Greatest dance tunes?

[Robert Urbanek]

What are the greatest dance tunes? They should be judged by popularity, cultural impact or just because they make you get up and dance. Here are my five nominees:

You Should be Dancing – Bee Gees
Macarena – Los del Rio
Do You Love Me – The Contours
The Twist – Chubby Checker
Groove is in the Heart – Deee-Lite

 

[lg325]

 

[lg325]

 

[EvilCat Breath]

 

[protectionist]

What are the greatest dance tunes? They should be judged by popularity, cultural impact or just because they make you get up and dance. Here are my five nominees:

You Should be Dancing – Bee Gees
Macarena – Los del Rio
Do You Love Me – The Contours
The Twist – Chubby Checker
Groove is in the Heart – Deee-Lite

The greatest dance tune of all time, is an easy question. Of course, it is the one and only SAILOR'S HORNPIPE. The # 1 MOST PLAYED, MOST LISTENED TO, and MOST DANCED TO tune in the world.

Even more significant than that, it HAS BEEN the # 1 tune worldwide, for 413 consecutive years, non-stop, uninterrupted. No dance tune will ever surpass this incredible record.

And why it is so prolific is because since the 1600s, it has been a fundamental part of the British navy, which in the past, normally had fiddlers on board their ships for the sailors to dance to, the idea being to give them leg exercise and relieve boredom. This has been standard not just just for the British navy, but on British commercial ships too, as well as on the ships of most of the British dominion countries all around the world (the sun never sets on the British empire)

The "hornpipe" tune is one in which the melodic rhythm, is symptomatic of the rhythmic movements of old, wooden clipper ships, which in turn were influenced by the movements of the groundswells of the ocean. This ocean motion was physically absorbed by the sailors, on ships for months at a time, including the fiddlers who composed the tunes. Of the many hornpipe tunes that came forth over the centuries, Sailor's Hornpipe was the first, and it was incorporated into naval protocol, and remains so to this day, all over the world, as well as in schools, were kids learn the tune and dance to it. In the US, I think Sailors Hornpipe and deck dancing ceased in the 1850s, but I'm not sure of the date.

In America, most people recognize Sailor's Hornpipe as a tune played as a lead in to the old Popeye cartoon shows, but it has far greater significance in Britain and the dozens of British dominion countries. I googled Sailor's Hornpipe, and here's some of the images I came up with.

British sea cadets dancing Sailors Hornpipe (1928)

India sea cadet schoolgirls (training for the India Navy) dancing Sailor's Hornpipe, (on Navy Day - December 2015)

Sailor's Hornpipe Harper's Weekly, 1875

Contestants dancing Sailor's Hornpipe in a dance contest.

Marx Brothers movie- dancing Sailor's Hornpipe

 

[protectionist]

The # 1 greatest tune of all time, is not only the # 1 most played, most listened to, and most danced to tune in the whole world now in 2016, but it has been the # 1 tune every year, for the last 413 years (since 1609), and no tune even comes close to it.

Although not nearly as well known in the US, it is very well-known all around the world in 87 countries where the British have gone to with their clipper ships, and colonized.

The tune is >>> SAILOR'S HORNPIPE.

And why it is so prolific is because since the 1600s, it has been a fundamental part of the British navy, which in the past, normally had fiddlers on board their ships for the sailors to dance to, the idea being to give them leg exercise and relieve boredom. This has been standard not just just for the British navy, but on British commercial ships too, as well as on the ships of most of the British dominion countries all around the world (the sun never sets on the British empire)

The "hornpipe" tune is one in which the melodic rhythm, is symptomatic of the rhythmic movements of old, wooden clipper ships, which in turn were influenced by the movements of the groundswells of the ocean. This ocean motion was physically absorbed by the sailors, on ships for months at a time, including the fiddlers who composed the tunes. Of the many hornpipe tunes that came forth over the centuries, Sailor's Hornpipe was the first, and it was incorporated into naval protocol, and remains so to this day, all over the world, as well as in schools, were kids learn the tune and dance to it. In the US, I think Sailors Hornpipe and deck dancing ceased in the 1850s, but I'm not sure of the date.

In America, most people recognize Sailor's Hornpipe as a tune played as a lead in to the old Popeye cartoon shows, but it has far greater significance in Britain and the dozens of British dominion countries. I googled Sailor's Hornpipe, and here's some of the images I came up with.

British sea cadets dancing Sailors Hornpipe (1928)

India sea cadet schoolgirls (training for the India Navy) dancing Sailor's Hornpipe, (on Navy Day - December 2015)

Sailor's Hornpipe Harper's Weekly, 1875

Contestants dancing Sailor's Hornpipe in a dance contest.

Marx Brothers movie- dancing Sailor's Hornpipe

Here's a little more to make it even MORE interesting. On board ships, hornpipe tunes were played in successively faster tempos, speeding up after each 32 bar sequence. Here's an example of just how they do it, and just what it sounded like on the ships 300 years ago, and now.

 

[tyroneweaver]

 

[protectionist]

This 2.5 minute video shows the whole Sailor's Hornpipe tune/dance with all 4 segments included >>

1. Pulling up the anchor
2. Swabbing the ship's deck
3. Looking through the telescope
4. Pulling up the sails (and flags)

 

[JoeMoma]

 

[the other mike]

1)Any Steely Dan song.
2)Guitarist Terry Kath and Peter Cetera on bass (Chicago) came up with a bunch of tasty grooves in the late 60s - 70s.

My personal favorite is pretty much any Satch tune.

 

[the other mike]

 

[the other mike]

The whole Beyond appearances album

 

[lg325]