe Bari (a pseudonym of Anthony Dominick Benedetto, later better known as Tony Bennett) for Leslie Records in 1949 and issued as catalog number 919 with "Vieni Qui" as the flip side. Having rerecorded it as a duet with Diana Krall in 2018 for their duet album Love Is Here to Stay, he currently holds the Guinness World Record for the "longest time between the release of an original recording and a re-recording of the same single by the same artist".

"Fascinating Rhythm" inspired the riff to the 1974 Deep Purple song "Burn".

The 1926 Astaire/Gershwin version and a 1938 version by Hawaiian steel guitarist Sol Hoʻopiʻi have both been added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" American sound recordings. [Wikipedia]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This Is Art Deco
Genre: Jazz, Pop
Style: Vocal, Swing
Year: 1993

Tracklist

– Bert Williams Nobody
– Al Jolson Swanee
– Cliff Edwards Fascinatin' Rhythm
– Gertrude Lawrence Poor Little Rich Girl
– Sophie Tucker With The Ted Lewis Orchestra Some Of These Days
– Bing Crosby With The Paul Whiteman Orchestra If I Had A Talking Picture Of You
– Eddie Cantor Look What You've Done
– Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians I Guess I'll Have To Change My Plan
– The Boswell Sisters Minnie The Moocher's Wedding Day
– The Mills Brothers I Can't Give You Anything But Love Baby 2:45
– Mae West A Guy What Takes His Time
– Ethel Merman I Get A Kick Out Of You
– Fred Astaire They Can't Take That Away From Me
– Marlene Dietrich Lili Marlene
– Mary Martin All Through The Night
– Judy Garland The Man That Got Away
– Judy Holliday What'll I Do
– Jack Lemmon Let's Fall In Love
– Helen Humes If I Could Be With You One Hour Tonight
– Alberta Hunter You Can't Tell The Difference After Dark

This CD is from my collection.
Songs on this record are linked in consecutive order. The next piece is linked in a window at the end of the video.