Thanks everyone for the suggestions, even the reminders of different bands (we’ve moved twice in the last year and see if I know where my cd’s are, how could I forget OpIvy?) I just thought though, if I can find the billboard top 100 rock hits for the various years then maybe we can sort down from there.
posted too soon, I also meant to say that I am pretty sure that ‘The Song’ was from a band with a strong horn section (VERY uptempo driving beat) and only a couple of hits at most. so basically rancid is out for not enough horn (I know them pretty much front to back as it is ), and BBVD is out for being pretty much too popular. I know the song was a raido hit though, that’s the only way I would have known it. It was also fairly popular, I remember hearing it as late as '01 on the ‘hip mod. rock’ station in town. (is the song early '00’s?!?!?!)
I don’t know how much radio play they got, but Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers were pretty popular around here for a while. I was a huge fan of Lee Press-on and the Nails… they played at the Derby (that place in Swingers)and up and the West Coast. They mostly did classics though.
A band called Stompy Jones (used to be called Swing Session) plays at the New Years bash on the U.S.S. Hornet.
I have to add that BSO’s swing cover of his own “Rock The Town” was (IMO) one of their best songs and got quite a bit of airplay on Alice. I don’t know if their version of “Pennsylvania 6-5000” or “Gettin’ In The Mood” got much airplay, but I think it got some.
I’m racking my brain for any other songs/bands that you might have come across. The Next Generation Swing CD has a wide variety of modern swing artists (and the link “recommends” other CDs that have modern swing collections).
Maybe also something from Swing Kids or some other movie? The Blues Brothers featured Cab Calloway singing his “Minnie the Moocher”. Jude Law sang “Americano” in one of his movies, although some other language (BSO did a version of that as well). Ghostbuster’s “Cleaning Up the Town” was in swing-style.
I saw Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers a few years ago, and they were WONDERFUL. She’s gorgeous in person, and really nice too. Nice enough to take a picture with a real fanboy: http://www.geocities.com/bigbadvoodoolou/musicpics/louandlavaysmith.jpg
Jude Law sang “Americano” in The Talented Mr. Ripley (in Italian, if I recall correctly), and “Cleaning Up the Town” from Ghostbusters was done by the Bus Boys, who also did “The Boys Are Back In Town.” But that would go back to 1984-ish.
Isn’t it sad? I love swing music and about the only place around here that plays swing bands on a regular basis is way out in the boondocks, so we don’t go dancing much anymore 
Every time I see your nick, though, it gives me hope…
The Urge? Their biggest hit was “jump right in,” and I think “four letters”, “If were you” and “played out” were also singles. Or maybe Spring Heel Jack? I don’t remember any of their song titles, sorry. We used one of their songs for a class presentation, but that was close to ten years ago…
Swing is still relatively popular around here, if only because there’s a dance form to go with it. You can go swing dancing on weekends. What saddens me is the drop in popularity of ska music- it’s as danceable as swing, and the stylistic melding with punk gave third-wave ska a lot of opportunity for musical variation. Even though they all used up-stroke guitar and horns, Five Iron Frenzy and the Mad Caddies (to pick two bands randomly) have distinct, and instantly identifiable sounds. Ska just doesn’t have the cultural age or standardized dance structure of swing, so unless you specifically go see a ska band, you won’t hear the style anywhere these days.
Ska is still somewhat popular around here, but is (sadly) rapidly fading. Ska is by far my favorite musical genre.
Have you tried listening to 30 second clips on sites that sell music (like wal-mart)? I use that to find out titles all the time.
One of my favorite ska bands that hasn’t been mentioned yet is Bad Manners. I think of them more as 80’s British pop-ska, a la Madness, the Specials, etc., than as 90’s Big Band ska, but they did last well into the 90’s.
I’ve tried this tactic. I have looked up most of the bands that have been suggested here, (thanks to everyone for the more esoteric suggestions, I will enjoy getting to know some of them!!) and have gone through the the more obvious bands (MMB, BBVD etc.). I really love ska, as has already been mentioned the punk influence is wonderful (in my estimation at least). Big Band and Swing have a good feel and great beats etc but add that sprinkle of punk and you get music I will skank to 'till i’m 90+.
If ska, it could be a ska tune from a not-usually ska band. For example, Green Day’s “King For A Day” featured No Doubt’s horn section (back when they had a horn section). Goldfinger’s second album was much more ska-flavored, but I don’t remember any major national hits, just some regional stuff here in So Cal.
Another minor hit ska-punk band from that era was Voodoo Glow Skulls.
THE MIGHTY MIGHTY VOODOO GLOW SKULLS!!!
Now there is a great band. Yet another band that didn’t get put into the laptop before I left the states last year. We had to do all kinds of caniveing to get a couple tracks.
Been looking more into Five Iron Frenzy as a result of the earlier suggestion. VERY good, only have ‘Our Newest Album Ever’ but they get more high star ratings per track than any other group I’ve got (about 446 dif. artists).
I saw the Squirrel Nut Zippers on the Charlie Rose show back when they did “Hell” (the video of which looked like some David Lynch parody). They said the style they were emulating was from the early 1930s, before swing.
“Our Newest Album Ever” is their best, in my estimation, although “Electric Boogaloo” and “Quantity is Job One” are great as well. FIF is (well, was) a particularly interesting band because they consisted of open Christians who are also political liberals, a rare combination in the pop music world. They’ll do praise songs back-to-back with tirades against corporate excess and racism against Native Americans.
Two more band recommendations:
MU330
Streetlight Manifesto (IMO the best ska band formed after 2000, led by the original lead singer of Catch 22)