Born to Hand Jive - Sha Na Na - (1978) 4/19/21

Several links today, and they're ALL good!

Periodically over the past year and a half, we've highlighted some "Great Songs" from the film "Grease," all of which, of course, were from 1978.

Here's the rundown in chronological order:

12/17/19: "You're the One That I Want" https://www.facebook.com/MichaelCuuuk/posts/122860215854101

3/18/20: "Grease (is the Word)" https://www.facebook.com/MichaelCuuuk/posts/159646105508845

4/9/20: "Summer Nights" https://www.facebook.com/MichaelCuuuk/posts/166652704808185

7/12/20: "Hopelessly Devoted to You" https://www.facebook.com/MichaelCuuuk/posts/193912792082176

All of those, were HUGE chart hits, but there are some other songs on the soundtrack that deserve to be called "Great," and "Born to Hand Jive" is one of them.

Quick history lesson: The hand jive was invented by dancers in European bars that were too crowded for ballroom and/or rock & roll style dancing. They developed complicated hand movements and patterns that were so cool and fun to do, hand-jiving spread like wildfire across the continent, and then across the Atlantic to the US.

Hand jive could be done to almost any fast song, but after a while, a certain rhythm was found to work best. A number of specific hand jive songs were recorded, most notably by Johnny Otis and Bo Diddley.

When the Broadway musical "Grease" was being written, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey included a hand jive song---because it was cool--AND because they knew the choreographers would have a field day with it. And they did.

When the movie was filmed, they made sure that "Born to Hand Jive" was the main cornerstone of the big dance contest...and once again the choreography was incredible--incorporating the hand jive with ballroom and other modern styles. (Having the legendary oldies group, Sha-Na-Na perform the song was an extra stroke of genius!)

That said, it's easy to understand why those of us working in the discos of 1978 received a LOT of requests to play "Born to Hand Jive." And we did. The results were almost always fun to watch. Not everybody attempted it, but those who did, not only gave us all a show, but had fun doing it!

For that reason, I believe "Born to Hand Jive" by Sha-Na-Na is truly a "Great Song of 1978!" (Keep reading!)

From the film (1978):

From "Grease Live" (2016). (With dancers like Julianne Hough and Aaron Tveit playing Sandy & Danny, they took the choreography to a whole new level!