Artist: Elisabeth Welch
Author: James Johnson/Cecil Mack
Year: 1923

Step and tune inspiring all later versions, introduced in Miller & Lyles' all-black revue Runnin' Wild, produced by George White. Choreographed by Elida Webb; dancing by The Dancing Redcaps, clapping and footstomping (thàt was the gimmick), music by James P. Johnson; lyrics by Cecil Mack, the guy who wrote Shine. The signature Charleston dance step had been around at the Ziegfeld Follies that year, but the craze hit the masses since Runnin' Wild, spilling over with demonstrations and even competitions, whereby rumours continued to spread that young ladies left their girdles in the powder room for freedom of movement, leaving moralists something to talk about. Soon black and white wanted to master the steps, making the Charleston one of the first important factors of integration in America. Never before, rhythm (of handclaps and stomping feet) was so overwhelming. The Boston Pickwick Club collapsed during a mass-demonstration of the charleston steps, killing 50.

Like Jelly Roll Morton, James P. Johnson was a major link between ragtime and jazz. While Morton represented the New Orleans link, Johnson stood for New York. Exponent of the stride style and brought up in Harlem where in 1913 he became piano player in the Jungle Casino, a dance joint for sailors. That day the place was packed with sailors from Charleston, South Carolina. Fascinated by their black- and proudness, Johnson caught their hi-steppin' in an unresistable dance step and tune. The namegiving was obvious. The dance itself, knee bending and all, predates 1905, for that's the year lyricist Noble Sissle heard about it in Savannah, Georgia.