“Let’s Jump the Broomstick” is a song written by Charles Robins and performed first by a black Nashville group, Alvin Gaines & The Themes, in 1959, then covered that year by Brenda Lee. Her version of Let’s Jump The Broomstick” originally released on Decca Records, reached No.12 in the United Kingdom in 1961. The song was featured on her 1960 album, Brenda Lee. The song is based on the popular custom and phrase jumping the broom. The song was arranged by Owen Bradley.
Jumping the broom (or jumping the besom) is a phrase and custom relating to a wedding ceremony in which the couple jumps over a broom. It is most widespread among African Americans and Black Canadians, popularised during the 1970s by the novel and miniseries Roots, and originated in mid-19th-century antebellum slavery in the United States. The custom is also attested in Irish weddings. References to “broomstick marriages” emerged in England during the mid-to-late 18th century to describe a wedding ceremony of doubtful validity. The earliest use of the phrase is in the 1764 English edition of a French work. The French text, describing an elopement, refers to the runaway couple hastily embarking on “un mariage sur la croix de l’épée” (literally “marriage on the cross of the sword”); this was freely translated as “performed the marriage ceremony by leaping over a broomstick”.
Sandy Denny released a version on her first solo album in 1971, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Richard Thompson (guitar) and Ian Whiteman (piano) attempt to outplay each other. They are accompanied by the rhythm section of Roger Powell (drums) and Trevor Lucas (acoustic guitar). Coast to Coast were a British band from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, that was signed to Polydor Records. They are best known for their 1981 top 5 hit in the UK with “(Do) The Hucklebuck”. Coast to Coast released a version of Let’s Jump the Broomstick as a single in the UK in 1981. It reached No. 28 on the UK Singles Chart.
The song was used for a lip-sync contest on the October 4, 1963 episode of Ready Steady Go! (the first appearance of The Beatles – who had once been Brenda Lee’s opening act on a UK tour), judged by Paul McCartney, who chose 13-year-old Melanie Coe as the winner; a few years later, after Coe ran off with a boyfriend, her disappearance made the front page of the Daily Mirror, which would serve as McCartney’s inspiration for “She’s Leaving Home”.
