- Style
- Jazz
- Tradition
- Jazz standard
- Form
- ABAC
- Key
- G
- Level
- 6
- Played on
- Voice
In the public domain. Source
Music
The 32 bar chorus. Usually played fast, with a two beat feel.
120bpm
Click any note to start from there
Chord chart
History
Limehouse was London's Chinatown, and the song was written for a melodramatic scene set in a dance hall there. It premiered in André Charlot's West End revue A to Z in 1921, sung by Teddie Gerard. Gertrude Lawrence later took over the number, and when she sang it in Charlot's Revue on Broadway in 1924 it stopped the show and made her a star there.
Jazz players adopted it quickly: Red Nichols recorded it in 1928 and the Mills Brothers in 1934, and Django Reinhardt, Sidney Bechet and Duke Ellington all recorded it. Reno and Smiley also made it a bluegrass instrumental.