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Music - Flying Down to Rio (1933) - Carioca

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Etta Moten as one of
ettamoten.jpg
the Carioca Singers

     The Carioca was the Acadey Award-nominated song that first introduced Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers as a dance team to America.
 
     Etta Moten, Alice Gentle and Movita sang this number but Moten argueably made the most of her turn at it, with her incredible contralto that didn't need a costume to help her put a song over.
 
     But we have her performance as well as Rogers and Astaire's dancing to stun and please us over and over again doing . . .

THE CARIOCA*
 
Say have you ever seen a Carioca
It's not a foxtrot or a polka
It has a little bit of new rhythm, a blue rhythm that sighs
 
It has a meter that is tricky
A bit of wicked wacky-wicky
But when you dance it with a new love, there'll be true love in her eye
 
     You'll dream of a new Carioca
     Its theme is a kiss and a sigh
     You'll dream of a new Carioca
     When music and lights are gone and we're saying goodbye
 
Two heads together, they'll say it better than one
two heads together, that's how the dance is begun
Two arms around you and lips, that's why I'm yours and you are mine
And you are mine
 
Now that you've done the Carioca
You'l never care to do the Polka
And then you'll realize the blue hula and bambula are through
 
Tomorrow morning you'll discover
You're  just a Carioca lover
And when you dance it with each new love, there'll be true love just for you
 
     Now you'll dream of a new Carioca
     It's theme is a kiss and a sigh
     You'll dream of a new Carioca
     When music and lights are gone and we're saying goodbye
     Goodbye
 
* by Gus Kahn (words) and Vincent Youmans and Edward Eliscu (music).

ette-moten.jpg
Etta Moten

Music in the Movies

  

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