April 28, 1940

Firstly, on April 28, 1940, as Nazi Germany was busy invading Norway, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra went into the Victor Studios in New York for an RCA Bluebird recording session. Furthermore, five of the six tunes recorded that afternoon were issued and one was destroyed. Moreover, Glenn Miller held this unusual April 28 Sunday recording session in New York while engaged in one-night personal appearances in the mid-Atlantic states. Likewise, they broadcast their three-times-per-week program for Chesterfield Cigarettes over the CBS network from the WJSV Studios at the Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania 6-5000 was the telephone number of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York. Moreover, this is where Glenn Miller and his Orchestra had recently completed their first and successful long-term engagement at the new Café Rouge room. Consequently, they returned to the Café Rouge on October 7, 1940. Therefore, about the April 28 session:

BS-048964-1
Bluebird B-10740
RCA Victor 20-2413
BUGLE CALL RAG
(Jack Pettis-Billy Meyers-Elmer Schoebel)
Glenn Miller arrangement

BS-048965-1
Bluebird B-10740
THE NEARNESS OF YOU
(Ned Washington-Hoagland “Hoagy” Carmichael)
Bill Finegan arrangement
Vocal refrain by Ray Eberle

CONTROVERSIAL LYRICS

Firstly, the controversial WPA was a tongue-in-cheek parody of the Works Progress Administration of the United States government, Decca issued a recording of the tune featuring Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers. But the Bluebird recording by Glenn Miller was never issued by RCA. However, American Federation of Musicians and the music critic and social activist John Hammond took deep public offense with the lyrics of the tune. Likewise, the lyrics portrayed shiftless Depression-era laborers taking advantage of a New Deal program. Meanwhile, many other critics (correctly) saw the tune as un-American. Therefore, today, the tune would probably (and accurately) be labeled as racist. Consequently, no stamper or pressing was made and RCA destroyed the original master.

BS-048966-1
Destroyed
W. P. A.
(Works Progress Administration)
(Jesse Stone)
Bill Finegan arrangement
Vocal refrain by Tex Beneke and the Band

BS-048967-1
Bluebird B-10745
MISTER MEADOWLARK
(Johnny Mercer-Walter Donaldson)
Jerry Gray arrangement
Vocal refrain by Jack Lathrop

ODDS AND ENDS

Certainly, Johnny Mercer was Glenn Miller’s favorite lyricist. Firstly, the vocalist on Miller’s recording of Mercer’s Mister Meadowlark for Bluebird (which covered Bing Crosby’s record for Decca) was Glenn’s guitarist Jack Lathrop. Moreover, the tunes recorded at this session feature and contrast the considerable arranging talents of Glenn’s arranging team: Bill Finegan, Jerry Gray and Miller himself. However, RCA held My Blue Heaven from April 28 and issued it on January 3, 1941, paired with Glenn Miller’s December 13, 1940, recording of Frenesi.

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