Music

The Roaring Twenties was also known as the Jazz Age, which Fitzgerald said “it was an age of miracles, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire" in his work, Echoes of the Jazz Age.
Music also plays a big role in The Great Gatsby as many different songs are referenced in the work.  Here is a compiled playlist of the songs mentioned.

1. Three O'Clock in the Morning by Paul Whiteman 

"Three O'Clock in the Morning' a neat, sad little waltz of that year " pg 116

The song is heard at Gatsby's party when Nick, Tom, and Daisy are discussing what Gatsby did to gain such wealth.  Nick thinks about the possibility of another girl showing up at the party that Gatsby could fall in love with and forget about the his undying love for Daisy.

Great American Light Orchestras
lyrics

2. The Sheik of Araby by Fats Waller

A verse from the song is located on pg. 78 when Jordan and Nick are driving through New York and she has just told him how Gatsby and Daisy used to date, and that Gatsby moved to Long Island in hopes of seeing her.

The song was a Tin Pan Alley hit, and was also adopted by early jazz bands, especially in New Orleans, making it a jazz standard. It was a well recognized part of popular culture.

Puttin on the Ritz
lyrics

3. Ain't We Got Fun by Van & Schenck

Kilpsinger plays the song on the piano on pg. 95 when Daisy comes to Gatsby's house for the first time.

"Ain't We Got Fun" follows the structure of a foxtrot. The Tin Pan Alley Song Encyclopedia describes it as a "Roaring Twenties favourite" and praises its vibrancy, "zesty music", and comic lyrics.
"Pennant-Winning Battery of Songland"
lyrics

4. Beale Street Blues by Chris Barber

"All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the 'Beale Street Blues" pg. 157

It was one of the first "authentic" blues songs to become popular with a mass white audience. It was one of the most popular songs of 1916 and 1917, and was popularised further by Gilda Gray's 1919 version. Here, it is referred to in the context of Gatsby and Daisy's Kentucky courtship days of 1917.
Jazz Masters: Beale Street Blues
lyrics

Here are some websites about music from The Great Gatsby and the 1920s:

Brief Timeline of American Literature, Music, and Movies: 1920-1929

The Great Gatsby's Music: Origins of America's "Jazz Age"

The Jazz Age

                                                              The Charleston dance

The Foxtrot dance

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