"Woodchopper's Ball", also known as "At the Woodchopper's Ball"[1] is a 1939 jazz composition by Joe Bishop and Woody Herman. The up-tempo blues tune in D-flat major was the Woody Herman Orchestra's biggest hit, as well as the most popular composition of either composer, selling a million records.[2]
The tune has been performed by numerous artists and is considered a jazz standard. It is included in the first volume of Hal Leonard's Real Book.[3] The song was covered by the British blues/rock band Ten Years After on their album, Undead. The original recording by Woody Herman and His Orchestra received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2002.[4]
"Twistin' at the Woodchopper's Ball" written by Ronn Metcalfe was a 1962 hit based on Herman's song, which attained a gold album status.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Woody Herman biography at AllMusic - retrieved on 25 May 2009
- ^ William Emmett Studwell and Mark Baldin: The Big Band Reader: Songs Favored by Swing Era Orchestras and Other Popular Ensembles. Haworth Press, 2000. ISBN 0-7890-0914-5. p. 158
- ^ The Real Book, Volume I, sixth edition. Hal Leonard. ISBN 0-634-06038-4. p. 447
- ^ Grammy Hall of Fame Awards at Grammy.com - retrieved on 25 May 2009