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Take the A Train: Duke Ellington

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This entry was posted on February 18, 2024 at 10:10 am and is filed under Video. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Comments on “Take the A Train: Duke Ellington”

  1. Bob's avatar Bob Says:

    February 18, 2024 at 11:04 am

    Another all time favorite played by the guy who made it famous. This signature song was written by Billy Strayhorn. Strayhorn didn’t get the recognition he deserved until long after his death because he was a gay black man.

    • katry's avatar katry Says:

      February 18, 2024 at 5:44 pm

      That seems to happen more often than we think. I remember Elizabeth Cotten, a black woman, left school at nine to work She wrote Freight Train when she was in her teens. British songwriters Paul James and Fred Williams misappropriated it as their own composition and copyrighted it. At one point she worked for the Seeger family as a maid. The Seeger family got her copyright restored.

      Solomon Lundy composed The Lion Sleeps Tonight in 1939. The Weavers recorded it in 1951. They kept the royalties.Later The Tokens had a hit with it. That is probably the best known version of the song, and it earned in royalties. Disney earned 15 million from its use in The Lion King. Finally, after a lawsuit, money went to Linda’s estate.


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