It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)


"It Don't Mean a Thing " is a 1931 composition by Duke Ellington. It is now accepted as a jazz standard, and jazz historian Gunther Schuller characterized it as "now legendary" and "a prophetic piece and a prophetic title."
In 2008, Ellington's 1932 recording of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Background

The music was composed and arranged by Ellington in August 1931 during intermissions at the Lincoln Tavern in Chicago and was first recorded by Ellington and his orchestra for Brunswick Records on February 2, 1932. After Mills wrote the lyrics, Ivie Anderson sang the vocal and trombonist Joe Nanton and alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges played the solos. The song became famous, Ellington wrote, "as the expression of a sentiment which prevailed among jazz musicians at the time." Ellington credited the saying as a credo of trumpeter Bubber Miley, who was dying of tuberculosis at the time; Miley died the year the song was released. The Ellington band recorded it numerous times, most often with trumpeter Ray Nance as vocalist.

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