Shoes and music, an old friendship

Shoes, music, and dance seem to have traveled together through history since the beginning of time. Dancing shoes, music that makes you tap your feet, melodies that aren't made for dancing but make us tap our toes, shoes named after songs, songs named after shoes… There are so many connections that, fascinated by this alliance, we decided to explore the world of melodies dedicated to shoes and, although we found dozens, we selected six.

1. Swing that shoe by Devine King is a classic of the music from the 40s-50s. It has no lyrics but is titled nothing less than "swing that shoe". There's nothing more to say. It's an upbeat tempo guided by a cheerful trumpet that creates an overwhelming need in the feet to dance around the room or run out and dance.
2. The first few seconds of Blue Suede Shoes are profoundly motivating. We have heard them many times, and Elvis Presley's great interpretation has marked more than one generation. It was composed by Carl Perkins in the 50s. The musician says that the idea came to him when he heard a military pilot talking nostalgically about his old blue suede shoes. A few days later, in a dance club, he saw a couple dancing. The boy was wearing blue suede shoes, and Perkins loved seeing how he asked the girl to please not step on them. He couldn't resist and composed the song.
3. A decade later, another homage to footwear appeared by an artist, Nancy Sinatra, who didn't talk exactly about shoes, but boots. Boots made for walking... all over you...
   … these boots are gonna walk all over you...
   These boots are made for walking was a hit from the very first moment and is still danced to today all over the world.
4. In the 70s, KC and the Sunshine Band composed an ode to movement and Boogie shoes that really has all the makings of a genuinely funky rhythm. The song is called Boogie shoes and although it was released in 1975, it became a hit two years later by appearing on the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack.
5. "I think everyone should have a good pair of shoes," said Mark Knopfler after presenting Quality Shoe in 2002. With a distinctly country-Knopfler-roadtripmusic tone, the melody shows the artist's love for paths, routes, walking, moving forward, and all that traveling spirit that already marked the 80s with "The Walk of Life".
6. Also in the 2000s, the English band Johnny Lynas & The Riviera seems to travel back in time and composes Rhythm in my shoes, a work with the spirit of the fifties and whose chorus playfully says: "You put that rhythm in my shoes".

There are many melodies that honor heels, boots, sandals, tap dancing, and steps, paths, routes, or tapping, but none of this would make sense without all the figures around them (users, designers, manufacturers, artisans, shoemakers...), one of which, seemingly insignificant, has become the target of movies, novels, and stories: the shoeshine boy. And, as it couldn't be otherwise, they too have their song: Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy.