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“When Swing Was King” Summer Newsletter

A Big Band Quiz

1) Which record was Bing Crosby’s first million seller?

2) Which big band was billed as playing “the sweetest music this side of heaven.”

3) What NBC radio program ran from 1936-1959 featuring bands and singers doing the popular songs of the week?

4) This singer, composer, and lyricist was also a co-founder of Capitol Records.

Who was he? 5) Vito Rocco Farinola is the

real name of what singer? 6) What big band leader recorded the

theme song for Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand”?

7) What were the top 3 songs in the summer of 1945?

8) When the Hollywood Palladium opened in 1940, the nation’s top band

performed. What was it? 9) The 1947 Rock-Ola, the 1952 Seeburg

M100C, and the 1946 Wurlitzer 1015 are not cars. So, what are they?

10) What great singer/actress started as a chorus girl at New York’s Cotton Club?

Did You Know?

Female singers in the big band and jazz era were often called

canaries, a nickname reminiscent of those small,

lovely songbirds. Well, here are a few canaries who started with big bands before their

careers really took off.

Dale Evans (Anson Weeks Orchestra)

Dorothy Lamour

(Herbie Kaye Orchestra)

Rosemary Clooney (Tony Pastor Orchestra)

Harriet Hilliard Nelson ( Ozzie Nelson Orchestra)

Doris Day

(Bob Crosby and Les Brown Orchestras)

Dorothy Dandridge

(Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra)

Kay Starr (Glenn Miller, Charlie Barnet,

and Joe Venuti Orchestras)

Dinah Shore (Xavier Cugat Orchestra)

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A Note from Denny & Claire

Last July I celebrated my 65th birthday by hiking up Mt. Bierstadt, one of Colorado’s famed 14er mountains – named so because

they are above 14,000 feet in elevation. And even though I swore I would never do

anything like that again because it was so difficult and exhausting, I find myself planning another climb this year too.

Will I make it to the summit again? Well,

I’m certainly praying to that end. However, the most important goal is simply doing

what I can. Indeed, that’s been a theme of my life ever since my conversion to

Christianity, a decision made when I was 19 years old. You’ve probably heard it put it

this way – “God doesn’t ask for our success. He only asks our faithfulness.”

That’s what Claire and I strive for in our

lives, our prayers, and our ministries. To be faithful, grateful, and joyful in serving the Lord…and leaving the results up to Him. Oh yes, in climbing that mountain, I’ll be working hard to get to the summit. But the

main thing is to do my best, enjoy the adventure, and keep my priorities

in the right place.

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains from where shall my help come? My help comes

from the Lord Who made heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:1-2, NASB)

The Tops On Campus

Starting in 1938, Billboard began a

“College Music Poll,” asking students across

America who were their favorite big

bands and vocalists. Here are the lists for the year 1945.

* Favorite Bands: Number One

was a tie between Tommy Dorsey and Harry James. The late Glenn Miller came in third and Benny

Goodman took fourth.

* Most Promising New Bands: 1) Stan Kenton 2) Hal McIntyre

3) Les Brown

* Favorite Female Singers: 1) Dinah Shore 2) Jo Stafford

3) Ginny Simms

* Favorite Male Singers: 1) Bing Crosby 2) Frank Sinatra

3) Dick Haymes

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Spotlight on “Stardust” The story goes that Hoagy Carmichael wrote “Stardust” in 1927 on an old piano in The Book Nook, an alumni hangout on the Indiana University campus. The first recording of the song was by Hoagy himself on Gennett Records, a small company out of Richmond, Indiana. But he certainly didn’t

imagine the immense success the song would bring him. Indeed, “Stardust” has been recorded by more artists than any other song in history. And translated into more than 40 languages too. It was originally written as a fast-paced jazz instrumental but after Mitchell Parrish wrote lush, romantic lyrics to the song two years later, almost all versions of the song have been played slow and romantic. The best version of “Stardust”? If I can be so bold to state my own opinion, the best instrumental version would be Artie Shaw’s with the best vocal recordings being a tie between Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole.

(Answers to Page 1 Quiz)

1) Sweet Leilani (1937) 2) Guy Lombardo & his Royal

Canadians 3) Your Hit Parade 4) Johnny Mercer 5) Vic Damone 6) Les Elgart

7) “I’ll Be Seeing You” (Bing Crosby), “I’ll Get By” (Harry

James), and “Swingin’ on a Star” (Bing Crosby).

8) The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra 9) Jukeboxes

10) Lena Horne

They Said It…

“If I don’t practice for a day, I know it. If I don’t practice for two days, the

critics know it. And if I don’t practice for three days, the public knows it.”

(Louis Armstrong)

“If you want to do something, go do it! And handle the obstacles as they come.”

(Benny Goodman)

“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.”

(Lionel Hampton)

So Beautifully Phrased… “Summer's lease hath all too short a date.” (William Shakespeare, The Sonnets) “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold

of winter to give it sweetness.” (John Steinbeck) “You [O God] have established all the boundaries of the earth; You have made summer and winter.” (Psalm 74:17, NASB) “The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last for ever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year – the days when summer is changing into autumn – the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change.” (E.B. White, Charlotte's Web) “Then all the people returned from all the places to which they had been driven away and came to the land of Judah…and gathered in wine and summer fruit in great abundance.” (Jeremiah 40:12, NASB) “To see the Summer Sky Is Poetry, though never in a Book it lie – True Poems flee” (Emily Dickinson) “In summer, the song sings itself.” (William Carlos Williams) “Then followed that beautiful season...Summer.... Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) “Summer afternoon -- summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.” (Henry James) “Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.” (Matthew 24:32, NASB)