Chinatown, My Chinatown

"Chinatown, My Chinatown" is a popular song written by William Jerome (words) and Jean Schwartz (music) in 1906 and later interpolated into the musical Up and Down Broadway (1910). The song has been recorded by numerous artists and is considered an early jazz standard.

Composition
Tin Pan Alley songwriters Jean Schwartz and William Jerome began their partnership in 1901, and collaborated successfully for more than a decade. They composed many popular songs together, including million-sellers "Mister Dooley" and "Bedelia". "Chinatown, My Chinatown" is considered their biggest hit, but it did not catch on when they wrote it in 1906, and the musical revue it was added to in 1910, Up and Down Broadway, was not especially successful. By the time "Chinatown, My Chinatown" became a national hit in 1915, the two were no longer collaborating.

The melody of the song uses pentatonicism, while the harmonies employ many parallel fourths and fifths, a common exoticist technique of the time based on Western stereotypes of Chinese and other East Asian musics. Through these musical techniques as well as racist lyrics, the song participates in the history of Orientalism.

The original tempo of the song was slow; later it was adapted to a fox-trot tempo, reflecting the popularity of the dance. Still later, jazz musicians played the song at a "hot jazz" tempo.

Recording history
"Chinatown, My Chinatown" has been recorded by numerous artists. Several recordings in late 1914 presaged its popularity in 1915 when the American Quartet with Billy Murray had a number one record on Victor, and Grace Kerns and John Barnes Wells also had a popular recording on Columbia. The same year, Columbia also released a version by Prince's Orchestra, in a one-step medley with Alabama Jubilee and Sam Ash recorded an abbreviated version of it for the Columbia-affiliated, bargain-priced Little Wonder Records.

At least 25 jazz recordings of the song were done between 1928 and 1942; seven were recorded in 1935 alone. Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Lionel Hampton were among the many jazz artists who recorded this song in the 1930s. Its recording history is one of the elements that qualifies it as an early jazz standard.

Subsequently, the accordionist John Serry Sr. also recorded an easy listening arrangement of the song for RCA Thesaurus in 1954.