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9 unusual facts about Tommy Dorsey


Alan Dell

He won a 1983 Grammy Award in the Best Historical Album category for The Tommy Dorsey/Frank Sinatra Sessions - Vols.

Sherm Feller

Among the famous performers he knew and counted as friends were Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, and Tommy Dorsey ("Sherm Feller Dies," 4).

This Is No Dream

"This Is No Dream" is a 1939 song co-written by Tommy Dorsey with Benny Davis and Ted Shapiro and released as a 78 single by his orchestra.

WAVO

On July 10, 2008 at 11:50 A.M., WAVO ended its simulcast of WHVN to begin playing music by artists such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis, Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey who had once been heard on WNMX, also operated by the same company as WAVO.

Willie Moretti

In the Sopranos episode D-Girl, the character Christopher Moltisanti tells Jon Favreau the story of Moretti intimidating Tommy Dorsey, which Favreu cites as the inspiration for the Corleone family's efforts to intimidate studio head Jack Woltz into casting Johnny Fontane in one of his movies (by killing one of his prized race horses and putting the head in Woltz's bed) in The Godfather.

Finally, in 1939, Sinatra signed a recording contract with band leader Tommy Dorsey.

WNSW

During the week though they played a Standards format with artists like Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Petula Clark, Tony Bennett, Tommy Dorsey, Peggy Lee, Elvis Presley, Nat King Cole, Pat Boone, The Carpenters, Jack Jones, Tom Jones, the Andrews Sisters, Bobby Darin, James Taylor, the Four Aces, Johnny Mathis, Artie Shaw, Righteous Brothers, etc.

WWJZ

The sounds of Brook Benton, Tommy Dorsey, Margaret Whiting, Doris Day, Frankie Laine and many others covered the east coast from Cape Cod to Cape Hattaras from October 1992 into 1993, emanating from an ancient General Electric transmitter of the type used by the venerable WJZ in its days as flagship of the NBC Blue Network.

You Taught Me to Love Again

"You Taught Me to Love Again" is a 1939 song written and recorded by Tommy Dorsey and released as a 78 single.


African Americans in Davenport, Iowa

Another white Quad Cities musician, Louie Bellson (born "Luigi Ballasoni") of nearby Moline, Illinois, the son of a music store owner, played drums for the Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington bands, and married Pearl Bailey.

Ben Selvin

From 1927 to 1934 he was A&R Director for Columbia Records, where his many productions included scores of exceptionally well performed pop songs of the day with hot jazz solos by musicians like Manny Klein, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, and Bunny Berigan, among others.

Bill Finegan

Finegan was offered a job as a staff arranger for Glenn Miller after Tommy Dorsey bought a copy of his "Lonesome Road" and recommended him; he remained with Miller until 1942, and arranged such hits as "Little Brown Jug", "Sunrise Serenade", "Song of the Volga Boatmen", and "Jingle Bells", arranged in collaboration with Glenn Miller.

Birmingham Bounce

Others that have recorded Birmingham Bounce include Hardrock Gunter, Tommy Dorsey, Amos Milburn, Lionel Hampton, Sid Phillips, Ted Heath, and Tex Williams.

Dave Schiavone

Schiavone has also performed extensively across the United States and across the world with artists such as Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Doc Severinsen, Nancy Wilson, Natalie Cole, Harry Connick Jr., and Johnny Mathis.

Dick Jacobs

During World War II he served in the United States Army, then returned to the city and spent several years arranging for Tommy Dorsey, then partnered with Sy Oliver to pursue freelance arranging work.

Dixieland Jass Band One-Step

Jack Teagarden, Tommy Dorsey and his Clambake Seven, Coleman Hawkins, and Doc Evans in 1947 also recorded the song under the title "Original Dixieland One-Step".

Emmett Miller

His backup group - The Georgia Crackers - included noted jazz musicians Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, and Eddie Lang.

Ivan Ackery

Live shows at the Orpheum during the Ackery years featured performing greats like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Tommy Dorsey, George Burns, Jack Benny and Chief Dan George.

Milt Raskin

He then played with Teddy Powell and Alvino Rey before joining Krupa again for a short time, then joined the orchestra of Tommy Dorsey from 1942 to 1944, replacing Joe Bushkin.

Mississippi Suite

Frank Sinatra recorded "Daybreak" twice, once with Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra on July 1, 1942, and nineteen years later, on May 2, 1961, for the album called "I Remember Tommy".

Nick Travis

In 1944 he joined the military; after his service he played with Ray McKinley (1946-50, intermittent), Benny Goodman (1948-49), Gene Krupa, Ina Ray Hutton, Tommy Dorsey, Tex Beneke, Herman once more (1950-51), Jerry Gray, Bob Chester, Elliot Lawrence, and Jimmy Dorsey (1952-53).

Rita Quintero

Just a short time later she began working as a session singer for recording studios; she has sung backing vocals for artists such as Frank Sinatra, Imanol, José José, Jennifer Lopez, the Tommy Dorsey Band, Ricky Martin, Julio Iglesias, Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Gloria Estefan, and Céline Dion.

Rube Bloom

During his career, he worked with many well-known performers, including Bix Beiderbecke, Joe Venuti, Ruth Etting, and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

Sonny Russo

He had a long list of associations with noted jazz musicians; he started out with Buddy Morrow in 1947, and then played with Lee Castle (1948), Sam Donahue (1949), Artie Shaw (1949–50), Art Mooney (1950), Tito Puente, Jerry Wald, Tommy Tucker, Buddy Rich, Ralph Flanagan (1951–52), the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra (1953–55), Neal Hefti (1954–55), Jimmy Dorsey and Tommy Dorsey (1955–56), and Maynard Ferguson (1956).

Sterling Bose

He had many gigs in New York in the 1930s and 1940s, including time with Joe Haymes (1934-35) and Tommy Dorsey (1935), Ray Noble (1936), Benny Goodman (1936), Lana Webster, Glenn Miller (1937), Bob Crosby (1937-39), Bobby Hackett (1939), Bob Zurke, Jack Teagarden, Bud Freeman (1942), George Brunies, Bobby Sherwood (1943), Miff Mole, Art Hodes, Horace Heidt (1944), and Tiny Hill (1946).

The California Ramblers

The California Ramblers were the first group to record the classic song "Has Anybody Seen My Gal?", in 1925, and many people in or associated with the band — Red Nichols, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Elwood Madeo Jr., and manager Ed Kirkeby — became some of the most famous and influential figures of the Big Band era.

The Fabulous Dorseys

The Fabulous Dorseys is a 1947 fictionalized biographical film which tells the story of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, from their boyhood in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania through their rise, their breakup, and their personal reunion.

The Four Freshmen

The Four Freshmen is an American male vocal band quartet that blends open-harmonic jazz arrangements with the big band vocal group sounds of The Modernaires (Glenn Miller), The Pied Pipers (Tommy Dorsey), and The Mel-Tones (Artie Shaw), founded in the barbershop tradition.

The Great Morgan

Segments include a musical number featuring dancer Eleanor Powell cut from one of her early 1940s musicals (some sources erroneously state the scene comes from Broadway Melody of 1936, but in fact it was a scene cut from her 1939 film Honolulu), several songs by Carlos Ramirez, and a musical number by Virginia O'Brien backed by Tommy Dorsey and orchestra.

The One And Only Tommy Dorsey

The One And Only Tommy Dorsey is an album released in 1961 featuring Tommy Dorsey and his band playing, accompanied by a number of singers such as Frank Sinatra, Jack Leonard, and the Pied Pipers.


see also

Johnny Mince

Johnny Mince appeared in two movies during his career: The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935) as part of the Ray Noble Orchestra and in Las Vegas Nights (1941) as a clarinetist in the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

Steve Rucker

Steve also performed or recorded with Michael Jackson, Paquito D'Rivera, Barry Gibb, Jaco Pastorius, Joe Sample, Johnny Cash, Bo Diddley, the Woody Herman Big Band, the Tommy Dorsey Band (with Warren Covington), Sam Moore and Bob James.

The Sentimentalists

Peggy Clark Schwartz (the widow of clarinetist Willie Schwartz of the Glenn Miller Orchestra), later recalled, in the Tommy Dorsey biography, authored by Peter J. Levinson, that she and her sisters may have been a little naive when they originally went to work for Dorsey: "In those days, you had to be young and stupid. You also had to be pretty needy ... it was almost comical when you look at it; it was part of the growing-up process!"

Hailing from Grand Forks, North Dakota, they were a mere seventeen to twenty-three years of age, when they signed with the Tommy Dorsey Band, in 1944, to replace the popular Pied Pipers, after the Pipers had quit Dorsey's band to go out on their own.

Yes Indeed

Yes, Indeed!, a 1990 album by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra