Original Version

"The Charleston"  is a jazz composition that was written to accompany the Charleston dance.

It was composed in 1923, with lyrics by Cecil Mack and music by James P. Johnson, who first introduced the style of stride piano.

Stride piano was a jazzy way of playing the piano that came from an evolution of Ragtime. Its name derives from the jumps (strides) that gave the left hand when touching, that alternated powerful notes in the weak times, with chords in the strong times.

Compositions in this style were written, but were also intended to be improvised.

The song "The Charleston" appeared on Broadway's American musical program Runnin 'Wild, which premiered at New York's New Colonial Theater on October 29, 1923.

The music of the South Carolina stevedores inspired Johnson to compose it.

The dance known as Charleston came to characterize the time of the 20s.

The lyrics, though rarely sung, were written by Cecil Mack, one of the most prominent composers of the early twentieth century.

The main rhythm of the song, basically the first bar of a clave 3 2 (Cuban rhythm pattern), has been used a lot in jazz composition and is still referred to by its name by musicians.

In harmony, the song features a ragtime progression of five chords (I-III7-VI7-II7-V7-I).

The song was used in several films set in the 1920s. Ginger Rogers dances to the beat of the music in the film Roxie Hart (1942). In the films Margie (1946) and Qué bello es vivir (1946) the song sounds during the school dance scenes.

In the movie Tea for Two (1950), starring Doris Day and Gordon MacRae, the song is a featured production number.

A version starring Enoch Light and the Charleston City All Stars is used in Woody Allen's 2011 film Midnight in Paris, set largely in the 1920s ...

One of the most famous recordings of the song was that of The Golden Gate Orchestra in 1925, included in the National Record of the United States.

"The Charleston" entered the public domain in the United States in 2019.

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