Ballin' the Jack


"Ballin' the Jack" is a popular song from 1913, written by Jim Burris with music by Chris Smith. It introduced a popular dance of the same name with "Folks in Georgia's 'bout to go insane." It became a ragtime, pop, and trad jazz standard, and has been recorded hundreds of times by many prominent artists.

Origin

The origins of the term are obscure. Around the same time the song came out, the expression "ballin' the jack" was used by railroad workers to mean "going at full speed." 'The 'Jack' was the slang name for a railroad locomotive, and balling meant going at high speed, itself derived from the ball type of railroad signal in which a high ball meant a clear line.
The composer and entertainer Perry Bradford claimed to have seen the dance steps performed around 1909 and they are similar to the shimmy which has black African origins.
The dance moves were standardized in the Savoy Ballroom, and put to music by Smith and Burris in 1913. The tune became popular in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1913.

Film usage

The song and dance were performed in For Me and My Gal, the 1942 movie starring Judy Garland and Gene Kelly. It was also performed by Danny Kaye in the 1951 movie On the Riviera, and Dean Martin and Polly Bergen in the 1951 movie That's My Boy. It also featured as the After Dinner song sung in the mock-horror 1986 movie Haunted Honeymoon performed by Gilda Radner and Dom DeLuise. Jimmy Jewel playing Cannonball Lee performed the song in the 1990 film The Krays. Bob Hope and Ginger Rogers performed it in a TV appearance in 1960.