Jazz and Music of World War 11, Benny Goodman, Page made with Web Engine

Benny Goodman reigned supreme as one of the most popular band leaders. This collection contains many of the songs that associated him with the Big Band era and features the talents of Gene Krupa, Lionel Hampton, and Cootie Williams. Selections include "After You've Gone," "Let's Dance," and "Flying Home."

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy was the greatest composer in the history of jazz, and one of the genre's most accomplished bandleaders and pianists. Having moved from his native Washington to New York in 1923, he spent the next fifteen years assembling one of the slickest and most innovative ensembles that the burgeoning jazz world had seen. Well-established as a recording artist and live attraction, Ellington hireda collaborator in 1939: Billy Strayhorn co-wrote several great pieces with Ellington, received sole credit on the 1941 classic Take the A Train, and remained a trusted lieutenant until 1967. The early '40s saw the Duke at the peak ofhis career, but his band - in common with their contemporaries - was disrupted by the war. Although Ellington remained popular, it was not until '56 that he recaptured his musicalgreatness. Swinging through the '60s in fine form, Ellington's star had yet to fade when he died in May 1974. Exactly 3years later, Stevie Wonder topped the U.S. chart with his tribute Sir Duke - just one example of the esteem in Biography

William "Count" Basie
Harvey Lee Basie was a coachman and caretaker, and Lilly Ann Childs Basie was a laundress, taking in washing and ironing. A brother, James, died when William was a young boy. The family always owned a piano, and his mother paid twenty-five cents a lesson to Miss Vandevere for William to study with her.... Biography

Artie Shaw
At the age of 16 Artie went to Cleveland, where he remained for three years, the last two working with Austin Wylie, then Cleveland's top band leader, for whom Shaw took over all the arranging and rehearsing chores. In 1927 Artie heard several "race" records, the kind then being made solely for distribution in black (or "colored," as they were then known) districts. After listening entranced to Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five playing Savoy Blues, West End Blues, and other now-classic Louis Armstrong records from the late 1920's, Biography

Doris Day
from 1939 until the end of the 1940s, Doris Day was one of the hottest, sultriest swing band vocalists in music. That body of work -- which contains at least one unabashed classic early-'40s recording, "Sentimental Journey" -- is one of the most impressive in the fields of swing and popular jazz, and deserves to be heard far more than it is.Sentimental Journey" also became especially popular among American soldiers stationed overseas during World War II.
biography

Bing Crosby
White Christmas a song of peace and yearning for "the ones we used to know," was released to a war-torn public during the darkest days of World War II. By the end of the War it had become the biggest-selling single of all time. Bing's recording hit the charts on Oct. 3, 1942, and rose to #1 on Oct. 31, where it stayed for an amazing 11 weeks. In the following years Bing's recording hit the top top30 pop charts another 16 times, even topping the charts again in 1945 and January of '47. The song remains Bing's best-selling recording, and the best-selling Christmas single of all-time More about Bing

Lilly Marlene
Surely the favourite song of soldiers during World War II, Lili Marleen became the unofficial anthem of the foot soldiers of both forces in the war. Original German lyrics from a poem The Song of a Young Sentry by World War I German soldier, Hans Leip, who wrote these verses before going to the Russian front in 1915. His poem was later published in a collection of his poetry in 1937.
The poem's caught the attention of Norbert Schultze, who set the poem to music in 1938. Schulze was already rich and famous before the success of The Girl under the Lantern, who awaited her lover by the barrack gate. His operas, film scores, marches and tunes for politically inspired lyrics were successful. In 1945 the Allies told Schultze to forget about composing but he got back to it in 1948.
The tune had a rocky road. The propaganda secretary of the Nationalist-Socialist party, Joseph Goebbels didn't like the song, he wanted a march. Lale Andersen didn't want to sing it and the DJ who was supposed to get it on the charts also gave it two thumbs down. Recorded just before the war by Lale Andersen (Eulalia Bunnenberg), the song sold just 700 copies, until German Forces Radio began broadcasting it to the Afrika Korps in 1941. The songs was immediately banned in Germany, for its unhealthy character, which did nothing to slow its spread in popularity

Vera Lynn
Vera became the most popular British singer during the war hosting a BBC radio program, Sincerely Yours.
Her morale-building ballads were extremely popular with servicemen.She appeared in an armed forces stage revue and toured Burma in 1944.She also made three wartime films. "We'll meet again"1942, Rhythm Serenade (1943) and One Exciting Night (1944).
After the war ended, she retired, only to return to show business in 1947,touring and hosting a new radio program.
Her record label, Decca, promoted her in the U.S. during the musicians' strike of 1948 and she garnered a U.S. Top Ten hit with ''You Can't Be True, Dear.''
She became the first British artist o hit number one on the U.S. chart with ''Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart'' in 1952 In 1954, she scored her first and only British number one with ''My Son, My Son.''
She continued performing through the seventies,cutting back on public appearances during the eighties.
In 1976, she was made Dame Vera Lynn. Biography