“Stompin’ at the Savoy” is a 1933 jazz standard composed by Edgar Sampson. It is named after the famed Harlem nightspot the Savoy Ballroom in New York City. Although the song is credited to Benny Goodman, Chick Webb, Edgar Sampson, and Andy Razaf, it was written…
Habanera (music or dance of Havana) is the popular name for “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” (“Love Is a Rebellious Bird”), an aria from Georges Bizet’s 1875 opéra comique Carmen. It is the entrance aria…
“A Night in Tunisia” was written by Dizzy Gillespie around 1940–42, while Gillespie was playing with the Benny Carter band. It has become a jazz standard. It is also known as “Interlude”, and with lyrics…
“Bye Bye Blues” is a popular jazz standard written by Fred Hamm, Dave Bennett, Bert Lown, and Chauncey Gray and published in 1925. The year it was introduced, the Vikings sang it on the NBC…
“‘S Wonderful” is a 1927 popular song composed by George Gershwin, with lyrics written by Ira Gershwin. It was introduced in the Broadway musical Funny Face (1927) by Adele Astaire and Allen Kearns. The song…
“Air on the G String,” also known as “Air for G String” and “Celebrated Air,” is August Wilhelmj’s 1871 arrangement of the second movement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major,…
“American Patrol” is a popular march written by Frank White (F.W.) Meacham in 1885. It incorporates both original musical themes by Meacham and melodies from American patriotic songs of the era such as “Columbia, the…
“Piano Man” is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel. His first single in North America was included on Joel’s 1973 album of the same name and later released as a single…
“Flight of the Bumble Bee” is an orchestral interlude written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, composed in 1899–1900. Its composition is intended to musically evoke the seemingly chaotic and…
The Concierto de Aranjuez is a classical guitar concerto by the Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Written in 1939, it is by far Rodrigo’s best-known work, and its success established his reputation as one of the…