A Salute to the Golden Age of American Popular Music
We salute 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.
Attention Diana Krall concert ticket holders in Florida;
Van Wezel reports that Diana Krall has moved all of her Florida dates, including her Wed. Feb. 15th date at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. The new date will be Tuesday, March 27 @ 8:00 PM.
The pop-jazz songstress was recently invited by the legendary Paul McCartney to collaborate on a project for the upcoming Grammys! For Diana Krall to participate this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and she still will be able to be at the Hall in March.
If you have already purchased/received tickets to Diana Krall, you may use the same ticket (dated 2/15) for entrance into the 3/27 performance. YOUR TICKET WILL BE VALID.
Please contact the Van Wezel Box Office at 941-953-3368 for more details regarding ticketing, and if you cannot attend on the new date you can receive an online credit or refund.
If you haven't purchased tickets yet, a limited number of seats are still available. Ticket prices range from $30 to $115. Contact the Van Wezel Box office at or log onto http://www.vanwezel.org/.
Q. I know that Nat Cole got his kicks on "Route 66," Did he write the song?
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A. Nat "King" Cole had a number one hit in 1946 with his Capitol 78 rpm recording of "Route 66." The composer is listed as musician Bobby Troup, but he did not compose it alone. Read on.
First here are the lyrics;
Well if you ever plan to motor west,
Just take my way , that's the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.
Well it winds from Chicago to LA
More than two-thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.
Well it goes through St. Louie down to Missouri
Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty.
You'll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona, don't forget Winona,
Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernardino.
Won't you get hip to this timely tip
And think you'll take that California trip.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
Here is the story behind the song:
At a party in Hollywood in the 1970's I was introduced to Mrs. Bobby Troup. I was very surprised with the introduction because I knew that Bobby Troup was married to a magnificent singer (and beauty) by the name of Julie London... and this lady was clearly not Julie London. First name Cynthia.
This Mrs. Bobby Troup told me this tale about when she was the first wife of Troup: They were living modestly in Lancaster, Pennsylvania at the end of World War II and Bobby Troup had decided that 'if I'm going to make it in the music business I've got to go to LA.' So they drive cross country to Los Angeles and while they motor on a long boring stretch of US Route 66, they play word games coming up with the lyrics to a song ('I get my kicks on route 66')... which, of course, was the classic 'Route Sixty-Six.'
When they arrived in Los Angeles and rented a small apartment they were almost penniless. Bobby Troup set their lyrics to music, peddled it around and eventually convinced Johnny Mercer's new record company Capitol to record it with their top star, Nat Cole.
Within weeks after its release the song was a nationwide hit - in fact it reached #1. AND the royalties from this one song provided enough money to buy a house.
Now an all too familiar story; A few years later, Troup produced Julie London's million selling hit record 'Cry Me A River.' He divorced Cynthia and married Julie five years later."
Here is a video of my Memory Lane Presentations "lecture" about the birth of the song aboard a cruise ship (Celebrity's Constellation), It is part of a "lecture" on the "Great American Songbook." For more about the lecture service, please visit www.memory-lane.org
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A. For the first few years after Glenn's disappearance she was actively involved in the corporations he had set up, primarily Glenn Miller Productions, and in working with his estate to re-launch the orchestra under the direction of lead saxophonist and vocalist Tex Beneke.
She was also faced with raising their two adopted children alone, so as relations with the Beneke-led band deteriorated during the late 1940s she moved away from direct involvement with Glenn's music. In 1953 and 1954 she assisted with aspects of the biopic The Glenn Miller Story, starring Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson.
There is speculation that her disagreements with Tex Beneke over the band's musical direction were in part responsible for the fact that he was entirely written out of the script.
During the 1950s and early 60s Helen Miller was almost completely uninvolved with her late husband's music, except for giving occasional interviews to close friends such as biographer (and former Miller musician and confidant) George T. Simon. Notably, Simon refused to either deny or confirm the heartbreaking rumor that Helen had kept many of Glenn's personal effects in their bedroom and even prepared his bed every evening, just in case he should miraculously return ...
Helen Burger Miller died in 1966 at age 64. Her passing was mentioned in some newspapers but received little other notice.
