DJ Chrisbe's Song of the Week #205: Jeepers Creepers

Sometimes I surprise myself. After more than 200 songs, I've found out that I haven't featured “Jeepers Creepers” so far.

It's time to change that and when you regularly read this series then you know that I like to write about the not so obvious versions.

Jeepers Creepers

About the Song

“Jeepers Creepers” was written by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer (lyrics) and featured in the 1938 film Going Places starring Dick Powell, Anita Louise and Ronald Reagan.

Louis Armstrong appears in the part of Gabriel, the trainer of a race horse named Jeepers Creepers.

Jeepers Creepers is a very wild horse and can only be soothed enough to let someone ride him when Gabriel plays the song “Jeepers Creepers” on his trumpet or sings it to him.

Gabriel wrote the song specifically for the horse. (The phrase “jeepers creepers”, a slang expression and minced oath euphemism for Jesus Christ, predates both the song and film.)

Al Donahue

Albert “Al” Francis Donahue (June 12, 1904 – Feb. 20, 1983) was a violin player and big band leader.

He graduated from Boston University Law School but because he was in a big demand as a musician he never took the bar examination. He then attended the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

As leader of a big band, Donahue appeared at, among other top venues, the Rainbow Room in New York City, the Palladium in Hollywood, the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, and the Oriental Theater in Chicago.

And for quite a few decades, people linked his name to luxury cruiseships which sailed to the Bermuda Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean.

Between 1935 and 1942, Donahue and his orchestra made a total of 23 titles for Decca, 103 for Vocalion, and 43 for Okeh.

Sources: Wikipedia, BigBandLibrary.com (read full biography here)

Title: Jeepers Creepers
Artist: Al Donahue & His Orchestra
Recorded: 1939
Tempo: 198 bpm
Dance: Balboa, Lindy Hop