Editing Shim Sham (section)

==The music==
The Shim Sham goes best with swing songs whose melody lines start on beat eight, as does the choreography.  An obvious choice is The Shim Sham Song (Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra), which was written specifically for this dance and has musical effects (e.g., [[break (music)|breaks]]) in all the right places.  However, today the Shim Sham — particularly the [[Frankie Manning]] version — is danced more often to "'Tain't What You Do (It's The Way That Cha Do It)" by [[Jimmie Lunceford]] and His Orchestra, or "[[Tuxedo Junction]]" by [[Erskine Hawkins]]. In fact, it is typical now at a Lindy dance party for dancers to start up a Shim Sham whenever "'Tain't What You Do" is played.  There is also a recording "[[Stompin' at the Savoy]]" with the [[George Gee (bandleader)|George Gee]] band where Manning himself calls out the moves.