ALL-SINGING, ALL-DANCING
[Q] From James Hobart: “Where does the expression all-singing, all-dancing come from? I see it most often applied to some computer wizardry that seems to do everything. Is it from the theatre?”
[A] These days you do usually find that it means something that’s all-encompassing, or which does everything (“Swedish maker Volvo is launching an all-singing, all-dancing, ultra sporty version”, Birmingham Post, 2006; “You have an all-singing, all-dancing website, but no one is hitting on it”, The Mirror, 2005; “The Holy Grail of a multi-asset, all-singing, all-dancing trading system is a myth”, The Banker, 2004). Of course, you can also use it of theatre shows, though a flashing cliché warning ought to pop up if you do.
It sounds as though it’s from a blurb for some Broadway musical, but we can date it quite precisely to the early days of the talkies in the US in 1929. Several films that year were promoted as being state-of-the-art aural experiences. The most significant was Broadway Melody, famously the first film musical, for which a version of this tagline was used. But it was beaten in the etymological stakes by the slightly earlier Close Harmony, advertised in March and April 1929 under several versions of the catchline as All talking-singing-dancing and 100% all-talking all-singing.
The canonical form all-singing, all-dancing came along a little later. It became famous enough that it has entered the language. Oddly perhaps, in view of its country of origin, the expression appears much more often in British newspapers than American ones these days. Perhaps we haven’t yet tired of it.
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