[78-L] 1950s big band (was Frosty)

[simmonssomer]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Julian Vein" <julianvein at blueyonder.co.uk>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] 1950s big band (was Frosty)


> David Lennick wrote:
>> Julian Vein wrote:
>>> simmonssomer wrote:
>>>> "April In Paris" was played over and over again in all the saloons near 
>>>> my
>>>> college campus in the early 50's. (So they tell me.)
>>>>
>>>> Al S.
>>> ==================
>>> Willis Conover did the same on the VOA's "Music USA - Jazz Hour".
>>>
>>> Weren't bands like the Elgarts, Buddy Morrow and Ralph Flanagan very
>>> popular?
>>>
>>> In Britain we had Ted Heath, Johnny Dankworth and the Basil and Ivor
>>> Kirchin band.
>>>
>>>       Julian Vein
>>>
>>
>> Nobody's saying they weren't popular, only that there were virtually no 
>> big
>> band hit singles after 1954. And I think we've listed the two exceptions.
>>
>> dl
> ==================
> But how many big bands were there prewar? Were they outclassed by
> singers and sweet bands?
>
>      Julian Vein
>
The question is..how many pre-war big bands were there before the big band 
(or swing) era.
Let's list a few that played swing madly *before* the so called swing era.
Joe Haymes, Luis Russell, Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Earl Hines,
Benny Moten, Don Redman, McKinney's Cotton Pickers, Chick Webb,
Mills Blue Rhythm Band, Casa Loma Orch. Fletcher Henderson, Claude Hopkins,
Dorsey Bros, Teddy Hill, Ben Pollack.
In the U.K. Hylton, Lew Stone, Roy Fox.

They tell us it was Benny Goodman who started it all.
Balderdash!

And, yes ..the singers were vastly outclassed in numbers and in public favor 
by the big bands. The big bands , of course, had their "boy singers" but 
these fellows with a few exceptions such as Al Bowlly,Frank Sinatra and 
perhaps Bob Eberle and such were popular but not nearly the primary 
attractions that
singers were to become in the middle and late forties.
Guy Lombardo lasted longer and made more money than any other band leader, 
sweet or hot.
Many sweet and "hotel" (tenor lead)  bands were the  favorites in the 
Mid-Western dance palladiums but the kids who paid the freight liked the 
hundreds of "hotter" swing orks with Shaw, Miller, Dorsey and Goodman 
usually leading the huge pack.

Al S.