Chattanooga Choo Choo

"Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a 1941 song that was written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren. It was originally recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade.^[3] It was the first song to receive a gold record, presented by RCA Victor in 1942, for sales of 1.2 million copies.^[4]^[5]

For the 1984 film, see Chattanooga Choo Choo (film). For other uses, see Chattanooga Choo Choo (disambiguation).

"Chattanooga Choo Choo"

"I Know Why (And So Do You)"

August 20, 1941

July 25, 1941^[1]

May 7, 1941^[2]

3:27

The train is described as departing from Track 29 in . At the time, the facility only had 21 tracks.

Pennsylvania Station

"You leave the Pennsylvania station 'bout a quarter to four", but The Birmingham Special departed at 12:30 p.m.

"Dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer than to have your ham 'n' eggs in Carolina", but none of these three trains passed through the Carolinas. They passed through western Virginia directly to East Tennessee.

The song was written by the team of Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, allegedly while traveling on the Southern Railway's Birmingham Special train. This was one of three trains operating from New York City via Chattanooga. The Tennessean continued to Memphis while the Pelican continued to New Orleans via Birmingham. The Southern Railway operated these trains in cooperation with the Norfolk and Western Railway and the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Details in the song do not align with The Birmingham Special, however, which suggests that the writers took some artistic license. Specifically:

and His Orchestra recorded a cover version of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" for Conqueror Records in 1941.

Cab Calloway

recorded a cover on July 25, 1942, and sang it in the movie Springtime in the Rockies.

Carmen Miranda

released a cover of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" as a 45 single on Essex Records in 1954.

Bill Haley & His Comets

Pianist recorded a single version on RCA Records in 1962.

Floyd Cramer

UK instrumental group recorded a version of the song for their album Dance with the Shadows, which reached number two in the UK album charts in 1964.

the Shadows

The American musical group released a cover version of the song, which reached No. 45 on the U.S. pop chart and spent two weeks at No. 1 on the Easy Listening chart in 1968.^[12] In Canada, the song reached No. 34.^[13]

Harpers Bizarre

An instrumental version of the theme was released 1975 in Germany under the name "Maddox", produced by .^[14]

Dicky Tarrach

In the 1974 film , when Dr. Frederick Frankenstein asks a local boy for directions to the Transylvania Station, their dialogue closely follows a lyric from the song.

Young Frankenstein

In 1978, the jazz-influenced disco group Tuxedo Junction recorded a disco version that hit the American Top 40; it peaked at No. 32 Pop and No. 18 on the Easy Listening chart. In Canada, it reached No. 55 on the Pop charts and No. 6 on the Dance charts.^[16]^[17]

[15]

released a half-Portuguese, half-Japanese cover of the song (based on Carmen Miranda's interpretation) as the opening track on his 1975 album Tropical Dandy.

Haruomi Hosono

In the 1970s, the tune was used in the UK on an advertisement for candy bars, starting with "Pardon me, boy, is that a Toffee Crisp you chew, chew?", and ending with the punch line "Chew, chew Toffee crisp, and you'll go far."

Toffee Crisp

A cover by Steve Lucky & the Rhumba Bums was featured in the 2005 film .

Be Cool

The song's intro was sampled by in their song "Damn Door" for their 2008 debut album A City Dressed in Dynamite.

That Handsome Devil

In 1994, recorded a version on the album Singin' with the Big Bands.

Barry Manilow

A modern interpretation of the song was recorded by for his In the Mood album of 2014.

Herb Alpert

The song has been recorded by numerous artists, including Taco, Beegie Adair, the Andrews Sisters, Ray Anthony, Asleep at the Wheel with Willie Nelson, BBC Big Band, George Benson, John Bunch, Caravelli, Regina Carter, Ray Charles, Harry Connick Jr., Ray Conniff, John Denver, Ernie Fields, Stéphane Grappelli and Marc Fosset, John Hammond Jr., the Harmonizing Four, Harmony Grass, Ted Heath, Betty Johnson, Susannah McCorkle, Ray McKinley, Big Miller, the Muppets, Richard Perlmutter, Oscar Peterson, Spike Robinson, Harry Roy, Jan Savitt, Hank Snow, Teddy Stauffer, Dave Taylor, Claude Thornhill, the Tornados, Vox and Guy Van Duser.^[11]

Other notable performances include:

The tune was adopted twice for German songs. Both songs deal with trains, and both songs start with (different) translations of "pardon me". The first was created and performed in 1947 by the German pop singer Bully Buhlan (Zug nach ). The lyrics are humorously describing the bother of a train ride out of post-war Berlin: no guarantee to arrive at a destination due to coal shortage, passengers traveling on coach buffers, steps and roofs, and never-ending trip interruptions including a night stop for delousing.

Kötzschenbroda

The second, , created by the German rock musician Udo Lindenberg in 1983 became very popular and had various political implications. Lindenberg was a West German singer and songwriter with a suitable fan community in East Germany.^[18] He had applied for years to tour the GDR but was rejected several times.^[18] The 1983 cover version of Chattanooga Choo Choo was directly asking the GDR's Chairman of the Council of State Erich Honecker for permission to hold a concert in the Palace of the Republic (Berlin).^[18] The song was released on February 2, 1983, and was repeatedly featured in the West as well in the East. The song itself and the Glenn Miller original were temporarily interdicted in the GDR.^[18]

Sonderzug nach Pankow

Nevertheless, Lindenberg finally succeeded in getting an invitation to the GDR rock festival Rock for Peace on October 25, 1983, on the condition that Lindenberg would not play Sonderzug nach Pankow at the concert. Honecker, a former brass band drummer of Rotfrontkämpferbund, and Lindenberg exchanged presents in form of a leather jacket and a metal shawm in 1987.^[19] Lindenberg's success at passing the Inner German border peacefully with a humorous song gave him celebrity status as well as a positive political acknowledgement in both West and East Germany.^[18]

There is an Italian version sung by Domenico Loreti entitled Il treno della neve (The Snow Train) and one by included in the 2010 album Signorine novecento (Atlantic, 5051865974321).

Sorelle Marinetti

A Finnish song based upon the Chattanooga Choo Choo was made in 1963 about , one of Finland's most famous locomotives. It was sung by Finnish band Eero ja Jussi & The Boys.

Chattanooga Choo Choo