His style sums up on its own the big bands era. The picture of him in the US Air Force uniform and his untimely death at 40 above the Channel while flying to Paris built a myth, pairing for ever his memory to the war years.
It is nevertheless only in 1939 that he found his place in the inner-circle of fashionable bandleaders. Born of parents farmers, he spent his childhood in Iowa and Missouri. The little Glenn showed very early a gift for music and began to play mandolin before buying a trombone with the money earned from milk's sale. He even managed to enter at 13 the local brass band when his parents decided to move to Colorado.
He completed there his college studies but wished above all to be a professional musician. His style: dance music.
He spent some time at the University of Denver without real motivation and soon left to dedicate to the study of the system of musical composition taught by composer Joseph Schillinger of whom he somehow made his tutor. This one developed a theory exclusively based on mathematical principles which, although controversial, got many followers among whom George Gershwin, Benny Goodman or Tommy Dorsey.
Glenn Miller started his professional career in the band of Ben Pollack. He met there Benny Goodman with whom he composed in particular Room 1411, an instrumental recorded in 1928 for Brunswick. He joined later the band of Red Nichols based in New York and hired from 1930 his services as a freelance trombonist and arranger. He had, as such, the opportunity to work with the Dorsey Brothers, the Boswell Sisters and contributed to the development of the famous American orchestra of the English bandleader Ray Noble.
He decided in 1937 to form his own band but for lack of proposing a personal style, success was late to come and he had to give up. He understood the need to stand out with a really new sound and hired saxophonist Wilbur Schwartz whose playing perfectly fitted to what he expected. He started recording in September, 1938 for RCA Victor and Bluebird Records and found at last through the businessman If Shriman, the financial support he had lacked during his first experience. Next spring, his concerts in New York attracted crowds, his records snapped up and topped the jukeboxes.
Song of the year : Over The Rainbow
Composed by Harold Arlen & "Yip" Harburg, the song performed by Judy Garland in the Wizard Of Oz will be adopted during World War II by the fighting American troops as a symbol of their far fatherland.
Glenn Miller
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Three Little Fishies feat. Marion Hutton & Tex Beneke
(Saxie Dowell) |
USA
| ||
Ella Fitzgerald & Her Famous Orchestra
|
This Time It's Real
(Walter Shivers/Buddy Bernier/Bob Emmerich) |
USA
| ||
Judy Garland
|
Over The Rainbow
(Harold Arlen/"Yip" Harburg) |
USA
| ||
Artie Shaw
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All The Things You Are feat. Helen Forrest
(Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II) |
USA
| ||
Billie Holiday
|
Strange Fruit
(Abel Meeropol) |
USA
| ||
Benny Goodman
|
And The Angels Sing feat. Martha Tilton
(Ziggy Elman/Johnny Mercer) |
USA
| ||
Erskine Hawkins
|
I Hadn't Anyone Till You feat. Dolores Brown
(Ray Noble) |
USA
| ||
The Andrews Sisters
|
Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)
(James Whitcombe Riley) |
USA
| ||
The Merry Macs
|
My Cat Fell In The Well
(Billy Moll/Dick Robertson/Terry Shand) |
USA
| ||
Kay Kyser
|
Indian Summer feat. Ginny Simms
(Victor Herbert/Al Dubin) |
USA
| ||
Bob Chester & His Orchestra
|
Shoot The Sherbert To Me Herbert
feat. Kathleen Lane (Slim Gaillard/Greer) |
USA
| ||
Billie Holiday
|
The Man I Love
(George & Ira Gershwin) |
USA
| ||
Glenn Miller
|
Stairway To The Stars feat. Ray Eberle
(Matty Malneck/Mitchell Parish) |
USA
| ||
Benny Goodman
|
Scatter Brain feat. Mildred Bailey
(Johnny Burke/Frankie Masters) |
USA
| ||
Ella Fitzgerald & Her Famous Orchestra
|
Moon Ray
(Artie Quenzer/Artie Shaw/Paul Madison) |
USA
| ||
Tommy Dorsey
|
All The Things You Are feat. Jack Leonard
(Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II) |
USA
| ||
Al Donahue
|
Jeepers Creepers feat. Paula Kelly
(Harry Warren/Johnny Mercer) |
USA
| ||
Billie Holiday
|
More Than You Know
(Billy Rose/Edward Eliscu/Vincent Youmans) |
USA
| ||
Glenn Miller
|
Ain't Cha Comin' Out feat. Marion Hutton & Tex Beneke
(Bert Kalmar/Harry Rubin) |
USA
| ||
Ozzie & Harriet Nelson
|
No Mama No
(Nat Gonella) |
USA
| ||
Charlie Barnet
|
It Must Have Been Two Other People feat. Judy Ellington
(Arthur Altman/Carmen Lombardo/Jack Lawrence) |
USA
| ||
Hal Kemp
|
Three Little Fishies feat. The Smoothies
(Saxie Dowell) |
USA
| ||
Red Norvo & Mildred Bailey
|
Says My Heart
(Burton Lane/Frank Loesser) |
USA
| ||
Louis Jordan
|
Honeysuckle Rose
(Andy Razaf/Fats Waller) |
USA
| ||
Bing Crosby
|
I Cried For You
(Abe Lyman/Arthur Freed/Gus Arnheim) |
USA
|
view
| |
Bob Crosby & His Orchestra
|
Day In, Day Out feat. Helen Ward
(Rube Bloom/Johnny Mercer) |
USA
| ||
Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra
|
Big Wig In The Wigwam
(Byron Bradley/Kenneth Case/Roe Alexander) |
USA
| ||
Bing Crosby & Connee Boswell
|
Between 18th & 9th on Chestnut Street
(Will Osborne/Dick Roger) |
USA
| ||
Glen Gray & The Casa Loma Orchestra
|
Heaven Can Wait
(Eddie Delange/James Van Heusen) |
USA
| ||
Ella Fitzgerald
|
My Heart Belongs To Daddy
(Cole Porter) |
USA
| ||
Louis Prima & His New Orleans Gang
|
Of Thee I Sing
(George & Ira Gershwin) |
USA
| ||
Betty Hutten with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra
|
Old Man Mose Is Dead
(Zilner Randolph) |
USA
| ||
The Ink Spots
|
My Prayer
(Georges Boulanger/Jimmy Kennedy) |
USA
| ||
Tommy Dorsey
|
Blue Rain feat. Jack Leonard
(James Van Heusen/Johnny Mercer) |
USA
| ||
Benny Goodman
|
There'll Be Some Changes Made feat. Louise Tobin
(Billy Higgins/W. Benton/Overstreet/Walter Donaldson) |
USA
| ||
Jack Teagarden
|
At Least You Could Say Hello feat. Kitty Kallen
(Charles J. McCarthy/Louis Robertson/Sammy Mysels) |
USA
| ||
Bing Crosby & Frances Langford
|
I'm Falling In Love With Someone
(Rida Johnson Young/Victor Herbert) |
USA
| ||
Bob Hope & Shirley Ross
|
Two Sleepy People
(Hoagy Carmichael/Frank Loesser) |
USA
|
view
| |
Tony Martin
|
It's A Blue World
(George Forrest/Robert Wright) |
USA
| ||
The Dandridge Sisters
|
Undecided
(Charlie Shavers/Sidney Robin) |
USA
|
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