ed at No. 38 on the Billboard chart, and Herman’s Hermits version went number one. Number one songs get played. They get remembered. What would be different if we all remembered you? 9.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” wrote Langston. Cut to narratives of white men copying plantation dances witnessed, or forced, on Southern nights during slavery days. Cut to Black dances mocked as animal, then taught to paying white customers at Arthur Murray studios. According to the history page of the Arthur Murray studios website: During the 1930s, the studio introduced such dances to the public as the Lambeth Walk and the Big Apple. It was the Big Apple that turned Mr. Murray’s one studio into the largest chain of dance studios in the world today. Frankie Manning was a Black dancer, instructor, and choreographer. As the Frankie Manning Foundation website notes, the Big Apple dance started in a Black nightclub in Columbia, South Carolina. Once it was discovered by local white teens, the dance spread like wildfire. And the Big Apple choreographed by Frank Manning is popular with many swing dancers today. Cut to minstrel, black face. Minstrel, black face. Minstrel, black face, white hands jazzy. Cut to white artists recording Black artists’ songs, making the money the Black artists would not, gaining the renown and recognition they would not. Cut to who gets royalties and who gets flat fees. Cut to us singing along with Paul Revere & The Raiders “Indian Reservation (‘The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian’)” thinking What a shame, then leaving out the testimonies of those who were here first. How, if my step father weren’t Filipino, I might not have included anyone who wasn’t African or European in this essay, the way our 400-year-old struggle can suck all of the oxygen out of discussion. Cut to us actively trying to see more, to hear more. Cut to us trying to pay proper respect. 10.
I get why the girls screamed. Listen to The Beatles sing “Baby It’s You.” The Shirelles had this Burt Bacharach, Mack David, and 70 | PHOEBE 49.1