Pennsylvania 6-5000 (song)

1940 RCA Victor Bluebird 78, B-10754-A, by Glenn Miller.

"Pennsylvania 6-5000" is a 1940 swing jazz and pop standard with music by Jerry Gray and lyrics by Carl Sigman. It was recorded by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra as an RCA Victor Bluebird 78 rpm single. According to a TV-interview with John Best, he originally improvised the famous trumpet-solo on the Glenn Miller recording of Pennsylvania 6-5000, and it is widely emulated ever since, on that tune.

Glenn Miller recording

Many big band names played in the Hotel Pennsylvania's Cafe Rouge in New York City, including the Glenn Miller Orchestra.^[1] The hotel's telephone number, PEnnsylvania 6-5000, inspired the Glenn Miller 1940 Top 5 Billboard hit of the same name, which had a 12-week chart run.^[2] The music was written by Jerry Gray and the lyrics by Carl Sigman. The 78 single was RCA Victor Bluebird 78 B-10754-A backed with "Rug Cutter's Swing".^[3]

Other recordings

The song became a jazz and big band standard also recorded by the Andrews Sisters, Judy Garland and Martha Raye in a duet, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, Louise Gold, Kathy Miller, Richard Hunt, and Jerry Nelson (in 1979), Martin Brushane Big Band, the Blue Moon Big Band (in 1999), in a 1976 Carol Burnett Show episode in a tribute to Glenn Miller, Syd Lawrence, Michael Maxwell and His Orchestra, Bobby Benson and the Baby Band in The Muppet Show episode 319 in 1979, Fud Candrix and His Orchestra, Jerry Gray, Mina, Lou Haskins, Jack Livingston, Raquel Rastenni in 1941 in Copenhagen, Starlight Orchestra, Klaus Wunderlich, New 101 Strings Orchestra, Heptet, Meco, Tex Beneke, The Modernaires, Jack Million Band, Al Pierson Big Band, BBC Big Band Orchestra, SWR Big Band, and by Captain Cook und seine singenden Saxophone in 2012.^[4]

1940 sheet music, Robbins Music, New York.

Fats Waller arranged the song for piano which was published in the UK songbook Francis & Day's Album of Fats Waller: Musical Rhythms in the 1940s.

In popular culture

In film

• It appears in Whit Stillman's Barcelona (1994).^[5]
• It appears in the Oliver Stone movie Any Given Sunday (1999).^[6]
• It is played in the 2001 movie The Majestic Starring Jim Carrey (2001).^[7]

In music

• The tune was referenced by synthpop duo Erasure on their little-known song "Sixty-Five Thousand" from The Innocents (1988) album.
• Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers sampled the song on the "Glenn Miller Medley" in 1989.

In television

• Judy Garland and Martha Raye performed the song with the Carl Sigman lyrics on a 1964 episode of The Judy Garland Show on CBS.
• The song appeared on a 1976 episode of the CBS series The Carol Burnett Show.
• The song was featured on a 1979 episode of The Muppet Show.
• The song is featured in the third episode of Twin Peaks (aired in 1990).^[8]
• The song appears on the American Dad! episode "The One That Got Away" (2008).^[9]
• The song appears in Stephen King's Rose Red (2002), and is referred to as PEnnsylvania 6-5000 (In the Mood).
• The song was referenced in the MASH episode "Sometimes you hear the bullet" (1973) by Frank Burns as giving him goosebumps.
• The song appeared in an episode of the The Simpsons TV series entitled "Million Dollar Abie" (2006).

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.

External links

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics