I Love It When You Dance That Way (vocal) – Donald Brown

Donald Brown's original recording features both instrumental and vocal melody choruses. Our audio excerpt for the vocal version begins with the last two measures of the instrumental melody which set up the vocal melody. The excerpt ends with the same measures on the vocal chorus, which are played instrumentally before the vocalists return to hum the melody as a background for the piano solo. There is no lyric on the last two measures of the melody; it's indicated "hum or instrumental" on the lead sheet.

Catchy and flowing with a bright vibe, this song has the feel of a standard—though not without a bit of a challenge. The uneven form is 37 measures long, divided into an 18-measure section and a similar 19-measure section. These are labeled on our lead sheets as A1 and A2, as the first 13 measures are identical.

This song has a cyclical form, resolving back at the end to the beginning of the next chorus. The recordings of this song show different ways to deal with the ending. On this first version, the out melody repeats and fades out; this is shown on our lead sheets as "ending: vamp and fade melody", with the first note of the melody shown to continue the phrase.

Another challenge in this song, at least for vocalists, is the melodic range. At almost two octaves, it is very difficult to sing keeping the lowest and highest notes. On this recording, the two singers avoid the low G on beat 4 of the fourth measure, replacing it with B a third higher. The horns and vibes still play G here.

Because there is no key center, our vocal lead sheets, which are still transposed for different singers' ranges, are indicated by the first chord.

On this recording the melody is played first instrumentally, then sung by the two vocalists in octaves; the horns and vibes double the vocals. The last two measures are played instrumentally in this chorus. This is followed by a piano solo chorus with wordless vocal melody as a background almost throughout (except the last two measures). After the vocal out head with the second lyric (same format as the vocal in head), there is another chorus of wordless vocal melody, doubled by the flute with flugelhorn and vibes improvising together over it. This chorus is repeated and fades out.

Donald Brown's fourth album as a leader, "People Music" was the first of his to feature vocals, though only on this song. Lenora Helm also sang on Donald's next album, "Cause And Effect," a year later; she has also recorded with Antonio Hart and pianist Dona Carter. The other vocalist on this song is the drummer Eric Walker; this seems to be his only vocal recording. Walker is best known for his work in Sun Ra's Arkestra; in this band he used the name Samarai Celestial, which is how he is credited on the cover of "People Music."