Tahiti Trot, Op. 16, is Dmitri Shostakovich's 1927[1] orchestration of "Tea for Two" from the musical No, No, Nanette by Vincent Youmans.
Shostakovich wrote it in response to a challenge from conductor Nikolai Malko: after the two listened to the song on record at Malko's house, Malko bet 100 roubles that Shostakovich could not completely re-orchestrate the song from memory in under an hour. Shostakovich took him up and won, completing the orchestration in around 45 minutes.[2]
Tahiti Trot was first performed in Moscow on 25 November 1928[2], and has been a popular encore ever since. It was used as an entr'acte for the ballet The Golden Age at the suggestion of conductor Aleksandr Gauk.[2]