I love having my record collection on something that can fit in the palm of my hand. But there is one thing I truly miss, LINER NOTES. I really enjoy reading through those album notes on the backs and inner sleeves of those old, dusty records. There are so many tidbits that can be found that never made it to the Web or into any books.
Here are just a few song notes I grabbed from some Glenn Miller albums that I thought were interesting. Enjoy!
Moonlight Serenade:
Composed by Glenn originally as an assignment for the famous music theorist and tutor Joseph Schillinger, with whom Miller studied, the melody was first titled "Now I lay Me Down to Weep." Later, Glenn named his great song "Gone with the Dawn", but in 1938, when he adopted it as his signature, he changed it to the well known title: "Moonlight Serenade".
- Glenn Miller On The Air, Volume 3
Mutiny in the Nursery:
Tin Pan Alley had been making hay with such children's rhymes as "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" and "Three Little Fishies". Johnny Mercer, quite possibly with tongue in cheek, produced this answer song involving Marion Hutton, Tex Beneke, Ray Eberle and the Band in the vocal.
- Glenn Miller On The Air, Volume 1
Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree:
Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (with Anyone Else But Me) was a big hit in 1942 for The Andrews Sisters, who performed it on screen in a wartime musical called "Private Buckaroo". Their version was outsold, however, by Glenn Miller's studio recording, which reached Number 1 in July of that year ... Notice how carefully every word is enunciated. As Beneke once pointed out, Miller was quite strict about not slurring the lyrics. "Don't sing, 'Don-si-tunder the yapple tree'" Miller would warn. "Sing, 'Don't sit under the apple tree.'"
- Glenn Miller Live!, Reader's Digest Collection
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