The Charleston was a jazz orchestration meant for the Charleston (dance) composed in 1923, with lyrics by Cecil Mack and music by James P Johnson, who first introduced the stride piano method of playing. The song was featured in the American black musical show "Runnin' Wild." The music of the dockworkers from South Carolina inspired James P. Johnson's to compose the music. The dance known as the Charleston, which will always be associated with the Roaring Twenties, came to characterize the times. Lyrics, though rarely sung (an exception is Chubby Checker's 1961 recording), were penned by Cecil Mack, himself one of the most accomplished songwriters of the early 1900s.
