April 2, 1942

BLUEBIRD TO VICTOR

On April 2, 1942, Glenn Miller made his first records for the RCA Victor label. Firstly, RCA upgraded Miller from its 35-cent Bluebird label to the 50-cent Victor label. Furthermore, Miller’s record sales had just hit 6,000,000. Perhaps RCA upgraded Glenn because they were planning to phase-out the Bluebird label, or simply because Miller was their top draw. Meanwhile, the Miller band had arrived in Hollywood on March 17 to begin work on the Twentieth Century-Fox film Orchestra Wife (during production Fox changed the name to Orchestra Wives). Their first network broadcast for Chesterfield was on March 18 from the CBS Vine Street Theater. Moreover, Don Wilson from the Jack Benny program would be the announcer while the band was in Hollywood. Wilson and Miller were students at the University of Colorado Boulder at the same time during the 1920s.

WARTIME OVERTONES

As had been the case for the final Bluebird session on February 18, the first Victor session would have a decidedly wartime overtones, with the band waxing one flag-waver and three ballads. Meanwhile, Miller continued his hour-long Sunset Serenade program Saturday afternoons on the Mutual network, presented at his own expense for the benefit of soldiers and sailors at military installations. Glenn paid his band out of his own pocket and also paid for RCA radio-phonograph combination prizes. But while Glenn Miller led America’s #1 musical outfit, with #1 records Chattanooga Choo Choo, A String of Pearls and Moonlight Cocktail topping the charts, along with Always in My Heart, Skylark and When the Roses Bloom Again, Miller thought there was much more that he could do for his homeland at war.  

Glenn Miller and his Orchestra
RCA Victor Recording Session
Thursday, April 2 and Friday April 3, 1942
8:00 p. m. -12:30 a. m.
Victor Studios
1016 North Sycamore Street
Hollywood, California

PERSONNEL

Trumpets: Johnny Best, Steve Lipkins, Billy May, Dale McMickle
Trombones: Alton Glenn Miller (director), Frank D’Annolfo, Jimmy Priddy, Paul Tanner
Reeds: Gordon “Tex” Beneke (tenor saxophone, clarinet, vocalist), Ernie Caceres (alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, clarinet), Al Klink (tenor saxophone), Skip Martin (alto saxophone, clarinet), Wilbur Schwartz (clarinet, alto saxophone)
Rhythm: Maurice Purtill (drums), Doc Goldberg (string bass), Bobby Hackett (guitar, cornet), Chummy MacGregor (piano)
Vocalists present: Ray Eberle and the Modernaires: Ralph Brewster (trumpet), Bill Conway (guitar), Hal Dickinson, Chuck Goldstein

MILLER CLASSIC

Following their Chesterfield programs at CBS, broadcast at 4:15 p.m. for the East and Midwest time zones, and 7:15 p.m. for the Mountain and Pacific time zones, the band headed to RCA for an unusual Thursday evening recording session. Moreover, this was certainly due to their daytime schedule at Twentieth Century-Fox. The first record they made was American Patrol, which they also recorded at Fox. First broadcast on March 25, Jerry Gray’s original arrangement was a lengthy piece that could have been a two-sided 78 like Anvil Chorus. Although F. W. Meacham wrote it in 1885, the melody became popular when John Philip Sousa performed it with interpolations of Hail Columbia, Dixie and Yankee Doodle. Jerry Gray threw in Columbia, Gem of the Ocean and The Girl I left Behind Me. The result was a Miller classic that helps identify his music as the “soundtrack of the greatest generation.”      

KHAKI-CLAD BALLAD

The flip side of American Patrol made on April 2, 1942, was Soldier Let Me Read Your Letter, famously written by two soldiers from Fort Meade, Maryland. However, this was not to be the only 1942 Fort Meade connection to Glenn Miller. Because by November, Captain Glenn Miller would be attending the Army Specialist Corps officer training program at the same base. But that was, for the moment, in the future. Billy May’s arrangement captures the poignant message of the tune that was most familiar to wartime audiences. Likewise, as millions of Americans flooded into army and navy training facilities, it captured a sentimental national mood. This was a perfectly selected ballad to pair with American Patrol. RCA’s promotional announcement called it “a heart-tugging, khaki-clad ballad.”

THE FOX JOINS THE BAND

On the day that the band headed west for Hollywood, Miller hired George “the Fox” Williams to his already powerful arranging staff. Joining Jerry Gray, Bill Finegan and Billy May, Williams quit Sonny Dunham to join Glenn. Music industry insiders credited Williams with being a major reason why Dunham’s band had risen to prominence during the previous year. Moreover, Miller told the trade press that Williams would help score his new Twentieth Century-Fox movie. Williams, his wife and baby boy joined the Miller entourage in Washington, DC for the trek west via Chicago. Consequently, his first recorded arrangement for Glenn was the evocative Sleep Song, which demonstrates that “the Fox” quickly learned how to interpret the rich 1942 Miller sound. Meanwhile, at Fox, the band recorded a new, up-tempo George Williams composition, Boom Shot, for the Orchestra Wives soundtrack.     

SWEET BUT SCRATCHED

Glenn Miller (Victor), Kay Kyser (Columbia) and Russ Morgan (Decca) recorded Sweet Eloise, with bandleader Morgan’s melody and Mack David’s lyrics. Meanwhile, Billboard opined about Miller’s version, “the rollicking (Sweet) Eloise is taken at a bright and moderate tempo, and after a short band introduction based on the song theme Ray Eberle and the Modernaires score heavily in their characteristic vocal style … here is a very catchy ditty with a set of nice lyrics to back it up. It one of those naturally commercial items, and it will only be very short time before the automatic phonographs are spinning it a plenty.” There is a scratch on Sweet Eloise at 2:32 into the record. The unusual artifact appears to be present on all the releases and reissues of the record, if not the metal master.  

CALIFORNIA INTERLUDE

Glenn and Helen Miller rented actor Leslie Howard’s home before moving into their 55-acre ranch Tuxedo Junction. Moreover, following the April 2, 1942, recording session, they would enjoy their California interlude, amidst plans to permanently move west. Meanwhile, on April 15, Downbeat reported that Sunset Serenade was ordered off the air indefinitely along with all remote broadcasts on Mutual as the result of a union controversy with stations in Louisville and Nashville. However, Miller would resume the broadcasts following a two-week hiatus. Then Billboard announced that Glenn Miller had won its Fifth Annual College Music Poll as favorite band for the third year in a row.  In conclusion, the band continued their work at Fox and Glenn would revisit the Victor Sycamore Street studios again in May to record the soon-to-be popular Harry Warren and Mack Gordon compositions from Orchestra Wives.

Dennis M. Spragg of the Glenn Miller Collections at the American Music Research Center, University of Colorado Boulder is Glenn Miller’s authorized biographer, archivist and author of the critically praised Glenn Miller Declassified. He is also Historian of the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society. Discover Glenn Miller: