~ ALASKA SWING DANCE ~

WELCOME TO ~ NELLEE’S LINDY HOP SHOP

SWING HISTORY

CHAPTER 20

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(Text is adapted from “The Swing Book”):

“EVEN MORE OFTHE REBIRTH OF SWING”!!!! !!

NEO SWING’S NATIONAL SUCCESS!!!!

SWING SNOWBALLED INTO THE MAINSTREAM AND THE BALL BEGAN ROLLING WITH JIM CARREY’S MOVIE “THE MASK” IN 1994. Featuring a zoot-suited Carrey dancing across the screen with Cameron Diaz to the Royal Crown Revue’s “He Pachuco!” at a forties-style nightclub, the movie was the first to spotlight neoswing’s crossover appeal.

Soon newspaper and magazine stories covered the swing phenomenon, usually taking an incredulous approach to swings return and treating it like a pop culture novelty. In 1996 the hot indie film “Swingers” premiered. It featured Big Bad Voodoo Daddy performing their original song “You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three Tonight (Baby),” a snazzy collection of retro clothes, and some scenes of spot-on dancing.

Starring Vince Vaughn

A year later the Squirrel Nut Zippers saw their 1996 single “Hell” become a hit on alternative rock stations, that opened the radio waves to even more retro music. “Hell” was also featured in Brandon Frasier’s “Monkeybone” – as the song in his character Stu Miley’s Nightmare Land (also with a cameo by Stephen King).

Stu Arrives in Nightmare Hell

In fact, just about every one of Frasier’s movies has a swing dance scene (check him out in “Blast From the Past,” for example).

By 1998, Brian Setzer, had a hit with a re-make of Louis Prima’s “Jump, Jive and Wail” – Setzer put his Brian Setzer Orchestra together in 1993 – and Cherry Poppin Daddies also hit big with their original song “Zoot Suit Riot.” Not only did the songs become huge hits, but so did the music videos. In particular, Setzer’s video, which featured LA’s Sylvia Skylar and San Francisco’s Cari Seiss, slickly captured the style, dancing, and music of the scene all in three minutes. Ska bands, started morphing into swing bands.

Sylvia Getting her hair done….. Erik & Sylvia Cutting The Rug!!

Venues like the Lawrence Welk Resort Center in Branson, Missouri, started jumping on the swing bandwagon, promoting their forties revue show as part of the new craze. Then there was that Gap commercial that propelled swing into the stratosphere.

Featuring Louis Prima’s original “Jump, Jive, an’ Wail” and a new stop-motion cinematography that brought Lindy aerials into breathtaking relief, the Gap’s “Khakis Swing” commercial was an instant hit when it premiered in 1998. Swing was big business again!!

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