Heart-heart-heart, gotcha daddy

Oh my goodness, I've been looking for this for years! This is Lily Tomlin and the All-Nurse Band in the sixth show of the very first season of Saturday Night Live, which aired November 22nd, 1975.

I've never quite heard "St James Infirmary" sung this way anywhere. (That's a ridiculously young Paul Schaffer, born in Thunder Bay, and relatively fresh from Toronto, playing the piano.)

st. james infirmary blues from jednooki jack on Vimeo.

For a more traditional (and infinitely weirder) take on "St James Infirmary", take a look at this clip of a beautifully restored 1933 Betty Boop cartoon by Max Fleischer, featuring the singing of Cab Calloway.

Terpsichore loved these guys

A few days back, I posted the Nicholas Brothers dancing to Glenn Miller's "I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo" because I adore the song and I adore the Nicholas Brothers. JoeinVegas sent me a link to this Nicholas number from the movie Stormy Weather with the incomparable Cab Calloway. I'd seen the last minute of it many times, but had never seen the entire number, where Mr Calloway makes way for Fayard and Harold. Hold on to your hats:


If we can trust Wikipedia, Fred Astaire himself told the Harold and Fayard that this number was the greatest movie musical sequence he had ever seen. Well, he would know. Here's my absolute favourite Astaire/Rogers moment from the movie Swingtime:


Gee, those final climactic few seconds are among the most exhilarating in movies and dance. Think I'll float off to bed now and try to dream I can move like that....