Ragtime composers, including Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, Jelly Roll Morton and others, wrote a number of slow-tempo tunes appropriate for the dance.
Originating in a brothel, it was called "Spanish" because its beat contained elements of tango or habanera music.
[7] In the late 1930s, jazz bandleader Jelly Roll Morton recorded several "slow drag" ragtime arrangements with creole elements.
Partners embrace closely and sway to the beat of the music, moving their hips, but with little movement around the dance floor.
[12] In 1929, the slow drag became the first African American social dance to be introduced to Broadway audiences, in the play Harlem.
[13] When first introduced on stage, it scandalized white critics with its raw sensuality, which was seen as an unseemly reflection of black sexuality.
[17] The "cling and sway" characteristic of the slow drag reappeared in the 1960s, and remains popular today as a basic romantic dance for couples.