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• 1956: Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera Sera) – Doris Day
• 1956: Hound Dog/Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley

• 1949: Ghostriders in the Sky – Vaughn Monroe
• 1949: Lovesick Blues – Hank Williams
• 1957: A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation) – Marty Robbins
• 1965: Ticket to Ride – The Beatles

Relevant Records

• Ghost Riders in the Sky (4-Bar-B 6013)
• White Sport Coat (Lou-Mac 180)
• Love Sick Blues (Fine Tune 110)

Fats Waller was blues musician who played piano and organ; he was also a song writer. Among his compositions: Ain’t Misbehavin’

You can do Ain’t Misbehavin’ as well as songs that Fats recorded, but didn’t write, including After You’ve Gone, Basin Street Blues, Sweet Sue, and Tea for Two.

Relevant Records

• Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Buckskin 1214)

• 1948: Manana by Peggy Lee
• 1956: Standing on the Corner by the Four Lads
• 1956: Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins
• 1958: All I Have to Do is Dream by the Everly Brothers
• 1964: Hello Dolly by Louis Armstrong
• 1964: My Guy by Mary Wells
• 1964: My Heart Skips a Beat by Buck Owens
• 1988: Pink Cadillac by Natalie Cole

Relevant Records

• Pink Cadillac (Red Boot 3017)
• Dream, Dream, Dream (Rawhide 176)
• Standing on the Corner (ESP 915)
• My Heart Skips a Beat (Eagle 2901)
• Blue Suede Shoes (Quadrille 913)

Duane Allen is the lead singer for The Oak Ridge Boys, one of country-western music’s leading groups.

If you do line dances, it might be a good day to break out that moldy-oldy, Elvira. It’s also been made into a singing call. Other singers include Y’All Come Back Saloon, Guess It Never Hurts to Hurt Sometime, American Made (which, btw, was a hit record on this day in 1983).

Carl was the lead singer (tenor) and founder of the Coasters, a humorous singing group popular in the Fifties and early Sixties.

“Yakety Yak”, “Charlie Brown”, “Along Came Jones”, and “Love Potion #9” are all Coaster hits that have singing call versions.

Relevant Records

• Yakety Yak (Rhythm 187)
• Charlie Brown (Royal 114)
• Love Potion #9 (Aussie Tempos 1008)

Lonnie was a folk singer, musician: guitar, banjo: Gambling Man, Cumberland Gap, Lost John, Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour [On the Bedpost Overnight]; died Nov 3, 2002

This is a no-brainer: break out “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor”. Dancers love to sing along.

Edward Kennedy Ellington, one of the twentieth century’s finest composers, was born on this day in 1899 in Washington, D.C.

Unfortunately, most of Duke’s compositions don’t lend themselves to square dance music. However, one of my all time favorite records (I use it mainly for patter, but it’s also a great singing call), It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got that Swing) was composed by Duke Ellington. Shakedown‘s version is great, with lots of varied instrumentation.

Why do anything today that you can put off until tomorrow?

So if you’re not prepared for the dance this week, you have a perfect excuse…

If you’re willing to do ethnic stereotyping, you could do “Manana”