"Moonlight Serenade" is an American swing

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...

composed by Glenn Miller with subsequent lyrics by

Mitchell Parish Mitchell Parish (born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky; July 10, 1900 – March 31, 1993) was an American lyricist, notably as a writer of songs for stage and screen. Biography Parish was born to a Jewish family in Lithuania, Russian Empire in July 190 ...

. It was an immediate phenomenon when released in May 1939 as an instrumental arrangement, though it had been adopted and performed as Miller's

signature tune A signature song is the one song (or, in some cases, one of a few songs) that a popular and well-established recording artist or band is most closely identified with or best known for. This is generally differentiated from a one-hit wonder in th ...

as early as 1938, even before it had been given the name "Moonlight Serenade." In 1991, Miller's recording of "Moonlight Serenade" was inducted into the

Grammy Hall of Fame The Grammy Hall of Fame is a hall of fame to honor musical recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Inductees are selected annually by a special member committee of eminent and knowledgeable professionals from all branches of ...

Background

Miller studied the Schillinger technique with

Joseph Schillinger Joseph Moiseyevich Schillinger ( Russian: Иосиф Моисеевич Шиллингер, (other sources: ) – 23 March 1943) was a composer, music theorist, and composition teacher who originated the Schillinger System of Musical Compositio ...

, who is credited with helping Miller create the "Miller sound", and under whose tutelage he composed "Moonlight Serenade". The song evolved from a 1935 version entitled "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep", with music by Glenn Miller and lyrics by Eddie Heyman to a version called "Gone with the Dawn" with lyrics by George Simon, and "The Wind in the Trees" with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. In his biography of Glenn Miller, George T. Simon recounted how vocalist

Al Bowlly Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898 – 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African– British vocalist and jazz guitarist, who was popular during the 1930s in Britain. He recorded more than 1,000 songs. His most popular songs includ ...

of the

Ray Noble Raymond Stanley Noble (17 December 1903 – 2 April 1978) was an English jazz and big band musician, who was a bandleader, composer and arranger, as well as a radio host, television and film comedian and actor; he also performed in the United ...

Orchestra sang him the Eddie Heyman lyrics to the Glenn Miller music of "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep" in 1935. The Noble Orchestra never recorded the song. Finally it ended up as "Moonlight Serenade" because Robbins Music bought the music and learned that Miller was recording a cover of "Sunrise Serenade", a

Frankie Carle Frankie Carle (born Francis Nunzio Carlone, March 25, 1903 – March 7, 2001) was an American pianist and bandleader. As a very popular bandleader in the 1940s and 1950s, Carle was nicknamed "The Wizard of the Keyboard". "Sunrise Serenade" was Car ...

associated song for RCA Victor. They thought "Moonlight" would be a natural association for "Sunrise". Jazz critic

Gary Giddins Gary Giddins is an American jazz critic and author. He wrote for ''The Village Voice'' from 1973; his "Weather Bird" column ended in 2003. In 1986 Gary Giddins and John Lewis created the American Jazz Orchestra which presented concerts using a ...

wrote about the song's impact and legacy; "Miller exuded little warmth on or off the bandstand, but once the band struck up its theme, audiences were done for: throats clutched, eyes softened. Can any other record match 'Moonlight Serenade' for its ability to induce a Pavlovian slobber in so many for so long?" (''The New Yorker'', May 24, 2004).

Wartime release

The 1939 RCA Victor studio recording of "Moonlight Serenade" was released by the U.S. War Department as Army

V-Disc V-Disc ( "V" for Victory) was a record label that was formed in 1943 to provide records for U.S. military personnel. Captain Robert Vincent supervised the label from the Special Services division. Many popular singers, big bands, and orches ...

39A, VP 75, Theme Song, in November 1943. The recording was also released as the Navy V-Disc No. 160A and the Marine Corps V-Disc No. 160A. A V-Disc test pressing of a recording of the song from November 17, 1945 by the AAF Band was made but the disc was not issued. A new recording by Glenn Miller with the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was broadcast to Germany in 1944 on the radio program ''The Wehrmacht Hour''.

Chart performance

The song was recorded on April 4, 1939 on the RCA Bluebird label, and was a Top Ten hit on the U.S. pop charts in 1939, reaching number three on the '' Billboard'' charts, where it stayed for a total of fifteen weeks. It was the fifth most popular hit of 1939 in the ''Billboard'' year-end tally, where Miller had five records in the top 20. In the UK, "Moonlight Serenade" was released as the A-side of a 78 for

His Master's Voice His Master's Voice (HMV) was the name of a major British record label created in 1901 by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. The phrase was coined in the late 1890s from the title of a painting by English artist Francis Barraud, which depicted a Jack Russ ...

(catalogue number B.D.5942) with "

American Patrol "American Patrol" is a popular march written by Frank White (F.W.) Meacham in 1885. It incorporates both original musical themes by Meacham and melodies from American patriotic songs of the era such as " Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," "Dixie," ...

" as the B-side. The recording reached number twelve in the UK in March 1954, staying on the chart for one week. In January 1976 on a maxi single with "Little Brown Jug" and "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade" reached number thirteen on the UK charts, in a chart run of eight weeks. The recording was also issued as a

in November 1943.

Cultural References

* "Moonlight Serenade" features as background music on the '' Doctor Who'' episodes ''

Revelation of the Daleks ''Revelation of the Daleks'' is the sixth and final serial of the 22nd season in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in two weekly parts on 23 and 30 March 1985. This was the final serial t ...

'', ''

The Empty Child "The Empty Child" is the ninth episode of the first series of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC One on 21 May 2005. It was the first episode written by Steven Moffat, who later beca ...

'', and ''

The Doctor Dances "The Doctor Dances" is the tenth episode of the first series in the reboot of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 May 2005. It is the second of a two-part story, following t ...

''. * Miller's recording of "Moonlight Serenade" plays during the opening scene of the 1971 film ''

Carnal Knowledge Carnal knowledge is an archaic or legal euphemism for sexual intercourse. In modern statutes, the term " sexual penetration" is widely used, though with various definitions. Biblical source The term derives from ''carnal'', meaning "of the fles ...

''. * "Moonlight Serenade" plays in the background of a scene in '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' season 2 episode 19: ''Manhunt''. * "Moonlight Serenade" plays in the background of a scene in Episode 4 "A Companion" of Season 5 of the TV-series

The Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

. *A remix of "Moonlight Serenade" titled "Moonlight Serenade (Eternal Climax Mix)" appears as a battle theme in the 2022 video game ''

Bayonetta 3 is a 2022 action-adventure game developed by PlatinumGames and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was directed by Yusuke Miyata and produced by Yuji Nakao, with the ''Bayonetta'' creator Hideki Kamiya as supervising director. It ...

''.

References

Sources

*Flower, John. ''Moonlight Serenade: A Bio-discography of the Glenn Miller Civilian Band.'' New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1972. *Simon, George Thomas. ''Simon Says.'' New York: Galahad, 1971. . *Simon, George Thomas. ''Glenn Miller and His Orchestra.'' NY: Crowell, 1974.

External links

Glenn Miller and his Orchestra recording on the Jazz Anthology website.
{{authority control 1930s jazz standards 1939 songs 1939 singles Bluebird Records singles Carly Simon songs Dance music songs Frank Sinatra songs Glenn Miller songs Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Instrumentals Jazz compositions Pop standards Songs with lyrics by Mitchell Parish Songs about the Moon