The Varsity Drag

"The Varsity Drag" is a pop song written by Ray Henderson (music), Buddy DeSylva and Lew Brown (text) in 1927.[1]

The song was written for the musical Good News, from which the song "The Best Things in Life Are Free" also came.[2] The musical premiered on September 6, 1927 at the Chanin’s 46th Street Theater (now the Richard Rodgers Theater) in New York. The show had "The Varsity Drag" performed as the final number with a Charleston-like dance choreography.[3] The number was used in the musical when Zelma O'Neal told the other students, "Let the professors worry about their dusty old books, we'll make Tait famous for the Varsity Drag." The dance is introduced in the chorus of the song, starting with the lines:[1]

Down with the heels, up on the toes,

Stay after school, see how it goes.

That's the way to do the varsity drag.

The discographer Tom Lord lists a total of 76 recorded versions of "The Varsity Drag" (as of 2016). Most notable are the original recordings from George Olsen (with vocal by Fran Frey) and Ruth Etting, as well as later versions by Benny Goodman, Patti Page, Spike Jones and His City Slickers, Tito Puente, and the Pasadena Roof Orchestra.

The song was also used in the film adaptations of Good News from 1930 and 1947, as well as in the 1949 film musical You're My Everything.[4]

References
  1. Don Tyler: Hit Songs, 1900-1955: American Popular Music of the Pre-Rock Era. Jefferson, North Carolina & London, McFarland, 2007, p. 148
  2. Five songs from the show were successful, the title song, Lucky in Love, Just Imagine, The Best Things in Life Are Free and The Varsity Drag. See Gerald Martin Bordman, Richard Norton American Musical Theater: A Chronicle 2010, p. 483.
  3. James Ciment: Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age: From the End of World War I to the Great Crash. Routledge 2015.
  4. Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)


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