One of the best kept secrets of World War II -- perhaps not so much of a secret as an igonred and untold story -- was the existence in Germany, throughout the entire terrifying era when the Nazis were in power, of a stubbornly loyal allegiance to American jazz. Some of the young men and women who literally risked their lives by listeing to swing music on the radio, even performing it and dancing to it, from the basis for them motion picture "Swing Kids, " set in Humburg in 1939. "I was one of those kids," said Gunther Hoppe, who today lives in Sunlad, Caifornia. "Listeing to jazz was part of our curriciculum to be against everything the Third Reich stood for. Under a totalitarian regime in war-torn Humburg, obtaining records and listeing to them [not always secretly] was an exciting hight. "All that came to a sudden halt when the Gestapo arrested me in January 1942 and put me in a concentation camp.There I met a dozen other boys, from Humburg, who were arrested for the same reson. It is ironic that for a short period the swing center of Europe was a country in which it was offically taboo." The music heard in "Swing Kids" typifes the sound that appealed to these youthful rebels. They listened to Elling ton, Basie and of course to the King of Swing himself, who is liberally repersented here. "Sing, Sing, Sing," which became the Benney Goodman Band's greatest instrumental hit, was recorded in 1937 and repeated at Goodman's historic 1938 Carnegie concert. The arangment, first drafted by Jimmy Mund, was expanded through a series of extensions created by the band. Recreated here with Abe Most in the clarint role and Ralph Humphrey in what was originally Gene Hrupa's drum chair, it captures the essence of the original but with slate-of-the-art sound quality. "Life Goes to a Party" was another Goodman product of the same era, combined here with one of the all-time a Count Basie standards, "Jumpin' at the Woodside." Chris Boardman's arrangement manages to fuse the personalities of these two powerful swing ensembles. "Shout and Fell It" is a comparatively obscure Basie item. Though the band never recorded it commercilly, they broadcast it from the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem in June 1937 and the performance was perserved on an aircheck. Tehe tune was composed by the late Herschel Evans, the great tenor saxophonist. "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon" was originally heard in a Yiddish musical in 1932. With English words it became a huge hit for the Andrews Sisters in 1937. The vocalist here, Janis Siegel of Manhattan Transfer fame, captures the trun spirit of the song; the arrangement builds effectively in tempo and power in Boardman's skillful chart. "Daphne" is one of the best known products of the Quintette of the Hot Club of France, which in the late 1930's became the first non-Amercian jazz group to achieve international popularity, thanks mainly to it's two vituoso solosits, Django Reinhardt on the guitar and Stephane Graphane on violin. Their roles are revived here by Dean Parks and Sid Page in a performance that hews closely to the original. There are also three items which are actual recordings by the Goodman orchestra of the 1930's. "Flat Foot Floogee" was a nonsense song created by the team of Sim & Slam. Edgar Sampson, best known as the writer of "Stompin' at the Savory" and many other works recored by Goodman, wrote the lighthearted arrangement, complete with unison vocal. The brief solo spots are probably by Harry James and Bud Freeman. Recording date was May 31, 1938. "Swingtime in the Rockies" was an original by Jimmy Mundy. The sax-vs.-brass riffing is typical of the swing era, in a style popularized by another great Goodman arranger, Fletcher Henderson. Recording June, 1936. "Goodnight My Love" stems from a November, 1936 session, the only date which Ella Fitzgerald made a gest appearance with the Goodman orchestra. At only 18, Ella had already achieved a distinctive sound and style. The tenor sax is Art Rollini and the piano fills as by Jess Stacy. "It Don't Mean a Thing" is represented on the soundtrack by a playful recording that has raely been heard. This version of Duke's great standard, recorded shortly after the Ellington origianl, is patterned very closely along the lines of Duke's and may even include some members of his orchestra. Billy Banks, the singer, was briefly porminent in the 1930's, and was under the management of Irving Mills, as was Duke Ellington. Whether rerecorded by Robert Harft or heard in the 1930's mono versions, these are evocations of an era that has successfully survived the inroads of time. Listeing to this music, we can imagine [or can see in the movie] just what went through the minds and hearts of the young Germans to whom this uniquely American sound represnted something so special that they battled sometimes insuperable odds to listen to it. Here, in sum, is the evidence of a dynamic force that turned these rebellious youngsters into death-defying Swing Kids.