Heh! Love your WKRP reference there...
OK, to answer your questions, yes, he considered himself primarily a "song and dance" man from his early career in vaudeville. Surprisingly, Hollywood didn't call upon this facet of his talent very much. His best, and best known, example of showing these talents is of course Yankee Doodle Dandy, though there are a few other films with him hoofing. According to a poster on IMDB, the most notable of these are Footlight Parade (1933), The West Point Story (1950), and Never Steal Anything Small (1959). His musicals were his favorite films, and were the only films of his he watched in his retirement years. His one Oscar came from Yankee Doodle Dandy. Although his earlier films were primarily in the gangster genres, check IMDB.com for a list of his films and you'll see quite a variety. Some recommended Cagney films to watch would be Mr. Roberts (one of my favorites, with Henry Fonda), Man of a Thousand Faces (his brilliant portrayal of silent screen star Lon Chaney), and the gangster films White Heat ("Top of the world, Ma!"), and The Public Enemy (1931, which I think was the film that really got him somewhat pigeonholed in the gangster genre.)
Cagney was one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, and I am awed by him.
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