Elmer's Tune
"Elmer's Tune" is a 1941 big band and jazz standard written by Elmer Albrecht, Sammy Gallop, and Dick Jurgens. Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and Dick Jurgens and his Orchestra both charted with recordings of the composition.
Background
Elmer Albrecht was a young mortician who worked next door to Chicago's Aragon Ballroom and received permission to use one of their pianos on his lunch hours. Bandleader Dick Jurgens liked one of the melodies he heard Albrecht play and arranged it for his orchestra. Lyricist Sammy Gallop added words.
Both Glenn Miller and Dick Jurgens had hit recordings of the song in 1941. The Glenn Miller recording of "Elmer's Tune" with Ray Eberle on lead vocals with the Modernaires on RCA Bluebird, released as B-11274-A, backed with "Delilah", was no.1 for one week on the Billboard Best Sellers chart for the week of December 13, 1941 in a 20 week chart run.[1] Dick Jurgens and His Orchestra also had a top 10 hit with the song as an instrumental, released as Okeh 6209, peaking at no. 8 on Billboard in 1941.
Other recordings
The song became a big band and jazz standard that has been recorded by Benny Goodman with Peggy Lee on vocals, Jimmy Dorsey, Horst Jankowski, Al Hirt, Dick Todd, Guy Lombardo, Matty Malneck, Muggsy Spanier, Blue Barron, Gene Krupa, Jimmy Blade's Music, Wayne King, Lawrence Welk, Herb Remington, Al Russ, Shay Torrent, Carroll Gibbons, Flip Black, Del Wood, Jackie Lee, Kathy Linden, the Dartmouth Barbary Coast Orchestra, Shep Fields, The Charioteers, Dot Rankin and Charles Norman, Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five, Geraldo and His Orchestra, and The Andrews Sisters.
References
Sources
- Flower, John (1972). Moonlight Serenade: a bio-discography of the Glenn Miller Civilian Band. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House. ISBN 0-87000-161-2.
- Miller, Glenn (1943). Glenn Miller's Method for Orchestral Arranging. New York: Mutual Music Society. ASIN: B0007DMEDQ
- Simon, George Thomas (1980). Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. New York: Da Capo paperback. ISBN 0-306-80129-9.
- Simon, George Thomas (1971). Simon Says. New York: Galahad. ISBN 0-88365-001-0.
- Schuller, Gunther (1991). Volume 2 of The Swing Era:the Development of Jazz, 1930–1945 /. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-507140-9.