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Modernaires
The Modernaires was an American vocal group, best known for performing in the 1940s alongside Glenn Miller. Career The Modernaires began in 1934 as "Don Juan, Two and Three," a trio of schoolmates from Lafayette High School in Buffalo, New York. The members were Hal Dickinson, Chuck Goldstein, and Bill Conway. (Jay Warner, in his book ''American Singing Groups: A History from 1940s to Today'', wrote, "They called themselves Three Weary Willies". He added that the trio performed as Don Juan and Two and Three when they "headed for New York in the mid-'30s".) After singing on radio station WGR in Buffalo, New York, for "the enormous sum of $10 a month", the trio went to New York City and gained an engagement of 26 weeks on CBS network radio. The group's first engagement was at Buffalo's suburban Glen Falls Casino, with the Ted Fio Rito Orchestra. Fio Rito also used them on electrical transcription recordings. They then joined the Ozzie Nelson Band, and became known as "The Three ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paula Kelly (singer)
Paula Kelly (April 6, 1919 – April 2, 1992) was an American big band singer. Early life Kelly was born in Grove City, Pennsylvania, United States. to Dr. Herbert Augustus & Julia Clarice (née Kennedy) Kelly. Kelly started her singing career in her hometown with her two sisters Julia and Martha; following Martha's death in September, 1938 she turned to big time singing. Career Kelly sang with orchestras led by Dick Stabile, Artie Shaw, and Al Donahue. In early 1941, she joined Glenn Miller's orchestra, replacing Dorothy Claire and Marion Hutton. Kelly originally performed solo, but also soon became the female lead of The Modernaires, originally a male trio, then a quartet, resulting in the group becoming a quintet of four male singers and herself. Her first recording with the group was "Perfidia", on which they sang with Dorothy Claire. In 1942, Glenn Miller went into World War II military service and his band broke up. The Modernaires continued with Kelly as lead singer unt ... [...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] |
Glenn Miller Orchestra
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was an American swing dance band formed by Glenn Miller in 1938. Arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, and three other saxophones playing harmony, the band became the most popular and commercially successful dance orchestra of the swing era and one of the greatest singles charting acts of the 20th century. Miller began professionally recording in New York City as a sideman in the hot jazz era of the late 1920s. With the arrival of virtuoso trombonists Jack Teagarden and Tommy Dorsey, Miller focused more on developing his arrangement skills. Writing for contemporaries and future stars such as Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman, Miller gained prowess as an arranger by working in a variety of settings. Later, Miller largely improved his arranging and writing skills by studying under music theorist Joseph Schillinger. In February 1937, Miller started an orchestra that briefly made records for Decca. With this group, Miller used a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chattanooga Choo-Choo
"Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren. It was originally recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie '' Sun Valley Serenade''. It was the first song to receive a gold record, presented by RCA Victor in 1942, for sales of 1.2 million copies. Background The song was an extended production number in the 20th Century Fox film '' Sun Valley Serenade''. The Glenn Miller recording, RCA Bluebird B-11230-B, became the No. 1 song across the United States on December 7, 1941, and remained at No. 1 for nine weeks on the ''Billboard Best Sellers'' chart. The flip side of the single was " I Know Why (And So Do You)", which was the A side. The song opens up with the band, sounding like a train rolling out of the station, complete with the trumpets and trombones imitating a train whistle, before the instrumental portion comes in playing two parts of the main melody. This is followed b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Club Fifteen
''Club Fifteen'' is a radio program in the United States that featured popular music. It was broadcast weeknights (except for a two month hiatus each summer) 30 June 1947 – 21 December 1951. Then, it aired Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights until 16 January 1953.Cox, Jim. (2012). ''Musicmakers of Network Radio: 24 Entertainers, 1926–1962''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 73-74. The name reflected the program's length—15 minutes. ''The Historical Dictionary of Old-Time Radio'' noted that the show "is sometimes listed as ''Bob Crosby's Club Fifteen'' because Bob Crosby was the original star, although Dick Haymes took over in 1949-50." The program was sponsored by Campbell Soups. Format Media historian Jim Cox commented that in ''Club Fifteen'', "Crosby followed a pattern that he had perfected a dozen years earlier, being the front man with the easygoing, laid-back technique, quick to defer to others in the cast." Musical selections formed the core of each broadcast, sup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
(I've Got A Gal In) Kalamazoo
"(I've Got a Gal in) Kalamazoo" is a #1 popular song recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra in 1942. It was written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren and published in 1942. It was featured in the musical film ''Orchestra Wives'' and was recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, featuring Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton and The Modernaires, who released it as an A side 78 in 1942, 27934-A. The B side was "At Last". Background The song popularized the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Although originally recorded by the Glenn Miller band with Tex Beneke on lead vocals, it was recreated by the fictional Gene Morrison Orchestra performing as the Glenn Miller Band and the Nicholas Brothers (performing the song as part of a dance sequence) in the 1942 20th Century Fox movie ''Orchestra Wives''.Lyrics, Glenn Miller "I've Got a Gal in Kalamazoo". The song was nominated for Best Music, Original Song at the Academy Awards, Harry Warren (music), Mack Gordon (lyrics). See also Boom Shot (song). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Copeland
Alan Robert Copeland (October 6, 1926 – December 28, 2022), also known as Weaver Copeland, was an American singer, songwriter, composer, and conductor. Life and career Copeland was born in Los Angeles, California on October 6, 1926. Copeland was a member of The Modernaires, first from 1948 to 1956 and then from 1959 to the mid-1960s. He also worked as a songwriter in Los Angeles in the 1950s. He co-wrote the song " Make Love to Me", "Back Where I Belong", "Darling, Darling, Darling", "High Society", "Into the Shadows", "This Must Be the Place", "Too Young to Know", and "While the Vesper Bells Were Ringing". He also worked as a composer for television and did arrangement work for musicians such as Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby.Kembrew McLeod and Peter DiCola, ''Creative License: The Law and Culture of Digital Sampling''. Duke University Press, 2011, p. 173. He led studio ensembles that released several albums in the 1960s. In 1968, he issued the single, "Missio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sun Valley Serenade
''Sun Valley Serenade'' is a 1941 musical film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and starring Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller, Milton Berle, and Lynn Bari. It features the Glenn Miller Orchestra as well as dancing by the Nicholas Brothers. It also features Dorothy Dandridge, performing "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996, and was awarded the first Gold Record for sales of 1.2 million. 20th Century Fox re-released the film in 1946 and in 1954 to tie-in with the biopic ''The Glenn Miller Story''. Plot Ted Scott ( John Payne) is a band pianist whose publicity manager decides that, for good press, the band should adopt a foreign refugee. The band goes to Ellis Island to meet the girl and soon discovers that the refugee isn't a 10-year-old child, but a young woman, Karen Benson (Sonja Henie). The surprise comes right before the band is to travel to Sun Valley, Idaho, for a Christmas event. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Barnet
Charles Daly Barnet (October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "Southland Shuffle". Early life Barnet was born in New York City, the son of Charline (Daly) and Willard Barnet. His parents divorced when he was two, and he was raised by his mother and her grandparents. His grandfather was Charles Frederick Daly, a vice-president for the New York Central Railroad, banker, and businessman. Barnet attended boarding schools, both in the New York and Chicago areas. He learned to play piano and saxophone as a child. He often left school to listen to music and to try to gain work as a musician. Although his family wanted him to become a lawyer, he chose to be a musician instead. Career By sixteen, Barnet had played on tours with Jean Goldkette's satellite band and was in New York, where he joined Frank Winegar's Pennsylvania ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
There! I've Said It Again
"There! I've Said It Again" is a popular song written and published by Redd Evans and David Mann in 1941. In early 1945, Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra released Victor 20-1637, which reached the number one position on the Billboard's National Radio Airplay chart for five straight weeks, then no.2 for six more weeks, and a total run of 29 weeks. It finished 1945 as the no. 4 record of the year. 1945 versions Vaughn Monroe's version of "There! I've Said It Again" reached No. 1 on ''Billboard''s chart of "Records Most-Played on the Air", while also reaching No. 1 on ''Billboard''s charts of "Best-Selling Popular Retail Records" and no. 2 on "Most-Played Juke Box Records".Most-Played Juke Box Records , '' |
