Artist: Santana
Song Title: Smooth
Dance type: Cha-cha
Album: Smooth

Cha-cha is one of my favorite dances, and this is the song to which I learned it.

Oh, I just remembered a song that I recently realized was a waltz. It entertains me. :)

Artist: Stockard Channing
Album: Grease Soundtrack (The Movie)
Title: Look At Me, I'm Sandra Dee

If you have a PC, I highly recommend that you subscribe to Yahoo Music Unlimited, Rhapsody, or Napster (in that order, IMHO) to be able to explore and play (even DJ!) from a library of >2 million songs in all categories and from all eras. The music subscription services are an unbelievably undervalued asset to music lovers!!!

And now, some specific swing recommendations (with many slower/medium-tempo ones to balance out the consistently fast rockabilly/neo-swing stuff played at FNW :P)

QUIRKY (separate songs denoted by a slash)
Simon Smith and The Amazing Dancing Bear (Muppet Hits -- one of my favorite songs, though short at about 2 minutes)
Put on your green shoes (3 Cats'n'Jammers)
You Gotta Look Out For Yourself / It Needs Work (from the musical "City of Angels"... not the godawful movie!)
Like Zis Like Zat / Give Them What They Want (from the musical "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels")
Change My World (Johnny Nexdor and his Neighbors)
Da-Doo (the musical "Little Shop of Horrors" -- very short, though, at 1:02)
Wait and See / Splanky (The Real Group -- unbelievably awesome a cappella jazz group)
Belleville Jungle (The Triplets of Belleville)
One (Three Dog Night)
From The Bottom (Blues Brothers)
Hodja (Todd Rundgren)
Something In My Ear (The Bobs)


TRADITIONAL:
Stompin' at the Savoy (Benny Goodman)
All of Me / Ain't Misbehavin' / (both Count Basie)
Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Gene Harris)
Kickin' the Clouds Away (George Gershwin)
The Continental (Artie Shaw and his orchestra)
Gone With The Wind (Ben Webster)
I'm Just a Jitterbug (Chick Webb & Ella Fitzgerald)


* * *

Oh, and a few waltzes while I'm at it :-)

First Impressions (Yo-Yo Ma -- beautiful, but *very* slow)
Close Every Door (Musical: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)
Never The Luck (Musical: The Mystery of Edwin Drood)
Atilla Marcel / Jazzy Bach (Movie: The Triplets of Belleville)
Serenade in B flat major, k361 - IV. Minuetto - Trio I and Trio II (Mozart Serenade, "gran Partita") - 4:39 and pretty danceable
Nyah (Movie: Mission Impossible 2 -- rather fast!)
The Gravy Waltz (The Ultimate Ray Brown)

gahh... I have a TON more titles and would be happy to share. Maybe even DJ someday if people were keen on a very different feel of swing and waltzes... heh ;)

P.S. -- On www.rhapsody.com, you can listen to 25 full-length songs free each month... could be useful!

Possibilities. I think they all work as advertised. Caveat emptor.

Cha cha:
Oye Como Va 4:15 Eliane Elias Around the City
Clocks (Cuban Version) 5:01 Coldplay Rhythms del Mundo: Cuba

Hustle/Polka:
I've Been Thinking About You 5:17 Londonbeat In the Blood
Fever 5:00 Madonna Erotica
Let's Get Loud 3:58 Jennifer Lopez On the 6
Turn the Beat Around 3:54 Gloria Estefan Gloria Estefan: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2

Polka:
Black Horse and the Cherry Tree (Radio Version) 2:52 KT Tunstall Eye to the Telescope
Cotton Eye Joe ?:?? Rednex
The HampsterDance Song 3:35 Hampton the Hampster Hampsterdance Hits - EP

Schottische:
Personal Jesus 4:56 Depeche Mode Violator
Recover Lover ?:?? Jumpstarts
The Way You Do the Things You Do 3:02 UB40 Labour of Love II

Salsa:
Amor Verdandero 6:36 Afro Cuban All Stars A Toda Cuba Le Gusta
Maestro 5:58 Salsa Celtica El Agua de la Vida

I was listening to R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People" the other day and realized that "Everybody Hurts" is in 3/4 time, and could be a deceptively fast waltz. I haven't tried dancing to it though...

The Trailer Park Troubadours do a beautifully danceable waltz called
"Falling in Love in America". (It's not as funny as the one about the roadkill
overcoat, but I've gotten up and waltzed to it at their concerts and can certify
it as very nice.)

[
unhitched.com/mp3store/process.php

You can buy this track for 99 cents from the mp3store on their unhitched.com website. This is a live version with guest artists,
but still danceable.