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Lyr ADD: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)

27 Jul 99 - 09:45 PM (#99973)
Subject: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: katlaughing

Hi, Phoaks,

Dad was a little down for awhile in May and is finally back up to snuff, at 82, "entertaining the old phoaks in the nursing home" as he puts it.

That means he's learning more songs he forgot and his memory holds the human equivalent of the DT, already!

He wanted me to ask you all if any of you know all the words to the old timey version of Ace Down In The Hole. He said it is NOT the George Strait version.

Some of the words he remembers are "this town is full of guys who think they're pretty wise" and something about a "having a gal down at the Tenderloin".

Hope one of you can help out. Dad visits the Mudcat, vicariously, through me. I catch him up on all the doings and if I'm feeling flush with 'pewter paper, I send him hard copies of the more interesting and entertaining threads. He always appreciates the help and I know would be on here if he could.

Thanks a bunch,

katlaughing


27 Jul 99 - 11:17 PM (#99997)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: Frank Maher

Hi katlaughing, I have That Record and If You would like Me to send It to You by E-Mail ,I would be only to glad to do so.. Frank Maher fmaher@nfld.com


28 Jul 99 - 12:02 AM (#100007)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: katlaughing

Thanks, Frank. I just sent you an email with my address. Dad will be really pleased!


28 Jul 99 - 01:07 PM (#100188)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: katlaughing

You guys are Sooooooo Goooooood! Not only did Frank have it, he sent me an easy-to-open audio file of the old recording! It sounds great and I can't wait to tell Dad about it!!!

Mudcat comes throug, AGAIN!!!! Yahoooo!!!!! THANKS!!!

katlaughingjoyously!


28 Jul 99 - 01:15 PM (#100192)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: Bert

Here's a bit of it. Can't remember any more just now...

This town is full of guys, Who think they're mighty wise
just because they know a think or two
you can see them every day, strolling up and down Broadway
Telling of the wonders they can do

You'll see wise guys and boosters, card sharps and crap shooters
they congregate around the metropole
they wears those flashy ties and collars but where they get their dollars
why they've all got and ace down in the hole

Now some of them write to the old folks at home
and that's their old ace down in the hole
while others have girls on that old spending line
and thats their old ace down in the hole

Bert


11 Aug 02 - 03:27 PM (#763455)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: katlaughing

Hmmm, I know I finally got all of the lyrics to dad; thought I'd added them. I'll go hunt them up. Just wanted anyone who is interested to know that I just heard a great rendition of his by Dave Von Ronk on PHC.


11 Aug 02 - 06:10 PM (#763520)
Subject: Lyr Add: ACE IN THE HOLE (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: katlaughing

ACE IN THE HOLE
(James Dempsey, George Mitchell, 1909)

This town is full of guys
Who think they're mighty wise,
Just because they know a thing or two.
You see them every day
Walkin' up and down Broadway,
Telling of the wonders they can do.
There's con men and there's boosters,
Card sharks and crap-shooters.
They congregate around the Metropole.
They wear fancy ties and laces,
But where do they get their aces?
They all have got an ace down in the hole!

CHORUS: Some of them write to the old folks for coin,
And that is their ace in the hole;
And others have friends on the old Tenderloin;
That's their old ace in the hole.

BRIDGE: They'll tell you of trips that they're going to take
From Florida to the North Pole.
The fact is, their name would be mud,
Like a chump playing stud,
If they lost that old ace down in the hole!

REPEAT BRIDGE


11 Aug 02 - 06:59 PM (#763531)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: Jerry Rasmussen

Looks like you got the basic lyrics, Kat. For my tastes, the definitive version of this song is by Bob Scobey's Frisco Band, with Clancy Hayes on vocals. Scobey recorded many great songs... Everything is Peaches Down In Georgia, Sailing Down To Chesapeake Bay, Silver Dollar, Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans... on and on. I'm kinda surprised that no one has mentioned him yet. Clancy played plectrum banjo and was a great singer.

Jerry


02 Dec 04 - 08:29 AM (#1345341)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: GUEST,Hootenanny

The bridge that I know is:

They'll tell you about the money
That they have had and spent
But they can never flash that old bankroll
And their names would be mud like a chump standing stud
If they lost their old ace in the hole

First heard it by Freddy Legon with Humphrey Lyttelton's band before I heard the Bob Scobey/Clancy Hayes version


02 Dec 04 - 10:05 AM (#1345415)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: Chris in Wheaton

I recollect Clancy sang "they wear fancy ties and collars, but where they get their dollars" and "like a chump dealin' stud"?
I used to go to some bar on Rush Street in Chicago in the 50's and listen to Scobey and Hayes. (This was before I knew about the Gate of Horn and the Midnight Special.) But the DJ, Dick Buckley, who used to play Dixieland on the FM is still going on WBEZ, so it's not entirely prehistoric!
In any event, for more great Dixieland, I also recommend Franz Jackson, the Yueba Buena Jazz Band, and some of the early Red Clay Ramblers stuff.
Chris in Wheaton


03 Dec 04 - 03:28 AM (#1346059)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: Roger the Skiffler

The version I am familiar with is basically kat's with the bridge Hootenanny mentions, still a favourite with trad (ie dixieland) bands here in the UK.
(and the odd- very odd- old skiffler)

RtS


03 Dec 04 - 07:17 PM (#1346819)
Subject: RE: NEED LYR: Ace Down in the Hole-NOT G.Straits
From: katlaughing

The words Bert posted for me are what my dad remembered, as it was him asking for them. When my sister gets back next summer and sorts things out, I'll see if we can dig out the old 78 it's on and see what those words are, but I expect they'll be the same.


30 Dec 04 - 12:25 AM (#1367362)
Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: ACE IN THE HOLE (Dempsey,Mitchell)
From: GUEST,einie@sbcglobal.net

Here is the Song "Ace in the Hole" lyrics and chords as figured out by me. If someone can send me the audio recording I'd appreciate it. My Dad loved this song and I found a recording by Lu Watters and Clancy Hayes, but it is not the one my dad played all the time.

Hint: copy and past onto microsoft word with margins out to the far right of the page to get the chords to line up with the words properly.

Ace In The Hole   by Dempsey and Mitchell



G                       Db             G                               Db
This town is full of guys, who think they're mighty wise
G                           E                        Am E Am
Just because they know a thing or two
                         Am          E       Am               Am      E                Am   
(Why) you can see them every day, strolling up and down broadway
A                   A7                         D D9 D D7
Telling of the wonders they can do

                   G                   Db          G                               Db
You'll see wise guys and boosters, card sharps and crap shooters
          G               E               Am         E   Am
They congregate around the metropole
                   A                      D                A                              D                     
They wear flashy ties and collars, but where they get their dollars,
             A               A7                     D   D9 D D7
They've all got an ace down in the hole
G                                             Am                         D            D9   D7             G D   
Some of them write to their old folks for coin, and that's their ace in the hole
G                                     Am                      D          D9   D7            G         
Others know gals on the old tenderloin, and that's their ace in the hole
             A               D                      A                                                                  A7                D D9 D D7
They'll tell you of money they've made and they've spent, but they never can flash the bankroll
G                                                    Am                                     D          D9 D7            G         
But they'd be on the line, in their clothes not a dime, if they lost that old ace in the hole

Chorus    G Am D D9 D7 G    x2      
Verse      A   D   A    A7   D   D9   D D7
Chorus    G Am D D9 D7 G

G                                             Am                   D                D9   D7             G   
Some of them write to their old folks at home, and that's their ace in the hole
G                                     Am                      D          D9   D7            G         
Others know gals on that old tenderloin, and that's their ace in the hole
             A               D               A                                             A7                D D9 D D7
They'll tell you of trips they never did make, from Frisco up to the North Pole
                  G                                        Am                                     D          D9 D7          G
But their name would be mud, like a chump dealing stud, if they lost that old ace in the hole


30 Dec 04 - 12:58 AM (#1367381)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (not George Strait's)
From: GUEST,einie@sbcglobal.net

Hey,

I just noticed that I put Gb instead of G# in the Chords to Ace in the Hole.

Sorry for the confusion. It's not a big thing, but it is the second chord in the song, and I thought people might give up after seeing that the first chord change sounds wrong.

--einie


21 Aug 09 - 06:14 PM (#2705745)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST

Thank you SO much everybody for the chords to this song. I had a record years ago with Jack Teagarden singing it. Thanks to you it is going into my set......Dan Kelly


30 Apr 10 - 01:45 PM (#2897403)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST,Alastair McDonald

Hi. I think you`ll find a G diminished works better as the second chord.


02 Jun 10 - 09:01 PM (#2919463)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST,tpaysen

A GOOD recording (and quite funny) was made in the lat-middle sixties by Johnny Mercer and Bobby Darin. (They say "chump PLAYING stud")
TP


29 Jun 10 - 10:50 PM (#2937009)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST,susandempsey

This song was written by my grandfather. I am searching for the original sheet music. Have an active search on e-Bay but I'm getting
the sheet music from the late 30's and early 60's by Vogel Music.

If anyone comes across the original sheet music, please let me know.

There's many sung versions...blues, ballad, dixieland. YouTube has about 30 versions.

sbd11607@yahoo.com


09 Jul 12 - 04:22 PM (#3374110)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST,David RIchoux

Is there anybody who has a second verse or variant for this song?

Pianist Bob Ringwald seems to recall something like:

Now, you can talk about the guys,
But when it comes to lies,
The gals can show them all a thing or two.
You'll see B-Girls and street walkers,
??????? and fast talkers,

but I don't se anything like that around - any clues?


05 Feb 14 - 04:14 AM (#3598467)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST,David Richoux

Well, after several years - the original piano music for "Ace in the Hole" is now available! 2nd verse and all! http://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10315/24462/JAC004001.pdf?sequence=3

In case that link goes away, here are the 2nd Verse:
" The more you go around,
good old New York town,
you'll find that what I say to you is true.
They'll meet you with a smile,
but you know all the while,
that they're trying to spring something new.
The things they're always telling,
of lemons that they're selling,
and hundreds that they spend in buying cloths.
Ev'ry one knows that they're lying,
it's the aces do the buying,
that drum them from their heads down to their toes."

and 2nd Chorus:
"Some of them send ... and that's their ace in the hole" (same as first chorus)
They tell you of money that they may have spent,
and then they will flash a bank roll,
They'd be in the bread-line,
without clothes or a dime,
if they lost that old ace in the hole!


05 Feb 14 - 11:18 AM (#3598536)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST

Will Friedwald has done some great work to do with the song 'Ace in the Hole. It is at

http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2010/1/6/ace-in-the-hole

and very well worth the read.


05 Feb 14 - 10:51 PM (#3598703)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST,David Richoux

Yet another version has been found! This one is dated 1934 and was arranged (and almost totally different lyrics by some obscure songsmith named Thomas Waller ;-) )

This version has a double intro and 3 refrains. The tune is about the same as the original version. I have a PDF scan that I can send off list to anyone interested (or is there a way to post it here?)

Intro 1
Some folks that you meet,
In any old street,
Make you feel your lot in life is tough;
You envy their style,
And confident smile,
But they're only living on a bluff.

Refrain 1
Some of them have information to sell,
That's their old ace in the hole;
Dear little secrets, they're paid not to tell,
That's their old ace in the hole.
The Sweet sugar daddies,
they'll squeeze till they squeal,
and always collect their full toll.
And they know that dear wife-y
will pay, if he don't,
That's their little old ace in the hole.

Intro 2
You drift here and there,
Most any old where,
It's the same thing over ev'ry time;
The millionaire strut is just "nothing but,"
But they're wishing they had one lone dime.

Refrain 2
Some of them come and sell titles for "dough,"
That's their old ace in the hole;
Bally old castles, at home, don't you know,
That's their old ace in the hole.
Of course, it's not mon-ey
they're after; oh, no!
It's love, nothing else,
bless your soul!
But they all get their checks
or no wedding bells ring,
Can't you see that's their ace in the hole?

Refrain 3
Some of them just make the dice carry on,
That's their old ace in the hole;
Some carry guns, when the daylight is gone,
That's their old ace in the hole.
They're experts in grafting,
that's how they get by,
No matter how they get their roll.
They will just muscle in,
when the law is asleep,
That must be their old ace in the hole.


06 Feb 14 - 04:08 AM (#3598735)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST,JK23

Glenn Ohrlin, on his A Cowboy's Life CD, tells about the old Pickwick Bar down in the river bottoms in Burbank California where cowboys would gather back in the '40s, where one of the bartenders, Tommy Coates, who also worked in pictures, doing stunts: "Sometimes when the sign was just right he'd jump on top of the bar and sing Ace in the Hole."

This town is full of guys who think they're mighty wise
Just because they know a thing or two
You can see them everyday goin' up and down Broadway
Telling all the wonders that they do.
There's con men and there's boosters. There's card sharps and crap shooters
They congregate around the metropole
They wear fancy ties and collars, but where they get those dollars
Well that's their old Ace in the Hole

Some of them write to the old folks for coin
That's their old Ace in the Hole
Others have girls in the old tenderloin
That's their old Ace in the Hole
They like to tell you 'bout the trips they're going to make
From Florida to that old North Pole
But their names would be mud
Like a chump playin' stud
If they lost that old Ace in the Hole

Now the more you hang around anywhere in this old town
The more you see that what I say is true
They'll greet you with a smile, but you know all the while
They're just trying to pull something new
You always hear them tellin' 'bout lemons that they're sellin'
They spend a hundred bucks a day for clothes
But you know that they're lyin' it's the aces does the buyin'
And dress them from their heads down to their toes

cho
Some of them write to the old folks for coin
That's their old Ace in the Hole
Others have girls in the old tenderloin
That's their old Ace in the Hole
They like to tell you 'bout the money that they spend
They tell you 'bout their influential friends
They're not extra wise, they're just ordinary guys
But they've got that old Ace in the Hole.


16 Mar 23 - 08:24 AM (#4167700)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST

The link provided by GUEST is a dead one. The site's gone. I found it on archive.org's Wayback Machine.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Feb 14 - 11:18 AM

Will Friedwald has done some great work to do with the song 'Ace in the Hole. It is at

http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2010/1/6/ace-in-the-hole

and very well worth the read.



January 06, 2010 ยท 0 comments
The Jazz Detective at Work

Will Friedwald has written several articles in this column about the great jazz detectives who unravel the tangled histories of past performances. Now Will puts on his deerstalker hat and tries to solve one of these mysteries on his own. T.G.


Ace

In the 1950s, the song "Ace in the Hole" was a staple of dixieland revival bands?nearly all of them played it: Turk Murphy, Bob Scobey, Lu Watters & Yerba Buena Jazz Band, The Dukes of Dixieland?and, on the English "trad" side of the pond, Humphrey Lyttelton, Lonnie Donegan, and Kenny Ball. Further, it was picked up by jazz and pop singers who were looking for an unusual piece of material: Anita O'Day, not known for her fondness for old-timey tunes, cut it in 1947, and Bobby Darin recorded it on several occasions, famously as a duet with Johnny Mercer (on their classic Two of a Kind album) and also by himself live at The Flamingo in Las Vegas.

It's a marvelous, vivid song; the lyric has the feeling of being antique and contemporary at the same time. "Ace In the Hole" sounds like an old song, something you'd hear on a player piano in an old-timey saloon, but the general idea of the lyric is overtly cynical in a way that's indescribably modern. You can't trust this world and this life, the text tells us, so you have to be prepared to surprise your adversaries with a secret weapon; you have to do some business on the side, and have a special advantage that nobody knows about. Life is a card game, and everyone is bluffing. The only way not to get taken is to out-con all the other con-men out there.

The song is the grandmother of all gambling analogy songs, from "Wheel of Fortune" to "The Gambler." (If any singer wants to do an album of such songs, write me. There's "Solitaire," "The Queen of Hearts is Missing," "From a Jack to a King," "The Cincinnati Kid," and "Losing Hand," for starters.) Early in the song, the narrator even advises that the best way to keep a step ahead of the wolf at the door is to keep a string "of girls on the old Tenderloin." In other words, it's hard out here for a pimp.

Because of the conflicting elements of the song, I could never tell if "Ace In the Hole" was an actual turn-of-the-century tune, or if it was a new song composed in the 1950s, possibly from a musical show or film, deliberately written in the style of an old time song. The major factor which seemed to settle the point me is that I never came across any vintage recordings of "Ace in the Hole"; for years I couldn't find any trace of it from prior to the mid-1940s.

Further confounding my confusion, the title "Ace in the Hole" is not unique to this song. Before we proceed any further, let me clarify that the "Ace In the Hole" that we're concerned with here the song in which the central refrain begins, "Some of them write to the old folks for coin / And that's their ace in the hole." (The song usually starts, however, with the verse, "This town is full of guys / Who think they're mighty wise.") The first "other" "Ace In the Hole" is a jazz instrumental from 1926. Cole Porter then used the title for a song in his 1941 show Let's Face It. Porter's "Ace in the Hole" has also been widely recorded, by Ella Fitzgerald (on The Cole Porter Songbook) and any number of cabaret and musical theater oriented performers, like Hildegarde, Mabel Mercer, Johnny Mathis, and Bobby Short. (The refrain to the Porter song begins, "Sad times may follow your tracks.")

Because a song title can't be copyrighted, in more recent decades there have been other songs named "Ace in the Hole??there is one written by country giant George Straight, while BMI also lists an earlier hillbilly "Ace" by Merle Travis and Hank Thompson. The country-rock band Little Feat used the song as well, and so did Paul Simon on his 1980 album-film project One Trick Pony.



As near as I can figure it out, the provenance of our "Ace in the Hole" is as follows. It was apparently written in 1909 by a team of songwriters named Jack Dempsey and George Mitchell; who they were and whatever else they wrote, I couldn't tell you. I have no way of knowing how popular the song actually was in 1909, but after consulting with a number of prominent historians of the early recording industry, most notably the redoubtable Tim Brooks, it seems very likely that there is no early recording of the song.

The first "Ace in the Hole" on records is not the Dempsey-Mitchell song, but a hot stomp co-credited to two giants of early jazz, the Italian-born trumpeter Louis Panico and Chicago composer-pianist Elmer Schoebel. The 1926 "Ace in the Hole" was very popular among hot bands in the very early years of electrical recording: it was waxed by any number of groups with colorful appellations typical of the jazz age: Al Katz and his Kittens, The University Six (a California Ramblers spin off with Tommy Dorsey and Adrian Rollini), Earl Gresh and His Gangplank Orchestra (a band that made a big splash), Black Diamond Serenaders (apparently a pseudonym for The Original Indiana Five), and Abe Lyman and his Californians (recording in New York). There were also at least two recordings made by early German jazz bands in Berlin (as listed in Tom Lord's Online Jazz Discography).

That's 1926. Ten years later, for some unknown reason, band vocalist Chick Bullock cut the Dempsey-Mitchell "Ace in the Hole" in March 1936 for the American Recording Corporation. The flip side of Bullock's "Ace" was another song of the era, "My Gal Sal," so perhaps someone at ARC was thinking about featuring Bullock in a program of old-time tunes. The Bullock "Ace" is our song all right; Bullock sings the full verse and chorus. More than most of Bullock's thousands of recordings (no exaggeration), this is a vocal record rather than a dance record, and it's rather unusual for Bullock to be featured so extensively, even on the many sides released under his name.

In 1944, the song re-surfaces, and the mystery deepens. "Ace in the Hole" is commercially recorded in February of that year by the Yerba Buena Jazz Band in San Francisco, a pioneering ensemble of the traditional jazz revival, one of the first groups comprised of young musicians dedicated to playing in the old New Orleans style (in that sense, one of the harbingers of the future, in a funny way). Trumpeter Lu Watters was the usual leader of the YBJB, and its ranks included two other future leaders in trumpeter Bob Scobey and trombonist Turk Murphy.

This particular session, done for Good Time Jazz (the dixielabel run by Lester Koenig and Nesuhi Ertegun, who would both become giant producers in the bebop era) spotlighted the legendary New Orleans trumpeter Bunk Johnson. Bunk was, at the time, the first superstar of the dixieland revival, and, like the song, was only just emerging from obscurity. According to his own account, Johnson had been one of the major players in turn of the century New Orleans, a trumpet king from the era in-between Buddy Bolden and Joseph Oliver. Now the subject of attention from jazz scholars and fans, Johnson was also claiming that he taught Louis Armstrong everything he knows (Armstrong didn't completely dispute him).

It seems likely that Johnson had played "Ace in the Hole" with him from New Orleans and brought it to San Francisco. Now, Tom Lord does list a private recording made by Watters of "Ace in the Hole" from 1942 (not issued until the compact disc era), but it seems just as possible that Bunk had brought it to their attention. The most important contribution to the Yerba Buena "Ace in the Hole," even beyond Johnson himself may have been Clancy Hayes, the vocalist-banjoist, who sings the lyrics in a very clear, straightforward but lightly swinging fashion.

The biggest part of the mystery is this: after WWII, jazz and popular singers start recording "Ace in the Hole." (The first version I can find after the YBJB is in a piano solo by George Zack, recorded for Commodore Records in 1944.) All of a sudden, in 1947, there were at least a half a dozen singles of "Ace in the Hole" including Gene Austin (accompanied by the Les Paul Trio), the veteran crooner and superstar of the '20s. It wasn't much of a stretch for Austin to sing an old-time song, but it was also waxed in quick succession by sarong-filling movie star Dorothy Lamour (Coast Records), jazz hipster Anita O'Day (Signature), Harry Cool (former bandsinger with Dick Jurgens, on Fredlo Records), Red McKenzie (another '20s celebrity, on National), and singer Dottie O'Brien on Capitol Records.

It seems clear that something must have happened to put the song on the map in 1947?but I can't figure out what: was the song in a movie or Broadway show, was it featured on a big radio show? Did President Truman treat the nation to his own piano solo rendition?

In any case, it was firmly established as a perennial by the start of the LP era. As mentioned, Bobby Darin recorded it twice, and Clancy Hayes sang it it on at least two more occasions, with both Bob Scobey and Turk Murphy. Lee Wiley cooed it with trumpeter Billy Butterfield on her 1957 A Touch of the Blues, and Frankie Laine belted it out. Folk singers like Dave Van Ronk and Burl Ives claimed it as their own, whilst the young Joel Grey sang it in a rather retro fashion. It was also a favorite of old-time-style piano professors, like John Wittwer, Buster Wilson, Paul Lingle, and Poppa John Gordy.

For the last 40 years or "Ace in the Hole" has been the property of contemporary dixieland bands; TJD lists 145 different commercial recordings (I would estimate that less than 20% of these are the Cole Porter song, or other aces in other holes). "Ace" has been played and recorded by EuroDixie bands and other traditional jazz ensembles all over the world. Dixieland represents the song's past, and one would expect that genre to signify its future as well. But you never know; for a song celebrating its hundredth anniversary this year to survive for this long, it certainly must have more than a few surprises in store for us, not to mention tricks up its sleeve.

This blog entry posted by Will Friedwald


16 Mar 23 - 11:58 AM (#4167717)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: Stilly River Sage

This is the Wayback Machine list of times it saved the site. Choose the year you want to view (it will have a black line in it) and the calendar will appear below, then click on the highlighted time or date.


21 Mar 23 - 12:47 AM (#4168115)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST,D. Kingsley Hahn

Judy Henske sang a version in 1966, on her Reprise album "The Death-Defying Judy Henske (RS 6203) -- a very raucous live rendition, with one of Judy's in-your-face introductions, as well.


11 Aug 23 - 02:39 PM (#4178949)
Subject: RE: Lyr ADD: Ace in the Hole (J Dempsey, G Mitchell)
From: GUEST

Second chord is eb per old fellow that knew it from way back