(Video link here.) When we saw the great Cab Calloway singing Jumpin Jive from the 1943 movie Stormy Weather, we had to check out the lyrics. We were double knocked out by the Nicholas Brothers sublime dance number (1:30), which Mikhail Baryshnikov called, “perfect examples of pure genius.”

Hep hep
De-boodle-de-ack, de-boodle-de-ackasaki
Hep hep
Oh, rang-tang, te-dah-dah
Hep-hep
Gonna tell you ’bout the jumpin’ jive

Hep hep
Jim, jam, jump, the jumpin’ jive
Hep hep
Cats gonna beat out this mellow jive
Hep hep
Beat it out on the mellow side

Boy
Whatcha gonna say there, gate?
Oh, boy
Whatcha gonna say there, gate?
Palomar, shalomar, Swanee shore
Let me dig that jive once more

Boy
Lay it right on down to the gator
Oh, boy
Lay it flat as a gator
Now, can’t you hear those hep cats call?
Yeah
Come on, boys, let’s have a ball

The jim, jam, jump on the jumpin’ jive
Makes you dig your jive on the mellow side
Hep hep
Hep hep

The jim, jam, jump is the solid jive
Makes you nine foot tall when you’re four foot five
Hep hep
Hep hep

Now, don’t you be that ickeroo
Get hep,…