This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1944.
"In the Mood" is a popular big band-era jazz standard recorded by American bandleader Glenn Miller. "In the Mood" is based on the composition "Tar Paper Stomp" by Wingy Manone. The first recording under the name "In the Mood" was released by Edgar Hayes & His Orchestra in 1938.
Oscar Pettiford was an American jazz double bassist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom.
Irving Milfred Mole known professionally as Miff Mole, was an American jazz trombonist and band leader. He is generally considered one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating "the first distinctive and influential solo jazz trombone style."
Oswald George Nelson was an American actor, filmmaker, musician, and bandleader. He originated and starred in The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, a radio and television series with his wife Harriet and two sons David and Ricky Nelson.
The Wizard is a 1989 American family film directed by Todd Holland, written by David Chisholm, and starring Fred Savage, Jenny Lewis, Beau Bridges, Christian Slater, and Luke Edwards. It was also Tobey Maguire's uncredited film debut.
Iris Adrian Hostetter was an American stage and film actress.
Follow the Fleet is a 1936 American RKO musical comedy film with a nautical theme starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in their fifth collaboration as dance partners. It also features Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, and Astrid Allwyn, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. Lucille Ball and Betty Grable also appear, in supporting roles. The film was directed by Mark Sandrich with script by Allan Scott and Dwight Taylor based on the 1922 play Shore Leave by Hubert Osborne.
The Modernaires were an American vocal group, best known for performing in the 1940s with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
William McLeish Smith was an American saxophonist and one of the major alto saxophone players of the swing era. He also played clarinet and sang.
"Chicago" is a popular song written by Fred Fisher and published in 1922. The original sheet music variously spelled the title "Todd'ling" or "Toddling." The song has been recorded by many artists, but the best-known versions are by Frank Sinatra, Ben Selvin and Judy Garland. The song alludes to the city's colorful past, feigning "... the surprise of my life / I saw a man dancing with his own wife", mentioning evangelist Billy Sunday as having not been able to "shut down" the city, and State Street where "they do things they don't do on Broadway".
Frank Gibson Jr. is a New Zealand jazz drummer and drum tutor. His father, also Frank Gibson, was drummer and leader of the first rock’n’roll band in the country, Frank Gibson's Rock’n’Rollers.
Milton "Milt" Herth was an American jazz organist, known for his work on the Hammond organ soon after it was introduced in 1935. Herth's work is available from his recordings of the 1930s and 1940s.
David Michael Barbour was an American jazz guitarist. He was married to singer Peggy Lee and was her co-writer, accompanist, and bandleader.
Lee and Lyn Wilde, sometimes billed as The Wilde Twins, were twin sisters, who appeared in films of the early to mid-1940s.
John Marcus Lathrop was an American vocalist and guitarist with the Tune Twisters, Glenn Miller, and Hal McIntyre. Beginning around 1947, Lathrop was leader of the Drug Store Cowboys.
Unforgettable – A Musical Tribute to Nat King Cole is a soundtrack album released in the UK in 1983 by the CBS Records division of Columbia in conjunction with the broadcast of American pop singer Johnny Mathis's BBC television concert special of the same name that featured Cole's daughter Natalie. The front of the original album jacket credits the concert performers as "Johnny Mathis and Natalie Cole", whereas the CD booklet reads, "Johnny Mathis with special guest Natalie Cole".
Steppin' in Society is a 1945 American comedy film directed by Alexander Esway, written by Bradford Ropes, and starring Edward Everett Horton, Gladys George, Ruth Terry, Robert Livingston, Jack La Rue and Lola Lane. It was released on July 9, 1945, by Republic Pictures.
"Boo-Woo" is the A-side of the 78-rpm jazz instrumental single recorded on February 1, 1939 by Harry James and The Boogie Woogie Trio.
Charles LaVere Johnson, better known as Charlie LaVere was an American jazz pianist, vocalist, bandleader, and composer. He is best known for his extensive work with arranger Gordon Jenkins, including the 1948 million seller “Maybe You’ll Be There”, his own dixie jazz group LaVere's Chicago Loopers, and his later work for Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe Revue, for which he composed the music and led the band performances from 1955 to 1959, and which would go on to become the longest running stage show in the history of show business, running for over 31 years and over 39,000 performances.
