Anson Weeks (February 14, 1896,

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

– February 7, 1969,

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

) was an American pianist and the leader of a popular west coast dance band from the late 1920s through the 1960s, primarily in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. He made his first recording in Oakland on February 7, 1925, but it was not issued. He formed his first band in 1924 and had key hotel jobs in Oakland and Sacramento. By the late 1920s he led a popular regional orchestra and started recording for Columbia in 1928. He garnerered favorable attention in late 1931 on the " Lucky Strike Magic Carpet" radio program. His vocalists included Art Wilson, Harriet Lee, Donald Novis,

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 younge ...

, Carl Ravazza, Kay St. Germaine, and Bob Gage. In 1932, he signed with Brunswick and recorded prolifically for them through 1935. During this time, his was one of Brunswick's premier bands and was nationally popular. He later did a session for Decca in 1937. Weeks was involved in an auto accident in 1941 and was out of the band business for several years, starting up again in the late 1940s. He signed with the local

Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

label in the early 1950s and did a series of dance albums (''Dancin' With Anson'') that were quite popular regionally (and were still in the catalog through the 1970s). His songs include "I'm Writing You This Little Melody" (theme song), "I'm Sorry Dear", "Senorita", "That Same Old Dream", and "We'll Get A Bang Out Of Life".

Death

He died in

, in 1969, one week before his 73rd birthday.

References

Bibliography

*''American Dance Bands on Record and Film (1915-1942)'', first edition, Compiled by Richard J. Johnson & Bernard H. Shirley, Rustbooks, 2009

External links

* * , Harriet Lee (singer) with Anson Weeks and his Orchestra (

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History 1916–1929 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing ...

#6569, 1933). {{DEFAULTSORT:Weeks, Anson 1896 births 1969 deaths American bandleaders Musicians from Oakland, California 20th-century American conductors (music)