Alexander's Ragtime Band
Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters Lyrics


Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴  Line by Line Meaning ↴

Bing:
Come on and hear, come on and hear
Alexander's ragtime band.
Come on and hear, come on and hear
'Bout the best band in the land.

Jolson:
They can play a bugle call
Like you never heard before,
So natural that you wanna go to war.
That's just the bestest band what am,
Oh Honey Lamb.

Bing:
Come on along, come on along,
Let me take you by the hand,
Up to the man,
Who's the leader of the band.

Bing and Jolson:
And if you care to hear the Suannee River
Played in ragtime,




Come on and hear, come on and hear
Alexander's Ragtime Band.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of the Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters's song Alexander's Ragtime Band are an invitation for the listener to come and experience the best band in the land. The singers encourage the audience to let themselves be taken by the hand and led to the "leader of the band."


The song mentions the band's ability to play a bugle call like never before, so natural that the listener would want to go to war. This description highlights the band's talent and ability to capture the true essence of a sound. Additionally, the song references the popular southern tune "Suannee River" played in ragtime, further showcasing the band's versatility.


Line by Line Meaning

Come on and hear, come on and hear
Come and listen to the sound of music


Alexander's ragtime band
The band is known for playing ragtime music and is led by Alexander


Come on and hear, come on and hear
Again, come and listen to the sound of music


'Bout the best band in the land
This is the best band around, known for their unique style and sound


They can play a bugle call
The band is capable of playing military-style music


Like you never heard before,
Their sound is so unique, you've never heard anything like it


So natural that you wanna go to war.
Their sound is so inspiring that it makes you feel motivated to go to battle


That's just the bestest band what am,
This band is truly the best of the best


Oh Honey Lamb.
An expression to denote the excitement and enthusiasm of the singer


Come on along, come on along,
Join in the fun and excitement of the music


Let me take you by the hand,
Let me guide you to the source of the music


Up to the man,
Leading you to the leader of the band


Who's the leader of the band.
The person in charge of this amazing group is Alexander


And if you care to hear the Suannee River
If you're interested in hearing a specific song


Played in ragtime,
Played in the unique style of ragtime music


Come on and hear, come on and hear
Again, come and listen to the sound of the music


Alexander's Ragtime Band.
The name of the band is Alexander's Ragtime Band, known for their unique style and sound.




Contributed by Eva R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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Comments from YouTube:

That 70's Girl

Good Old Fashioned Entertainment. Where have a our values gone? Thank you for sharing! 💖

Bruce Kuehn

I don’t think people today appreciate the important place Bing Crosby holds in the history of popular singing in America. It’s hard for us to understand what a place he held in popular culture - records, radio, movies (55 of them plus Best Actor Oscar), then television. An incredibly successful businessman, he was an early adapter in magnetic audio tape and then video tape. Even baseball - 2 World Series as co-owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. But it all started with that voice!

Hanno-Erdmann Tietz

A classic crooner and entertainer. Superb.

Joseph Schauster

Nicely done! Good old time tunes

ALESSANDRO DEL MAGNO

Quando parla possiede la stessa musicalità di quando canta .

Tom Smith

Well, this is a weird one! Most of this video was already posted a few months ago, the "Alexander's Ragtime Band" part, and can be found on this channel. The only difference here is that this version of the edit is a minute longer because it adds "That International Rag" but still cuts off the first part of the medley, which can also be found posted separately on here. So, to summarize, this is a repeat video for the most part, but it's a slightly longer edit. Strange occurrences!

Tom Smith

@Mostly Brenda Well, to be fair, this Bing Crosby clip is from the special Irving Berlin 80th Birthday Special, which was entirely composed of a retrospective of Irving's songs. The Grass Roots did get to perform their latest hit "Temptation Eyes" alongside the hit medley, but that part was edited out of the performance, and will most likely be posted separately.

Although I do think the cultural and musical landscape shifted to an extent in the early '70's that it began to leave variety shows behind in general. In the final years, the Sullivan show just didn't seem as relevant and fresh as it used to. In addition, there seemed to be a lot of lip-syncing towards the end (in the early '70's).

Ben Kleschinsky

This channel used to post videos not in their entirety. Now they are reuploading new content unedited.

Mostly Brenda

@Tom Smith Absolutely, you can say that again! 😁 No, really you can see how the show did not adjust and the ratings began to dip. The Grassroots have to do three hits in 3 mins and Bing gets to do a another full version of a song from 1911.

Tom Smith

@Mostly Brenda Yes, but it's not really a new one since it was posted before. Of course, that's a redundancy on top of a redundancy in a way, so that might have been your meaning there! :)

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