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You are here: Home / Music / A Crazy Request

A Crazy Request

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Speaking of NPR, I heard a big band tune, a very famous one, at 4pm, and I have no clue what it is called and it is driving me insane. I’ve looked everywhere to find it on the NPR site, but it is not one of the songs listed in today’s All Things Considered. It was just a liner track they played while going into the 4 o’clock headlines, and it is killing me.

This is one of those super-known big band tunes- any ideas what it might be? Or did any of you hear it?

It isn’t string of pearls or moonglow or anything like that, but I know every one of you has heard it. Very brassy.

*** Update ***

Apparently all I need to do was say in the comments that it went “Bah, bah bap ba bada,” and then several of you knew exactly what it was– Duke Ellington:

Thanks, by the way. That was driving me mad.

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  4. 4.

    SFAW

    “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”?

    Oh, “band”, not “Band”! Never mind …

  8. 8.

    Nathan

    You mean the one that goes “ba bappa da bappa da bap bap bappa da da da DA bappa da ba ba ba” or the one the goes “bappa dada bappa bappa da bappa BA BA BA bappa da”?

  9. 9.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    How ’bout I zip up my 221 big band mp3s and send ’em to ya. It’s gotta be one of ’em.

    Wait, you’re not with the RIAA are you?

  13. 13.

    Lee

    Was it old school? Or could it have been something from the revival in the late 90s like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy?

  17. 17.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Did it sound like a game show theme? It could be something from Al Hirt: Cotton Candy, Java.

  18. 18.

    SFAW

    “I’m a cranky old Yank in a clanky old tank on the streets of Yokohoma with my Honolulu mama doin’ those beat-o, beat-o, flat on my seat-o, Hirohito blues”??

  23. 23.

    gypsy howell

    Was it “In The Mood”? We heard that around 4:00, but I’m not sure what it was playing on. (Radio? CD? iPod?)

    Mr Howell made a joke, that’s why I remember it…..

  24. 24.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I now there’s a way cause I checked on one a couple of months ago. But there’s too much pressure, can’t think/

    Bah, bah bap ba bada.. — I’ve heard that one, I just know it.

  26. 26.

    Dennis-SGMM

    It was probably the instrumental version of the glorious John Prine’s “Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian”.

  27. 27.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @John Cole:

    Just name some famous songs.

    Where is JK when ya need an interminably long list with included hyperlinks?

  29. 29.

    Linkmeister

    Was it during ATC or before that show started? If the latter, maybe it’s listed as the “button” (that’s what they call those little interludes) for the previous show on the way out.

  38. 38.

    Lurked

    My guess from the meter as described:

    Take the “A” Train

    Youuu, must take the A train, if, you want to get to Harlem…

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    This is one of those super-known big band tunes- any ideas what it might be?

    .
    .
    .

    Just name some famous songs.

    John –
    I don’t quite know how to tell you this, but …

    I think you’ve spent a little too much time reading Pantload – you’re starting to sound like him.

    You wouldn’t by any chance be working on your magnum opus, called “Lieberal Fascistism” (or something like that), would you?

  52. 52.

    AhabTRuler

    @Frank:

    Pennsylvania 6-5000?

    Which of course, semi-inspired the execrable (but entertaining) Jeff Goldblum-Ed Begley jr. comedy Transylvania 6-5000, also featuring a young Geena Davis as a nympho-vampire and the pedo principal from Ferris Bueller’s. Also look for an appearance by Michael Richards, Carol Kane (who’s appearance in a movie is somehow both a blessing and a curse), and, for all you Canuckistanis out there, everyone’s favorite z-list comedian, John Byner!

  53. 53.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Ya know, John.. when I saw the post title, “A Crazy Request”, I thought this is finally it, he’s going to ask one of us to kill Tunch.

  54. 54.

    JGabriel

    The Grand Panjandrum:

    Speaking of crazy stuff, watch this video with Marcy Wheeler on MSNBC earlier today.

    Unfortunately, now the takeaway from that segment won’t be “Evil Cheney Kept Assassination Squad” but “Liberal Bloggers: You Can’t Take Those Potty Mouths Anywhere”.

    And, no, I’m not condoning the silly vapors and the pearl-clutching over saying “blowjob”, I’m just being realistic about how it’ll be portrayed.

    .

  55. 55.

    John Cole

    @JK: This is probably going to offend you, but that has never stopped me before. That sounds like someone dropped a band down the stairs at the Empire State Building. I like Ellington’s version better.

  56. 56.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Laura W: The only Manhattan Transfer recording I own is their version of On the Sunny Side of the Street.

    Gotta stop playing Big Band now, it puts Mrs. Fuckhead to sleep.

  57. 57.

    Demo Woman

    Since the song has been identified, can we now have a tape of Tunch’s purrs to see how he manipulates you?

  58. 58.

    AhabTRuler

    @John Cole:

    That sounds like someone dropped a band down the stairs at the Empire State Building.

    I can dig it, but I can also dig the piece in question. I am listening to it for the second time, and I am still not sure if I like it, but it is interesting. But I can understand how it might be difficult to access, and personal taste does still entire into.

    Plus, what do I know, I liked Transylvania 6-5000

    ETA: Nope, it’s awesome very, very good!

  61. 61.

    JK

    @John Cole:

    None taken. Sun Ra is not for everyone.

    I wasn’t familiar with your attitude towards the more experimental jazz musicians who came on the scene in the 1960’s.

    From time to time, I like to check out radically different interpretations of songs that I’ve grown up with.

  62. 62.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    That sounds like someone dropped a band down the stairs at the Empire State Building.

    John Cole = the kind of guy who wanders around the Museum of Modern Art, stopping in front of all the Pollacks and muttering, “My cat could do that.”

    .

  64. 64.

    Addie Loggins

    As soon as I read “Bah, bah bap ba bada..” I knew it had to be “Take the A train” I think the whole thing goes something like this:

    Bah
    Bah bap ba bada,
    Bah
    bada dada dada da dada…

  65. 65.

    John Cole

    @khead: Opportunity to tell my favorite joke:

    “Did you hear that 90% of high school students are sexually active?”

    “The other 10% are in the band.”

  68. 68.

    Jared Tester

    For the esoteric character of this request, this is a stretch that probably beats John’s, but do the NPR shows keep extensive archives of the songs they play?

    Last year, after doing a segment with M.E. Dyson on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s death, the NPR program “Here and Now” featured as bumper music a lovely guitar riff that sounded alot like Hendrix. Sorry for the stretch, but this thread reminded me of it, and if anyone can shed light, it’s the Balloon Juice audience.

  69. 69.

    JK

    @John Cole:

    Don’t know about you or the others on this thread, but I wish Ken Burns would make a 6 or 7 hour sequel to Jazz. I know it sounds nuts. A sequel to a 20 hour documentary? Overall, I enjoyed Burns’ documentary a great deal.

    However, I think he gave short shrift to Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, The Arts Ensemble of Chicago, John Coltrane’s later work and other experimental jazz musicians. My recollection is that he didn’t even mention Sun Ra or Weather Report.

    I fully understood his need to give extensive coverage to Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. Once he got up to the 1960’s, I think Burns did a super rush job to wrap things up.

  70. 70.

    Dennis-SGMM

    @AhabTRuler:
    Thank you. A day without disturbing the commentariat is a day wasted.
    Did you know that Powerman 5000’s lead vocalist is Rob Zombie’s younger brother?

  72. 72.

    Laura W

    @John Cole: OH Lord. Every time you tell that you know you are just begging for a fight with LilBit’s DH.
    The brawl on Inauguration Night was ugly enough. We need another one in July? He’ll probably call you an asshole again, and then he’ll back down and agree with you when he cools off.

    (Not to imply you repeat your jokes or anything.)

  74. 74.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @John Cole:

    “Did you hear that 90% of high school students are sexually active?” “The other 10% are in the band.”

    Ha!

    *hides trumpet*

  76. 76.

    Laura W

    @AhabTRuler: I haven’t yet decided if I want to twat or kandle it.
    I’ll put you on The List and have my Annie take lunch with your Momo to work out the petty details.
    Thank You For Your Interest.
    Best,
    L-Dub

  79. 79.

    DemonDem

    Ok – so this was not the song I’ve been trying to figure out for – I don’t know – like eighteen friggin’ months but in the process of everyone’s guessing, I finally managed to learn the name of “Grazing in the Grass” – which I hear on This American Life like every other month, and it drives me crazy when I can’t figure out what the name of that song is.

    I consider myself a fan of Jazz (have been going to the Chicago Jazz Fest every year since birth, save for two) so it was borderline embarrassing that I didn’t know what that was called.

    Thank you, Just Some Fuckhead, for saving me from myself!

  80. 80.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @DemonDem:

    Thank you, Just Some Fuckhead, for saving me from myself!

    You’re welcome.

    BTW, I’m not a band dork and I don’t play the trumpet. That was just a joke. I was way too busy with my duties as secretary of the chess club for band nonsense.

  81. 81.

    Randy Paul

    Duke Ellington had the good sense to draw upon the enormous talent of Billy Strayhorn, the composer of Take the A Train to write such beautiful songs as Chelsea Bridge, Lotus Blossom, Day Dream and the Intimacy of the Blues.

    Strayhorn is probably best known for writing Lush Life, arguably one of the top ten standard compositions of all time. He wrote it while in high school.

  83. 83.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    BTW, I’m not a band dork and I don’t play the trumpet. That was just a joke. I was way too busy with my duties as secretary of the chess club for band nonsense.

    He ain’t in the band Demondem, but sometimes toots his own horn.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @ SFAW/22: Okay, are you and I the only people on this thread who get that? I’ve been laughing and laughing (but VERY quietly) since I read your comment.

    Why yes, I WAS a music major in the 1970s, why do you ask?

  85. 85.

    DemonDem

    @ General Winfield:

    He ain’t in the band Demondem, but sometimes toots his own horn.

    Fine by me – I’ve got Hugh Masekela playing on iTunes, my world is much happier, and he’s therefore entitled to toot until his heart’s content…

  86. 86.

    Bob

    “A Train” has a special place in radio history.

    It was the opening theme for Willis Conover’s “Jazz Hour” on VoA for many years.

    Here’s the NYTimes obit for Conover:

    nytimes.com/1996/05/19/us/willis-conover-is-dead-at-75-aimed-jazz-at-the-soviet-bloc.html

    Willis Conover Is Dead at 75; Aimed Jazz at the Soviet Bloc
    Sunday, May 19, 1996

    […] In the long struggle between the forces of Communism and democracy, Mr. Conover, who went on the air in 1955 and continued broadcasting until a few months ago, proved more effective than a fleet of B-29’s.

    No wonder. Six nights a week he would take the A Train straight into the Communist heartland.

    As the appealing rumble of the familiar theme rolled over the airwaves, from East Berlin to Vladivostok, millions of hands would fine tune their radio dials knowing what was coming next: a sugary, slow-talking baritone announcing, “This is Willis Conover in Washington, D.C., with the Voice of America Jazz Hour.”

    For the next two hours Mr. Conover would bombard Budapest with Billy Taylor and drop John Coltrane on Moscow.

    To Americans who listened to jazz routinely, or disliked it, the wide popularity of the music in lands where it was officially labeled as decadent might seem incomprehensible.

    It was, as Mr. Conover liked to say, “the music of freedom,” and to those who had no freedom it became such a symbol of hope that at the peak of the cold war it was estimated that Mr. Conover had 30 million regular listeners in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and as many as 100 million worldwide.

    He was known as the most famous American virtually no American had ever heard of. […]

    .

  88. 88.

    HRA

    I knew it from the first few notes and was too late in responding. Drats!
    I grew up hearing big band and jazz at home.

  90. 90.

    Brachiator

    @John Cole:

    God, I feel like a moron.

    You should, a little. Not knowing Take the A Train is like saying, “I never heard of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band,” even if it’s only a matter of knowing something about the history of 20th Century popular music.

    And this cannot be said enough: Take the A Train was composed by Ellington’s collaborator and friend, Billy Strayhorn.

    A clip of Strayhorn playing piano during a 1965 performance of Train can be seen here.

  91. 91.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    OMG! Is there no question that cannot be answered with a visit to BJ? My sinuses are plugged – get a neti pot. Cat a mess of hair – get a furminator. Lonely – adopt a dog from the local shelter. Oh, hell, got the dog, now what do I do? 500 comments later, dog is fine and happy. Oh yeah, hate torture, want health care, confused by the latest GOP talking point? We got your answers here.

    I’m just going to get rid of all my other bookmarks. BJ rules.

    BTW, since there’s no open thread, here’s my health plan (I’ll repost in an open thread if we have one).

    Boyfriend with Health Benefits

  93. 93.

    CMcD

    @Brachiator:

    Great clip of Strayhorn on piano. If you have a moment, could you transcribe the run at the 0:45 mark for me? :-)

    I always loved the story behind the song. From wikipedia:

    “Take the ‘A’ Train” was composed in 1939, after Ellington offered Strayhorn a job in his organization and gave him money to travel from Pittsburgh to New York. Ellington wrote directions for Strayhorn to get to his house by subway, directions that began, “Take The A Train.”

  94. 94.

    J Bean

    The last time that I lived in the Chicago area, I lived on Harlem Ave. between River Forest and Oak Park. I used to take the Congress-Douglas El and in order to get off at the Harlem stop, I had to take the A train rather than the B train which didn’t stop at the Harlem stop. I had to move.

  95. 95.

    The Boss

    That’s better. I was wondering how many posts I’d have to scroll through before someone gave Billy Strayhorn’s genius its due.

  97. 97.

    JGabriel

    SiubhanDuinne:

    <a href=”SFAW/22: Okay, are you and I the only people on this thread who get that?

    No, I thought it was funny too, if a little cagey. But I wasn’t a music major in the 70’s, just a college radio geek in the 80’s.

    .

  98. 98.

    SFAW

    @ SFAW/22: Okay, are you and I the only people on this thread who get that?

    Jeez, I hope not, although John not recognizing “A Train” is pretty appalling, so maybe I’m giving these dweebs too much credit. (Of course, if this were Teh Corner or RedState, and someone got it, I’d probably have either a major MI or a stroke.)

    No, I thought it was funny too, if a little cagey. But I wasn’t a music major in the 70’s, just a college radio geek in the 80’s.

    I wasn’t a music major, but I did learn how to sit on a piano bench. Without falling off. Most of the time.

  99. 99.

    Irony Abounds

    I think Swing Era music is grossly under-appreciated, perhaps because it really only lasted a brief period of time. Close your eyes while listening to Sing Sing Sing and just imagine teenagers on Saturday night looking to burn a lot of energy. You can really understand how the kids got so worked up dancing to that stuff. Begin the Beguine is simply gorgeous. I don’t care for the stuff with vocals though. The singing simply gets in the way of the music.

  100. 100.

    2th&nayle

    I’d never even heard of Billy Strayhorn until I watched “Billy Strayhorn; Lush Life” on PBS’s “Independent Lens”. You can order the DVD. It’s great!

  101. 101.

    Nemoudeis

    Little trivia note: The Duke wrote that song during the infamous ASCAP “strike” of 1941, when ASCAP (the guys who own the rights to most songs) didn’t think they were getting enough money for their stuff. After attempting to double their fees (and getting rebuffed), they refused to let radio stations air their music.

    The Duke responded by, among other things, coming out with new lyrics-free songs like “Take the A-Train.” Other artists took the simpler route of recording songs from the public domain … which is why we have Glenn Miller versions of Olde Chestnuts like 1869’s “Little Brown Jug” and “American Patrol” (1885).

    And the strike? Well ASCAP eventually cracked and was forced to pay LOWER fees than they had before the strike. It took them years to recover from that fiasco.

  102. 102.

    AlanDownunder

    JC: Apparently all I need to do was say in the comments that it went “Bah, bah bap ba bada,” and then several of you knew exactly what it was

    Heck, sure. Apart from the odd “Bah, bada bada bada badee(dum)”, it’s nothing but “Bah, bah bap ba bada” over and over. Very clever how that works, especially in the bridge (the different bit than the verses)

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