Swingers Soundtrack - Various Artists | 50 Albums in 50 Years

Buzzing Economy, Bigger Suits: My Late-’90s Optimism in Full Swing

“So I think about my next drink. And it’s you and me and the bottle makes three tonight.”

Zoot Suits. Cocktails. Vegas. Frank, Dean, and Jimmy. Lounge Acts. The LA Scene. Back in the late-90s in a massive backlash against the grunge fueled flannel and deep introspection, and pretty much out of nowhere many of us got into that whole scene. Even in the middle of Iowa. I was wearing a suit. I was buying spectator wingtips. I took swing dance classes. In the summer of 98 I was interning in San Francisco and the lounge and swing scene was huge there. And my entry into this was the Swingers movie and the Swingers soundtrack. Of course I had heard of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And, I had been listening to them. But, not in the way I listened to them after the Swingers Soundtrack. It was the first time I started drinking martinis. And then there was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.

So, let's discuss this scene. Where did it start? When did it start? How did we get there?

The Late 80’s

Picture this: it’s 1989 in L.A. — a bunch of ex-punk kids trade ripped tees for thrift-store suits. They covered Louis Jordan, Louis Prima, and other jump-blues staples, but with the speed and volume they’d learned in the punk clubs. They called the experiment Royal Crown Revue. A lot of folks mark that night as the spark that lit the whole neo-swing fuse. It was new enough to feel fresh yet familiar enough that people could dance the first time they heard it. A couple of hours up the coast, another crew—Big Bad Voodoo Daddy—is doing the same thing in Ventura dive bars.

Early-to-mid 1990s — The Derby gives the scene a home

When the old Brown Derby restaurant in Los Feliz reopened as The Derby, it became the hangout for anyone curious about this sound. Live bands, cheap martinis, and weekly beginner swing lessons made it the place to learn a basic six-count and show off a vintage suit. The crowd kept growing, and touring bands started booking return gigs because the room was always full.

October 1996 — Swingers lights the fuse

Jon Favreau wrote Swingers after hanging out at The Derby, and he put Big Bad Voodoo Daddy right there in the movie.¹ The film didn’t make much money in theaters, but once it hit VHS and cable it kept cycling through dorm rooms and living rooms. People who had never heard of jump-blues suddenly wanted the soundtrack, a martini, and a place to learn the Lindy Hop.

San Francisco and other cities pick it up

By the time I was interning in The Bay Area in 1998 Haight Street’s Club DeLuxe in San Francisco had opened and followed a similar formula—cocktails, red booths, and live horns most nights. Word spread by fanzines, early web forums, and simple word of mouth.

And that leads us to the Swingers Soundtrack

And for many people outside of the hip corridors of LA, their view into the world of swing was the Swingers soundtrack. The soundtrack works because it’s not all swing dance music. It's not just Big Bad Voodoo Daddy over and over again (there are two tracks). And it's not even an intro to swing and lounge music featuring other swing music bands like The Brian Setzer Orchestra. It actually works broadly as a mixtape to ease you into the whole lounge music and cocktail vibe going on in that scene. They weren’t just listening to new bands. They were listening to classics like Dean Martin, Count Basie, Tony Bennett, and other classic crooners. So, the soundtrack rightly includes songs from those acts. And then, there is some George Jones and Average White Band thrown in just to mix things up. This soundtrack works not only as an intro to the whole scene and what it was about, but a mixtape that works in a lot of different situations. If you were around in the late 90s and in college or beyond, you probably heard this soundtrack in the background to many “cocktail parties.”

It wasn’t just about swing dancing and doing the lindy hop during a group swing dance. It was about an introduction into a whole vibe. A whole attitude. And, that’s what really stuck for most people.

The Songs

The actual soundtrack (like most soundtracks that were essentially compilations before the emergence of streaming) is not available on any streaming platform. You can find it cobbled together with playlists. But, for posterity's sake, here’s the full sequence, exactly as it appeared on the cd:

“You’re Nobody ’Til Somebody Loves You” – Dean Martin

“Paid for Loving” – Love Jones

“With Plenty of Money and You” – Count Basie & Tony Bennett

“You & Me & the Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)” – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

“Knock Me a Kiss” – Louis Jordan

“Wake Up” – The Jazz Jury

“Groove Me” – King Floyd

“I Wan’na Be Like You” – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

“Mucci’s Jag M.K. II” – Joey Altruda

“King of the Road” – Roger Miller

“Pictures” – The Jazz Jury

“She Thinks I Still Care” – George Jones

“Car Train” – The Jazz Jury

“Pick Up the Pieces” – Average White Band

“Go Daddy-O” – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

“I’m Beginning to See the Light” – Bobby Darin

Cultural Context

And it's worth noting why this worked so well at the time. This was the late nineties. It seemed like everything, everywhere was booming. The internet was just blowing up and creating so much… unbridled optimism in most everybody, but especially, young, educated people, who were going out all the time. Dressing up in zoot suits and wingtips worked so well because they represented a fancy sorta vibe that was going on everywhere. Everyone was celebrating. Everyone was going out. We didn’t have a care in the world. We wanted to dance together. We wanted horns. We wanted to have fun songs about drinking. We wanted exuberance. We wanted winning in vegas. We wanted to double down on 11. We wanted fancy martinis with a nice olive. We wanted to feel older—grown-up enough for vermouth. We wanted a fun life. And, if you’re in your 20s in the late 90’s, and going out all the time, the peak fun life looks like a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy show at The Derby.

There is probably not an album or soundtrack that captures what the late 90’s and pre 9/11 early aughts look like better than this soundtrack. Everything about that moment in the late 90’s is captured right here in the Swingers Soundtrack.

Personal Context

This album is on my 50 Albums list not because it was part of a cultural zeitgeist, but because it was part of my personal zeitgeist. It captured my exuberance of late 90’s. It captured my experience in the bars of North Beach in San Francisco in my summer of 1998. It captured my brief experience with swing dancing. But, it also effectively begun a lifetime of love for the classic crooners, cocktails, music with horns, fancy shoes and suits, and the whole lounge vibe. Even after the craze fizzled out. After the gap commercials stopped and faded from memory. After the everywhere access to swing dance lessons left us. The music for sure stayed with me. But so did the vibe. I love a good bar. I love a lounge. I love classic cocktails (though I’ve moved from a martini to an old fashioned). I love a lounge with lounge music. Especially if found in some sort of authentic way. I love all those things because of the Swingers Soundtrack and that's why it's on this list. So, put it on, slip on those old wingtips gathering dust in your closet, and shake yourself a martini and you’re pretty much there: mid nineties LA at The Derby with Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on the stage. It's awesome.

1. This is my only mention of the movie…because I am writing about the soundtrack. The movie is excellent though and possibly a top 15 movie for me. Check it out.