Examiner to present Frank Sinatra lecture this Friday - National Frank Sinatra | Examiner.com

Examiner to present Frank Sinatra lecture this Friday - National Frank Sinatra | Examiner.com

Great American Musicals presentation in Livingston, NJ

Great American Musicals
from Broadway and Hollywood

Tuesday, March 15 @ 7:30 pm

Rick Busciglio will be your guide for a nostalgic tour of American musical favorites. He draws on 45+ years in broadcasting and his lifelong love of music for an entertaining evening!

Presented with funding from Friends of the Livingston Library

Rick Busciglio will be your guide for a nostalgic tour of American musical favorites. He draws on 45+ years in broadcasting and his lifelong love of music for an entertaining evening. The program is a salute to the music from Broadway, Hollywood, New Orleans, Tin Pan Alley and the "melody makers;" i.e. the bands and singers that brought the music to us via the radio, recordings and live events in the period from the 1920's to the 1960's. This is the golden period of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Richard Rodgers, Larry Hart, Oscar Hammerstein, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy Van Heusen, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, etc.

Rick Busciglio is a former broadcast marketing and advertising executive who has combined his life long love of films and music and experience in communications to create a series of mostly nostalgic programs. He does programs primarily in the NJ/NY/PA area and internationally aboard cruise ships. His presentations are designed to be both entertaining and informative. Mr. Busciglio writes two blogs on New Jersey theater and serves on the Board of The Chester Theatre Group in Chester, New Jersey. He recently started his own internet radio series, "The Great American Songbook,” and writes for www.Examiner.com on "Swing and Big Bands” and "Frank Sinatra."

This program is free and open to all. No registration is required.

Nancy...with a laughing face...who really wrote the song?

Nancy & Dad

The authorship of the Sinatra classic, "Nancy...with a laughing face" is discussed/covered at great length on both the internet and in several books covering the tunes of the great american songbook. In every case, they have it mostly wrong. Here is my personal story:

"In 1979, I was working with songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen on a TV special with Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope that was never produced. Jimmy told me that one day (circa 1942) he and his lyricist Johnny Burke were working at 20th Century-Fox composing for a film. While Burke was out of their writer's bungalow, Phil Silvers, the comedian, a friend to both, entered and suggested to Jimmy that they write a song for Johnny's wife, Bessie, who was soon to celebrate a birthday. Silvers provided the lyrics, later revised by Van Heusen and Burke.

At the party they sang "Bessie... with the laughing face" It was such a hit that they used it at other female birthday events. When they sang it as "Nancy... with the laughing face" at little Nancy Sinatra's birthday party, Frank broke down and cried thinking that it was written specially for his daughter - the trio wisely didn't correct him. Jimmy assigned his royalties to Nancy after Frank recorded it for Columbia."

The Chattanooga Choo Choo's real route

In 1942, Glenn Miller received the first ever gold record for selling a million copies of "Chattanooga Choo Choo."

Above is my picture with the Chattanooga Choo Choo at the old Chattanooga, Tennessee, train station.  As a music historian, I must share with you the truth about this famous train. Are you ready?  It NEVER left track 29!  The train never traveled between New York and Chattanooga. The train's run was between Cincinnati, Ohio and Chattanooga.

The song was Introduced in 1941 by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the song was featured in the movie "Sun Valley Serenade" and performed by Tex Beneke and the Modernaires. Harry Warren wrote the original music score, while Mack Gordon contributed the words. The song, "Chattanooga Choo Choo," traveled fast throughout the circles of Europe during World War II, and today it is an international favorite.

 To buy a Glenn Miller CD or a copy of the "Sun Valley Serenade" click here