If you’re really hip you’ll know all about Electro Swing already. But the couch potatoes among us may be surprised to hear that there are ES clubs springing up all over the country, where the beautiful and the damned lindy hop the night away to the sound of special house mixes of 1930s and 40s jazz tunes!

Among the names to drop in these circles is Freshly Squeezed, a Brighton-based remix team led by DJ Nick Hollywood. After putting out a couple of critically acclaimed White Mink Black Cotton (Electro Swing vs Speakeasy Jazz) compilation albums on their own eponymous label, Freshly Squeezed have now been commissioned by beer brand Carling to create the soundtrack to its new Zest lager spot.

Jeepers Creepers is the song chosen for the campaign, on the strength of its opening line ‘I don’t care what the weatherman says’ which ties neatly into the Carling film featuring bright young things partying al-fresco. The number was written by Harry Warren and Johnny Mercer for Louis Armstrong to sing in a 1938 movie Going Places but the version getting the Freshly Squeezed treatment is by the late Ethel Waters who cut it for release on RCA’s Bluebird imprint that same year.

Waters was a contemporary of legendary blues divas like Bessie Smith and Pearl White. Born into abject poverty in 1896, she fought her way to the top by working clubs in Chicago and Harlem with big jazz names like Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington and Count Basie and recording for collectable labels such as Black Swan and the aforementioned Bluebird. Then a leading role in Hollywood’s first all-black musical Cabin In The Sky turned her into a screen star in 1942 and the 1950s saw her develop into a popular TV entertainer. She then went into a decline and died of cancer in 1977, her final years further blighted by a long running battle with the US tax authorities.

Oddly enough two more of the artists gracing the ad breaks in recent weeks have also been no strangers to the American legal system.

The first is Peggy Lee, who can be heard singing her own composition This Is A Very Special Day in a Nat West commercial about a man paying for his daughter’s wedding on his mobile phone. It too was specially written for the cinema – a 1953 re-make of The Jazz Singer no less – a full five years before that re-working of Little Willie John’s Fever which turned Peggy Lee into a household name on both sides of the Atlantic.

But she was already well-known to jazz aficionados – she started out fronting Benny Goodman’s band – and movie buffs alike. Among her long list of celluloid successes was Walt Disney’s 1955 cartoon Lady And The Tramp in which she voiced a number of characters including the villainous Siamese cats. A passionate believer in the rights of musicians to be properly paid for their work, a wheel-chair-bound Lee spent much of the 1990’s fighting – and winning – a series of high-profile test cases against entertainment industry giants like Disney and MCA (now Universal) over the non-payment of royalties due from VHS sales.

Dionne Warwick has also seen the insides of more court rooms than she’d care to remember. It’s common knowledge that she came from a gospel singing background and was effectively ‘cheated’ of the pop success she deserved by Britgirls like Sandie Shaw, Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield who effectively replicated her originals of seminal Bacharach and David hits like There’s Always Something There To Remind Me, Anyone Who Had A Heart and 1963’s Wishin’ And Hopin’ – which Vodafone has licensed for an amusing ad telling a tale of lovelorn teenagers. It’s equally well-known that Warwick was soon recognized as one of the most sophisticated singers of her generation and so spent the second half of the 60s in the US and UK charts in her own right with Walk On By, Do You Know The Way To San Jose? and many more.

But then came the early 1970s and a series of body blows which would doubtless have done for a lesser artist. First came Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s decision to end their songwriting partnership in 1972. Not only did that deprive Warwick of the top titles she was accustomed to but it also triggered a lengthy series of three way lawsuits involving the singer, the two songwriters and their record label, the mighty Warner Brothers. At the same time she found herself in the divorce courts defending a massive alimony claim from her husband of 10 years, drummer Willam Elliott.

Luckily both actions ultimately found in her favour. But despite clawing her way back with hits like Then Came You with The Spinners in 1974 and a collaboration with The Bee Gees which spawned the 1982 Number 2 Heartbreaker on Arista, Warwick’s career never quite regained its old momentum. And if the recent reports that the 73 year old has filed for bankruptcy owing $10 million in taxes are true then her trials and tribulations are clearly far from over.

Finally this month, luxury Lexus cars have come up with an absolutely exquisite clip starring a huge puppet walking through a city at night.Much of the ad’s charm comes from a commanding performance by young New York singer and violinist Kristina Train of I’m Wanderin’ a Berry Gordy-penned track which debuted on The Tender, The Moving, The Swinging Aretha Franklin, the soon-to-be Queen Of Soul’s third album for Columbia released in 1963.

Train, who was signed to Universal’s Blue Note by legendary producer Arif Mardin while still at school, has toured with the likes of Herbie Hancock and Chris Isaak and clearly picked up a trick or two. Her version of I’m Wanderin’ is moody, modern and masterful and has been added to her album Dark Black, which first came out without it at the end of last year. The folks at record company Mercury obviously think they might have a hit on their hands. And they could be right.