“Hot Lips,” Music and Lyrics by Henry Busse, Henry Lange, & Lou Davis
Recorded by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (1922)
Welcome to the 1920s! Some of the songs from this decade will actually be familiar to more of us than the older songs from the 1900s and 1910s. Many of us will have parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents who listened to these songs, or you may have heard some of them in popular movies and musicals. Jazz music is really taking off in this decade, so we’re starting to hear those sounds more and more in the popular music of the time.
This piece, also known as “He’s Got Hot Lips When He Plays Jazz,” is a foxtrot, a style of dance that was first introduced in the mid-1910s, and gained in popularity throughout the 1920s and into the 1930s. If you look at the top 100 list I’ve shared below, you’ll find quite a few of the songs on it are foxtrots. It was the most popular dance of the period, and the majority of records released over a nearly 30 year period included foxtrots.
I feel it’s also important to mention the performers of this particular piece. Paul Whiteman started his orchestra in the late 1910s, moving it to New York City to record for the Victor Talking Machine Company. During that time, his orchestra recorded so many immensely popular hits that the media began calling him “The King of Jazz.” Some feel that he does not deserve this title, as he took the roots of jazz, in African American cities and juke joints, and commercialized them, by formally orchestrating the compositions and removing many of the improvisational elements. However, it is likely this formalization of the pieces that helped boost their popularity. Additionally, he is the person who commissioned the famous composer George Gershwin to write the equally famous piece, “Rhapsody in Blue.” So Whiteman and his orchestra certainly had an important role to play in increasing the popularity of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s.
Now, you should kick back and enjoy “Hot Lips,” by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra
Resources
Information about Paul Whiteman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Whiteman
https://syncopatedtimes.com/paul-whiteman-and-his-orchestra/
Information about the foxtrot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtrot
Top 100 of 1922: https://playback.fm/charts/top-100-songs/1922
Top 100 of 1922: https://playback.fm/charts/top-100-songs/1922
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