12th STREET RAG
(Music: Euday Louis Bowman - 1914 / Lyrics: James S. Sumner)

NB: Most of the recordings listed below contain just the music. 
The song generally being recorded as an up-tempo instrumental piece, 
the lyrics were very seldom heard.


Scott Joplin - 1916
All Star Trio - 1920
Imperial Marimba Band - 1921
Fletcher Henderson & His Orch. - 1927
Roy Smeck - 1931
Harry Roy & The Hotcha Boys - 1933
Pee Wee Hunt - 1948
Donald Peers - 1949
Hotcha Trio - 1952
Firehouse Five Plus Two - 1952
John Graas - 1954
Lawson-Haggart Jazz Band - 1954
Shorty Rogers & His Giants - 1954
Barney Kessel - 1955
Belmonte And His Afro-American Music - 1955
Chet Atkins - 1956
Ted Heath & His Music - 1958
Gene Bianco & Mundell Lowe - 1958
Stanley Black & His Orch. - 1959
Eddie Peabody - 1959
Big Tiny Little - 1959
Don Johnson Organ Combo - 1959
Louis Prima & Keely Smith - 1960
Ernie Fields - 1961
Ray Martin & His Orch. - 1961
Pete Fountain - 1962
Al Hirt - 1964
René & His Alligators - 1965
Willie "The Lion" Smith - 1966
Vanilla Fudge - 1968
James Last & His Orch. - 1968
Dave Martini - 1972
B.B. Bradley's Dixielanders - 1972
Arthur Fiedler & The Boston Pops - 1974
New Sunshine Jazz Band - 1974
Tommy Burton & The Sporting House Club - 1974
Albert "Papa" French - 1975
John James - 1981

Also recorded by:
Euday L. Bowman; Johnny Marvin; Lionel Hampton; Roger Williams;
Ronald Matty; Laura Johnson; Johnny Milton; Richard M. Jones;
Les Paul & Mary Ford; Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys; Kid Ory;
Sidney Bechet & His New Orleans Feetwarmers; Louis Armstrong;
Count Basie & Lester Young; Terry Lightfoot; Winifred Atwell;
Meade "Lux" Lewis; Fats Waller; King Curtis; Roland Cedermark;
Myron Floren; Arthur Smith; Don Reno; Billy Vaughn; Steve Allen;
Dick Contino & Horace Heidt; Sid Phillips; Andrés Ramiro's Orch.;
Jo Ann Castle; Spike Jones; Liberace.......and many, many others.





In a certain city, where the girls are cute and pretty
They have a raggy, jazzy, jazz-time tune
When you hear that syncopated jazz created melody
You could dance all morning night and noon
When the slide trombone
And moaning saxophone begin to play
It will make you sad, 'twill make you glad
Oh boy, what joy
Burn my clothes for I'm in Heaven
Wish I had a million women

Solomon in all his glory
Could have told another story
Were he but living here today
With his thousand wives or more
A jazz band on some Egypt shore
He could dance the night and day away
I will tell you how they dance
That tantalizing 12th Street Rag

First you slide, and then you glide, then shimmie for a while
To the left, then to the right, "Lame Duck," "Get over Sal"
Watch your step then Pirouette, Fox Trot, then squeeze your pal
Over you comes stealing such a funny feeling
'Till you feel your senses reeling
Tantalizing, hypnotizing, mesmerizing strain
I can't get enough of it, please play it o'er again
I could dance forever to this refrain
To that 12th Street, oh, you 12th Street Rag

Jazz-time music is the rage, this is a syncopated age
Ev'rybody loves a jazz-time tune
For the music captivating, sets your heart a-palpitating
You just can't make your feet behave
Ancients youths of sixty-four
Do steps they never did before
Father Time is mad, no one grows old
Oh boy, what joy
Put your loving arms around me
Say babe, ain't you glad you found me

Cleopatra on the Nile
Could vamp right in the latest style
If she'd only known this ragtime tune
Old King Cole, a merry soul
Called for his pipe and then his bowl
And the first jazz band, his fiddlers three
Play, oh play me while I dance
That tantalizing 12th Street Rag

First you slide, and then you glide, then shimmie for a while
To the left, then to the right, "Lame Duck," "Get over Sal"
Watch your step then Pirouette, Fox Trot, then squeeze your pal
Over you comes stealing such a funny feeling
'Till you feel your senses reeling
Tantalizing, hypnotizing, mesmerizing strain
I can't get enough of it, please play it o'er again
I could dance for ever to this refrain
To that 12th Street, oh, you 12th Street Rag






(Contributed by Mel Priddle - November 2012)