| "Moonlight Cocktail" | |
|---|---|
 Sheet music for Moonlight Cocktail | |
| Song by Glenn Miller | |
| Released | 1941 |
| Recorded | 1941 |
| Genre | Jazz, Big Band |
| Label | RCA Victor |
| Composer(s) | Luckey Roberts |
| Lyricist(s) | Kim Gannon |
"Moonlight Cocktail" is a 1941 big band song recorded by Glenn Miller during World War II. [1] The music was composed by Luckey Roberts and the lyrics by Kim Gannon.
The song was originally recorded by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra on December 8, 1941, [2] the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The 78 rpm disc was released by Bluebird Records as #11401. Vocals were by Ray Eberle and The Modernaires. "Happy in Love" was on the B-side. The song had its first public performance in January 1942 on WABC radio in New York City. [3] It was the best-selling record in the United States for ten weeks, from February 28, 1942 to May 2, 1942, and was the number two record for that year after Bing Crosby's "White Christmas".
The music originated three decades earlier as a 1912 ragtime composition by Charles Luckeyeth Roberts called "Ripples of the Nile", described as "a syncopated tune that baffled the arrangers of the day". [3] Roberts, known by his nickname of "Luckey" or "Lucky", was a composer with a career that lasted many decades. "Ripples of the Nile" was a musical challenge: "a fast number with right hand figuration of the greatest technical difficulty, and none of Luckey's pupils, including the great James P. Johnson, could execute it perfectly. Subsequently, he found it necessary to score it as a slow number, and publish it as 'Moonlight Cocktail'". [4]
The lyrics were written by New York attorney James Kimball "Kim" Gannon, who had dabbled with songwriting and poetry for years, before becoming a full-time songwriter when about 40 years old. [5] Gannon, who wrote under the nickname "Kim", compared the development of a romantic relationship to the mixing of an alcoholic beverage in "Moonlight Cocktail". The following year, he wrote the lyrics to an even more enduring hit song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas".
Billboard called "Moonlight Cocktail" a "smash hit" and wrote "It's one of the smoothest, danceable discs we've reviewed in many a moon. A rippling piano and tenor sax feature the orchestral arrangement and Ray Eberle and the Modernaires take care of the vocal". [6] In a later issue, Billboard wrote that the song was "imaginative and colorful" and featured a "sweet harmony with a dish of romance". [7]
During World War II, the BBC initiated a program called "Victory Through Harmony" that sought to use musical radio broadcasts to maintain wartime morale and increase weapons production. [8] Some types of music were seen as a hindrance to such goals. Along with many other popular songs of the era, "Moonlight Cocktail" was banned by the BBC as "sentimental slush" in August 1942. [9] [10]
Mary Martin sang the song on the radio for the troops. [3] Within six months, cover versions were recorded by Bing Crosby (on January 27, 1942), [11] [3] Horace Heidt, [3] Tommy Tucker, [3] Dolly Dawn and her Dawn Patrol, [3] Glen Gray, [12] and Joe Reichman and his Orchestra. [13]
Chico Marx performed the music on piano in the Marx Brothers 1946 film, A Night in Casablanca . [14]
The song was later covered by Mel Tormé for his 1960 album Swingin' on the Moon , [15] Michael Holliday for his album To Bing - from Mike (1962) [16] and Stanley Black. [17]
Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann recorded the song on his 1957 Mercury album Swinging Guitar, MG 20200, as an instrumental for electric guitar. [18]
Nearly sixty years later, Andrea Marcovicci performed the song in her cabaret show "Double Old Fashioned", described as "piercing nostalgia leavened with humor". [19]
Charles Luckyth Roberts, better known as Luckey Roberts, was an American composer and stride pianist who worked in the jazz, ragtime, and blues styles. Roberts performed as musician, band/orchestra conductor, and dancer. He taught music and dance. He also owned a restaurant and bar in New York City and in Washington, D.C. Luckey Roberts noted compositions include "Junk Man Rag", "Moonlight Cocktail", "Pork and Beans" (1913), and "Railroad Blues".
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was an American swing dance band that was formed by Glenn Miller in 1938. Arranged around a clarinet and tenor saxophone playing melody, and three other saxophones playing harmony, the band became the most popular and commercially successful dance orchestra of the swing era and one of the greatest singles charting acts of the 20th century. As of 2024, Ray Anthony is the last surviving member of the orchestra.
Marion Hutton was an American singer and actress. She is best remembered for her singing with the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 1938 to 1942. She was the sister of actress and singer Betty Hutton.
The Glenn Miller Story is a 1954 American biographical film about the eponymous American band-leader, directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their second non-western collaboration.
Gordon Lee "Tex" Beneke was an American saxophonist, singer, and bandleader. His career is a history of associations with bandleader Glenn Miller and former musicians and singers who worked with Miller. His band is also associated with the careers of Eydie Gormé, Henry Mancini and Ronnie Deauville. Beneke also solos on the recording the Glenn Miller Orchestra made of their popular song "In The Mood" and sings on another popular Glenn Miller recording, "Chattanooga Choo Choo". Jazz critic Will Friedwald considers Beneke to be one of the major blues singers who sang with the big bands of the early 1940s.
"It Happened in Sun Valley" is a 1941 song composed by Harry Warren, with lyrics by Mack Gordon. It was recorded and featured by Glenn Miller and his orchestra in the movie Sun Valley Serenade.
The Modernaires were an American vocal group, best known for performing in the 1940s with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Orchestra Wives is a 1942 American musical film by 20th Century Fox starring Ann Rutherford, George Montgomery, and Glenn Miller. Lynn Bari, Carole Landis, and Cesar Romero appear in support.
"Skylark" is an American popular song with lyrics by Johnny Mercer and music by Hoagy Carmichael, published in 1941.
"Moonlight Bay" is a popular song. It is commonly referred to as "On Moonlight Bay". The lyrics were written by Edward Madden, the music by Percy Wenrich, and was published in 1912. It is often sung in a barbershop quartet style. Early successful recordings in 1912 were by the American Quartet and by Dolly Connolly.
"Moonlight Becomes You" is a popular song composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Johnny Burke. The song was written for the Paramount Pictures release Road to Morocco (1942) and published in 1942 in connection with the film. Vic Schoen wrote the arrangement.
"Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee" is a song by Irving Berlin appearing in the musical comedy Face the Music, which opened in 1932. On opening night it was sung by J. Harold Murray and Katherine Carrington. The song, set in a self-service restaurant modeled on the Horn & Hardart Automat, is sung in the play by a group of once-wealthy citizens who were awaiting better times, as mirrored in the song's opening lyrics:
"Serenade in Blue" is a 1942 big band song composed by Harry Warren, with lyrics written by Mack Gordon. It was introduced in the 1942 film Orchestra Wives by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, sung by Lynn Bari in the film but dubbed by Pat Friday.
Between 1938 and 1944, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra released 266 singles on the monaural ten-inch shellac 78 rpm format. Their studio output comprised a variety of musical styles inside of the Swing genre, including ballads, band chants, dance instrumentals, novelty tracks, songs adapted from motion pictures, and, as the Second World War approached, patriotic music.
James Kimball "Kim" Gannon was an American songwriter, more commonly a lyricist than a composer.
"Conchita Marquita Lolita Pepita Rosita Juanita Lopez" is a 1942 novelty song recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra; Bing Crosby with the Vic Schoen Orchestra; Dinah Shore; The Four King Sisters; Tommy Tucker and his Orchestra; and the Royal Air Force Dance Orchestra.
For music from an individual year in the 1940s, go to 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49
"I Know Why " is a 1941 song by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. The song appeared in the 20th Century Fox movie Sun Valley Serenade. The song was also released as an RCA Bluebird 78 single.
"Elmer's Tune" is a 1941 big band and jazz standard written by Elmer Albrecht, Dick Jurgens and Sammy Gallop. Glenn Miller and his Orchestra and Dick Jurgens and his Orchestra both charted with recordings of the composition.
"The Lamplighter's Serenade" is a song written by Hoagy Carmichael (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics). The construction of the song was unusual and did not conform to the normal AABA pattern. Instead, Carmichael used an ABA format that proved most effective.
Moonlight Cocktail.
