|
Elmer's Tune
"Elmer's Tune" is a 1941 big band and jazz standard written by Elmer Albrecht, Dick Jurgens and Sammy Gallop. Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and Dick Jurgens and his Orchestra both charted with recordings of the composition. Background Elmer Albrecht originally composed the song in the early 1920s. At the time, he was a student at the Worsham College of Embalming in Chicago and worked at Louis Cohen’s funeral parlor on Clark Street. According to Albrecht, he originally worked out the tune on a piano in a back room of the funeral parlor which at the time held the corpses of twelve men killed in Chicago’s Tong Wars. Over the years, Albrecht, who continued to work as an embalmer, played the tune in honky-tonks and small night clubs around Chicago. He offered it to Ted Weems, who turned it down. Then, in February 1941, he approached Dick Jurgens, whose band had a residency at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom. Albrecht worked nearby and had an arrangement to use one of the pianos at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glenn Miller
Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Army Air Forces, US Army Air Forces. Glenn Miller Orchestra, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was one of the most popular and successful bands of the 20th century and the big band era. His military group, the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra, was also popular and successful. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was the best-selling recording band from 1939 to 1942. It did not have a string section, but did have a slap bass in the rhythm section. It was also a touring band that played multiple radio broadcasts nearly every day. Their best-selling records include Miller's iconic theme song"Moonlight Serenade"and the first gold record ever made, "Chattanooga Choo Choo". The following tunes are also on that best-seller list: "In the Moo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy May
Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad'' (1968), ''Batman'' (with '' Batgirl'' theme, 1967), and '' Naked City'' (1960). He collaborated on films such as '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1981), and orchestrated '' Cocoon'', and '' Cocoon: The Return'', among others. May wrote arrangements for many top singers, including Frank Sinatra, Yma Sumac, Nat King Cole, Anita O'Day, Peggy Lee, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Johnny Mercer, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Prima, Keely Smith, Jack Jones, Bing Crosby, Sandler and Young, Nancy Wilson, Rosemary Clooney, The Andrews Sisters and Ella Mae Morse. He also collaborated with satirist Stan Freberg on several classic 1950s and 1960s comedy music albums. As a trumpet player in the 1940s Big Band era, May recorded such songs as "Measure for Measure", "Long Tall Mama", and "Boom Shot", with Glenn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Crosby
George Robert Crosby (August 23, 1913 – March 9, 1993) was an American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats, which formed around 1935. The Bob-Cats were a New Orleans Dixieland-style jazz octet. He was the younger brother of famed singer and actor Bing Crosby. On TV, Bob Crosby guest-starred in ''The Gisele MacKenzie Show''. He was also a regular cast member of ''The Jack Benny Program,'' on both radio and television, taking over the role of bandleader after Phil Harris' departure. Crosby hosted his own afternoon TV variety show on CBS, '' The Bob Crosby Show'' (1953–1957). Crosby received two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for television and radio. Early years Crosby was born in Spokane, Washington, to bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby and Catherine "Kate" Harrigan, the daughter of a builder from County Mayo in Ireland. The couple had seven children: Larry, Everett, Ted, Harry (popularly known as Bing Crosby), Catherine, Mary Rose, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music. Called the "Queen of American pop music," Lee recorded over 1,100 masters and composed over 270 songs. Early life Lee was born Norma Deloris Egstrom in Jamestown, North Dakota, United States, on May 26, 1920, the seventh of the eight children of Selma Emele (née Anderson) Egstrom and Marvin Olaf Egstrom, a station agent for the Midland Continental Railroad. Her family were Lutherans. Her father was Swedish-American and her mother was Norwegian-American. After her mother died when Lee was four, her father married Minnie Schaumberg Wiese. Lee an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benny Goodman
Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing". From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16, 1938, is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music." Goodman's bands started the careers of many jazz musicians. During an era of racial segregation, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups, his quartet and quintet. He performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music. Early years Goodman was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman (1873–1926), came to the United States in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and became a tailor. His mother, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrews Sisters
The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andrews (January 3, 1916 – October 21, 1995), and mezzo-soprano Patricia "Patty" Marie Andrews (February 16, 1918 – January 30, 2013). The sisters have sold an estimated 80 million records. Their 1941 hit "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" can be considered an early example of jump blues. Other songs closely associated with the Andrews Sisters include their first major hit, " Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (Means That You're Grand)" (1937), "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out the Barrel)" (1939), "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" (1940), " Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)" (1942), and "Rum and Coca Cola" (1945), which helped introduce American audiences to calypso. The Andrews Sisters' harmonies and songs are still influential today, and have been cop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Purtill
Maurice "Moe" Purtill (May 4, 1916 – March 9, 1994), was an American swing jazz drummer, best known as the drummer for the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1939 to 1942. Career Born in Huntington, New York, Purtill dropped out of high school and started his career as a freelance drummer in New York Studios. At the age of 20, he was with the band of Red Norvo at the beginning of 1936. Later he joined Mildred Bailey. He played briefly with Miller in 1937, then worked with Tommy Dorsey in 1938-39 before picking up with Miller again from 1939-1942, when Miller had the bulk of his hits. After the breakup of Miller's band in 1942, Purtill played with Kay Kyser until 1944, then joined the U.S. Navy. After his discharge, he played briefly in 1946 with the reformed Glenn Miller Orchestra directed by Tex Beneke. Purtill went on to record in the studio on various projects. He participated in a few Miller reunions, although he did not like to discuss his time in the band. He was good f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Hackett
Robert Leo Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was an American jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet, and guitar with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hackett was a featured soloist on some of the Jackie Gleason mood music albums during the 1950s. Biography Bobby Hackett was born in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He made his name as a follower of cornet player Bix Beiderbecke. Benny Goodman hired the talented 23 year old to recreate Bix's "I'm Coming Virginia" solo at his (Goodman's) 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. In the late 1930s, Hackett played lead trumpet in the Vic Schoen Orchestra which backed the Andrews Sisters. Hackett can be heard on the soundtrack to the 1940 Fred Astaire movie, '' Second Chorus''. In 1939, the talent agency MCA asked Bobby Hackett to form a big band with its backing. When the band failed, he was in substantial debt to MCA after it folded. He joined the bands of Horace Heidt and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chummy MacGregor
John Chalmers MacGregor (March 28, 1903 – March 9, 1973), better known as Chummy MacGregor, a musician and composer, was the pianist in The Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1936 to 1942. He composed the songs "Moon Dreams", " It Must Be Jelly ('Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That)", " I Sustain the Wings", "Doin' the Jive", " Sold American", "Cutesie Pie" in 1932 with Bing Crosby and Red Standex, and "Slumber Song". Career As a young student, Chummy MacGregor attended the University of Michigan. A member of its Delta Tau Delta, he graduated in 1925. Before teaming with the legendary arranger, trombonist and band leader Glenn Miller, MacGregor played with jazz musician, songwriter and recording artist Irving Aaronson. In 1936 he became a sideman in the first Glenn Miller orchestra. Unsuccessful, that outfit disbanded in 1937. When Miller reformed his orchestra in 1938, MacGregor remained by his side. During its brief four-year history, The Glenn Miller Orchestra would sign a recording con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernie Caceres
Ernesto Caceres (November 22, 1911 – January 10, 1971) was an American jazz saxophonist born in Rockport, Texas. He was a member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1940–1942. Background Caceres's brothers were both musicians. Emilio Caceres was a violinist who played swing and '' norteño'' music, and Pinero was a trumpeter and pianist. Ernie played clarinet, guitar, alto and baritone saxophone, and first played professionally in 1928 in local Texas ensembles. He and Emilio moved to Detroit, then New York City, taking work as session musicians. In 1937, they made live nationwide appearances on Benny Goodman's radio series ''Camel Caravan'' which "created a sensation and made them jazz stars". In 1938, Caceres became a member of Bobby Hackett's band, then worked as a sideman with Jack Teagarden in 1939 and Glenn Miller's orchestra from February 1940 to September 1942. While with Miller, he made an appearance in the films ''Sun Valley Serenade'' (1941) and ''Orchestra Wives'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al Klink
Al Klink (December 28, 1915 in Danbury, Connecticut – March 7, 1991 in Bradenton, Florida) was an American swing jazz tenor saxophonist. Career Klink played with Glenn Miller from 1939 to 1942, and is a featured soloist, along with Tex Beneke, on the most well-known version of "In the Mood". When Miller started playing in the U.S. military, Klink played with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, and did work as a session musician after World War II ended. Klink appeared in the 1941 film ''Sun Valley Serenade'' and 1942 film ''Orchestra Wives.'' From 1952 to 1953 he played with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra. In 1955, he recorded his only session as a bandleader, performing six songs for a Bob Alexander album that won a Grammy Award. In the late-1960s to early-1970s, he was a tenor saxophone doubler on the staff of NBC's Tonight Show Band under Doc Severinsen, where he was an occasional featured soloist. After a hiatus, he returned in 1974 when he began playing with the World's Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tex Beneke
Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke ( ; February 12, 1914 – May 30, 2000) was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. His band is also associated with the careers of Eydie Gormé, Henry Mancini and Ronnie Deauville. Beneke also solos on the recording the Glenn Miller Orchestra made of their popular song "In The Mood" and sings on another popular Glenn Miller recording, "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Jazz critic Will Friedwald considers Beneke to be one of the major blues singers who sang with the big bands of the early 1940s. Early life Beneke was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He started playing saxophone when he was nine, going from soprano to alto to tenor saxophones and staying with the latter. His first professional work was with bandleader Ben Young in 1935, but it was when he joined the Glenn Miller Orchestra three years later that his career hit its strid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
