VOLUME 106 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 2006

romance in 1943 and both the Crosby and Sinatra 1943 IN MUSIC recordings were backed by choral groups. It was This is a continuation of a story four issues ago introduced in the movies that year in “Dixie” which about the music and musical personalities of starred Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. The highly 194 7. We received considerable reader approval successful Broadway show “Oklahoma” that year in­ leading to what has become a series covering troduced the song PEOPLE WILL SAY WE’RE IN '47, ’46, ’45 and ’44. As y o u ’ll see, 1943 was an LOVE with recordings of it also suffering the fate of important year, heralding changes more easily non-orchestral accompaniment. Decca’s YOU’LL seen in retrospect. NEVER KNOW hit the charts without a studio band, using the Song Spinners to back Dick Haymes. The Quite a few changes came about in 1943; changes in the Song Spinners had their own success with COMIN’ IN war, in civilian life and in music. It was that year the ON A WING AND A PRAYER. The year before Columbia recorded I HAD THE CRA­ ZIEST DREAM, introduced by Harry James and Helen Forrest in the 1942 motion picture “Springtime In The Rockies.” It became a hit in 1943 along with James/ Forrest recording of I’VE HEARD THAT SONG BE­ FORE, supplied from the stockpile. Also at Columbia, Benny Goodman had earlier recorded an upbeat blues number with his new singer Peggy Lee. Goodman’s pianist Mel Powell arranged WHY DON’T YOU DO RIGHT with just the right lift to work in tandem with Peggy Lee ’ s blues lyrics. Strangely, Helen Forrest also scored in a Goodman recording etched before Peggy Lee replaced her, but saved for the anticipated strike. Forrest and Goodman’s TAKING A CHANCE ON LOVE was a moderate success, shared with her James’ recordings.

Over at RCA Victor a five year old recording by Tommy Dorsey was dug out of the archives. In 1938 arranger and sax player Dean Kincaide wrote an ar­ rangement in the wee hours on the band bus traveling between one-nighters. It was a Big Band version of Pinetop Smith’s boogie-woogie, re-released in 1943. Captain Glenn Miller at BBC microphone. Tommy Dorsey ’ s B OOGIE-WOOGIE had been a hit in 1938, was equally appealing in 1943 and has since Musician’s Union strike against the record companies become one of the Dorsey classics. The prime vocal hit was in full force, forcing issuance of either previously for Tommy Dorsey for the year was Frank Sinatra’s IN recorded material stockpiled for later release or purely THE BLUE OF EVENING. vocal versions of newer songs. Since singers were not considered musicians and thus not members of the Before musician union czar James Caesar Petrillo’s union, they were free to perform, and perform they did. edict preventing musicians from recording, the Glenn Vocal groups accompanied star singers in place of Miller Orchestra mastered two discs that would have studio bands, and the Big Bands were heard with truly lasting significance, not only in 1943 but for decades to new material only ‘live’ on radio broadcasts. come. Singer Skip Nelson, who replaced Ray Eberle, sang THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC while Marion SUNDAY, MONDAY OR ALWAYS was a song of Hutton, Tex Beneke, Eberle and the Modemaires all

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