We Cats Will Swing for You

• Artist: The Cats & the Fiddle
• Rating:
• Release Date: October 21, 2003
• Type: Compilation (best of)
• Genre: Jazz

Review

Austin Powell's Cats & the Fiddle were a little late in arriving to the hep cats' ball; they formed in 1937, after many years of scuttling around in varying incarnations with different names. Also, the base quartet weren't as musically talented as forebears like the Mills Brothers or the Delta Rhythm Boys or the Three Keys. Still, they continued near the top of their game for many years because of harmonies that were pure and tight, and the benefit of having Powell's guiding hand and expressive pen. (He wrote much of their material, and kept a group together for much longer than his contemporaries.) While both Fabulous (Acrobat) and Dee Jay offer three-volume completist series, the Living Era disc We Cats Will Swing for You is the only career-long compilation that has been widely released on CD, and it presents the best look at what made the Cats & the Fiddle very good. Both sides of the group's first single, "Killin' Jive" and "Nuts to You," appear early in the program, as does intriguing riffs on evergreen material such as "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water" and "When I Grow Too Old to Dream." (Their theme song "I Miss You So," also a standard, is done much more faithfully.) Group member Tiny Grimes begins to add his own original material in the second half of the program ("One Is Never to Old to Swing," "I'm Singing, So Help Me"), but the Cats & the Fiddle remained best at jiving the material of others, like Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies." ~ John Bush, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
We Cats Will Swing for You	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:42)
Killin' Jive	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:50)
I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:48)
Gang Busters	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:06)
Thursday Evening Swing	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:28)
Nuts to You	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:32)
Till the Day I Die	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:10)
Mr. Rhythm Man	Hudson Whittaker	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:49)
Please Don't Leave Me Now	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:06)
When I Grow Too Old to Dream	Sigmund Romberg, Oscar Hammerstein II	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:47)
Public Jitterbug Number One	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:54)
I Miss You So (Theme Song)	Jimmy Henderson, Bertha Scott	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:49)
That's on Jack, That's On	Austin Powell	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:32)
Gone	Ernest Price	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:33)
You're So Fine	Austin Powell, Bill Johnson	The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:06)
Swing the Scales	Austin Powell, Bill Johnson	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:27)
Hep Cat's Holiday	Herbie Miles	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:35)
I'll Always Love You Just the Same	Tiny Grimes	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:59)
One Is Never Too Old to Swing	Tiny Grimes	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:55)
I'm Singing (So Help Me)	Tiny Grimes	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:21)
If I Dream of You		The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:11)
I'm Gonna Pull My Hair, Let My Wig Come Down	Tiny Grimes, Chuck Barksdale, Austin Powell, Ernie Price	The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:05)
I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire	Bennie Benjamin, Eddie Durham, Sol Marcus, Eddie Seiler	The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:07)
Blue Skies	Irving Berlin	The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:03)
Another Day		The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:04)
Stomp, Stomp	Tiny Grimes	The Cats & the Fiddle	(2:56)
Life's Too Short	Barry Eastmond	The Cats & the Fiddle	(3:21)

Credits

Tiny Grimes (Piano), Tiny Grimes (Guitar (Electric)), Tiny Grimes (Vocals), Tiny Grimes (Tenor (Vocal)), Tiny Grimes (Group Member), Chuck Barksdale (Bass (Vocal)), Chuck Barksdale (Double Bass), Chuck Barksdale (Group Member), Martin Haskell (Audio Restoration), Martin Haskell (Remastering), Ray Crick (Compilation), Austin Powell (Guitar), Austin Powell (Leader), Austin Powell (Vocals), Austin Powell (Group Member), Herbie Miles (Guitar), Herbie Miles (Vocals), Herbie Miles (Tenor (Vocal)), Herbie Miles (Tiple), Herbie Miles (Group Member), Ernie Price (Guitar), Ernie Price (Tenor (Vocal)), Ernie Price (Tiple), Ernie Price (Group Member), George Steinbeck (Bass (Vocal)), George Steinbeck (Double Bass), George Steinbeck (Group Member), Jimmy Henderson (Vocals), Jimmy Henderson (Group Member), The Cats & the Fiddle (Main Performer)