Dennis Spragg’s recent edition of his STAR SPANGLED RADIO HOUR covered a fascinating two-month period in the saga of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, December 1940 and January 1941. A series of events contributed to a sudden shakeup in the band’s personnel and repertoire. Trumpeter/arranger Billy May, who joined in November 1940, was settling into his position as featured soloist, bringing a fresh, funkier sound to the hot numbers.
Dynamic vocalist Marion Hutton, who had brought her particular brand of oomph to the ensemble for two years, announced her pregnancy and would be out of the band at the start of the new year. Worse, the anticipated banning of all ASCAP-licensed music on radio would wreak havoc on all performer playlists.
(An aside from Wikipedia, which explains the situation concisely — “In 1940, when ASCAP tried to triple its license fees, radio broadcasters prepared to resist their demands by enforcing a boycott of ASCAP and inaugurating a competing royalty agency, Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI). During the 10-month period lasting from January 1 to October 29, 1941, no music licensed by ASCAP (1,250,000 songs) was broadcast on NBC or CBS radio stations. Instead, the stations played songs in the public domain, regional music, and styles (like rhythm and blues or country) that had been traditionally disdained by ASCAP, resulting in many classical compositions being recorded by the big bands.”)
As it related to Glenn, this meant that none of his previous hits could be played on the radio, including his theme song, “Moonlight Serenade.” Also, his weekly medley feature of “Songs Old, New, Borrowed and Blue” would have to be shelved for the duration. The new songs from Glenn’s first feature film, SUN VALLEY SERENADE, had to remain on ice as well, so potential hits “Chattanooga Choo Choo” and “I Know Why” could only be heard on records for the time being.
To prepare for the ban, as early as October 1940, performers were instructed to start including BMI and public domain tunes into their on-air playlists so the changeover in January would not seem so abrupt. Glenn introduced “Slumber Song,” which would serve as his new theme song on his sponsored Chesterfield and sustaining broadcasts. He commissioned arrangements of classical melodies like “Anvil Chorus,” “Song of the Volga Boatmen” and “Goin’ Home.” New BMI quality pop songs including “There I Go,” “A Stone’s Throw from Heaven,” “You Walk By,” “I Hear a Rhapsody,” “Walkin’ By the River,”and “High on a Windy Hill” began showing up. Glenn also rifled the catalog of ancient melodies that were out of copyright – “Ida (Sweet as Apple Cider),” “There’ll Be Some Changes Made,” “Naughty Sweetie Blues” and Stephen Foster’s “Old Black Joe” and “Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair.”
Long-time recording pioneer Ralph Peer had founded his Southern Music publishing firm back in 1928. He controlled a great deal of country music and Latin compositions — two genres that ASCAP ignored. The Latin craze quickly hit American radio big time in 1941, with “Frenesi,” “Green Eyes,” “Yours,” “Amapola, “Perfidia,” “Brazil,“ “Amor,” “Besame Mucho” and “Siboney.” Most of these tunes had been kicking around for a decade or more and some already had English ASCAP lyrics. New sets of BMI lyrics were now fitted to them, to make the songs viable for radio play.
Southern Music also owned several of Hoagy Carmichael’s early songs and they became part of every 1941 band’s and singer’s on air features – “Georgia on My Mind,” “Lazy River” and “Rockin’ Chair.”
Finally, Glenn shifted his own Mutual Music firm to BMI, allowing many of the new compositions by bandsmen Jerry Gray, Bill Finegan and Billy May to be air-worthy. “Sun Valley Jump,” “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem,” “A String of Pearls” “Measure for Measure,” “The Spirit Is Willing, “Oh, So Good” and “Daisy Mae” were among the fresh additions to the band book.
On the vocal front, Glenn snatched Dorothy Claire from Bobby Byrne’s band as the replacement for Miss Hutton (which opened a can of worms with Byrne) and added the Four Modernaires vocal group to the entourage, comprised of Hal Dickinson, Bill Conway, Ralph Brewster and Chuck Goldstein. Glenn had used the Mods back in October 1940 for his Bluebird record of “Make Believe Ballroom Time,” which became the theme song for popular DJ Martin Block, a good friend of Miller’s. The Mods added vocal variety to the band and also provided additional value. Bill Conway was a talented guitarist and often played with the orchestra. Hal DIckinson and Conway were songwriters on the side and contributed “These Things You Left Me,” “A Love Song Hasn’t Been Sung,” “Spring Will Be So Sad,” “Pin Ball Paul” and “Nobody Ever Wants Me,” plus many special material vocal arrangements. Dickinson’s wife, Paula Kelly, was already a popular band singer and took over when Dorothy Claire was sent back to Bobby Byrne in March 1941.
Aside from the loss of his previous hits and radio medleys, all these changes show that Glenn was fully equipped to smoothly transition into 1941. The ASCAP bosses were convinced that performers would insist on accepting the increased fees for radio performances, but found to their shock that Glenn was not the only person to prepare for the loss of their songs. Most listeners barely noticed that all their favorites were now singing and playing new material and old Stephen Foster melodies. ASCAP finally crumbled at the end of October, accepting lower fees and allowing the return of their music to the airwaves. BMI had now become a force to reckon with and would claim an increasingly larger share of the popular music pie in years to come.
COMMUNITY SWING 