Talk:(If You Can't Sing It) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)

Niccolò Paganini
Is the "Mr. Paganini" this song refers to Niccolò Paganini? --Locano (talk) 05:42, 21 December 2009 (UTC)


 * While it is unlikely to refer directly to Niccolò Paganini, who was long dead by the time Carnegie Hall was built, it is possible the lyricist changed the name from Arturo Toscanini who was musical director for the New York Philharmonic the year the song was first recorded, so not to direct the criticism implied by the song to a live person. The person from the stands who supposedly is speaking in the song could be George Gershwin as they mention a Rhapsody (suggesting his Rhapsody in Blue) and the song is talking about how at the time the classical music world often ignored popular music styles. Just looking over the articles for those people doesn't turn up any answers, that I can see, but the article on Toscanini is interesting to note the mention of revisionist history which suggests his influence in popular culture can now be seen as detrimental to other forms of American music. I should note Toscanini did record Gershwin's work in 1945, but research should be done on the subject before any conclusions are to be made about these correspondences.Volpane (talk) 21:25, 12 March 2017 (UTC)