Big Band Bash

For the next few weeks, I am repeating a couple of shows that I produced almost ten years ago. This first one was called A 1940's Christmas. I tried to pick out as many songs from the Big Bands that were recorded during the 1940s as I could find. Today, there are lots of songs about Christmas but back in the forties there were not that many. I tried to put all of the forties Holiday songs in this...

Hello everyone. This episode of Big Band Bash is a repeat of a show I produced in 2011 where we paid tribute to the men and women who lost their lives during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Also, I pay tribute to Major Glenn Miller who dissappeared in the plane he was flying in across the English Channel on December 15, 1944. I always like to remember those events as they were very...

This week we continue our look at the radio program Your Hit Parade with part five featuring music from the years of 1948 and 1949. This is from a 10 cd set and I have combined two cds for each program. With this show we come to the end of this great set of cds. I hope you hear some of your favorite songs as I explore the great music presented on Your Hit Parade. Please visit this podcast at http:...

This week we continue our look at the radio program Your Hit Parade with part four featuring music from the years of 1946 and 1947. This is from a 10 cd set and I have combined two cds for each program. I hope you hear some of your favorite songs as I explore the great music presented on Your Hit Parade. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This week we continue our look at the radio program Your Hit Parade with part three featuring music from the years of 1944 and 1945. This is from a 10 cd set and I have combined two cds for each program. I hope you hear some of your favorite songs as I explore the great music presented on Your Hit Parade. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This week we continue our look at the radio program Your Hit Parade with part two featuring music from the years of 1942 and 1943. This is from a 10 cd set and I have combined two cds for each program. I hope you hear some of your favorite songs as I explore the great music presented on Your Hit Parade. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

On our program today we start part one of a five-part series on the radio program Your Hit Parade. Each Saturday evening the biggest song hits of the week were presented on Your Hit Parade. This is from a 10 cd set and I have combined two cds for each program. I hope you hear some of your favorite songs as I explore the great music presented on Your Hit Parade. Please visit this podcast at http://...

We continue this week with part two of a Reader's Digest records production called These Were Our Songs, The Late 1940's. This was a seven vinyl album set and rereleased as a four cd set. Featuring music from the years of 1946 - 1949. This is part two and I hope you enjoy the selections I have chosen. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

Well I apologize but I ran into some family problems and was not able to finish part two of the Reader's Digest set I promised for this week. So to substitute I have chose a show I previously produced on the Late Gene Krupa. Gene passed away on October 16, 1974. I wanted to note his passing and to rediscover some of the great music he produced. I will try to be back with part two of The Late 1940'...

This is another set I managed to get a copy of. It was produced by Reader's Digest records and called These Were Our Songs, The Late 1940's. This was a seven vinyl album set and rereleased as a four cd set. Featuring music from the years of 1946 - 1949. This is part one and I hope you enjoy the selections I have chosen. Next Week is Part Two. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogs...

From the patriotic show, The Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands, I am playing three radio remotes. The bands we will be listening to are Les Brown, Gene Krupa, and Charlie Spivak. The Les Brown show is from April 25, 1945. I hope you enjoy these shows broadcast during World War Two. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

We continue this week with Part Two of a Reader's Digest collection called These Were Our Songs, The Late 1930's. This featues music from the years of 1936 -1939. This set was originally released as a seven vinyl lp set which was rereleased as a four CD set. I hope you enjoy the music from this Reader's Digest set. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

I managed to get a copy of this set from Reader's Digest Records. It is called These Were Our Songs, The Late 1930's. This was a seven vinyl album set and rereleased as a four cd set. Featuring music from the years of 1936 - 1939. This is part one and I hope you enjoy the selections I have chosen. Next Week is Part Two. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

September 21st is right around the beginning of Autumn. I thought I would do something different this week and celebrate the Autun time of the year with songs about September and Autumn. There were several songs with September in the title so I hope you enjoy this show as we begin the Autumn time of the year. Please visit this podcast at http://bigbandbashfm.blogspot.com

This week I am following up with Part 2 of the Time-Life series, The Swing Era, with the second half from the years of 1944-1945. I had so much fun tracking down the originals in this series. As I have done in previous shows from the Time-Life series I am playing the original recordings and following along with the playlist from this set. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Good...

This week we return to the Time-Life series, "The Swing Era", with the volume from the years of 1944-1945. These were still the war years but there were still some great recordings made. As I have done in previous shows from the Time-Life series I am playing the original recordings. We'll be hearing from Harry James, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Les Brown and more. There are a few more...

This week on Big Band Bash I'll be taking a look at many of the vocal groups that sang with the big bands and on their own. There were several popular groups back then and we'll be hearing from The Andrews Sisters, The Ink Spots, The Mills Brothers, The King Sisters, and The Pied Pipers. In addition to recordings, I'll be giving a short history of each group many of which are quite interesting. Pl...

We continue this week with Part two of my Big Band Revival. I got the ides from the many churches I see having revivals. I needed to get excited again about the great bands I fell in love with when I was a teenager discovering all these great bands. I am continuing with some of the many recordings I enjoyed and hope you like them too in part two of my Big Band Revival. Please visit this podcast at...

Every now and then I need to revive my love of the Big bands. This program and the next are ones where I have picked out some of the recordings that made me a life long fan of the Big Bands. I loved discovering the geat recordings of Benny and Tommy, The Duke and the Count, Artie and Jimmy to name just a few. I hope you enjoy some of the recordings I loved in a program I call My Big Band Revival....

This week I'm going to be playing the third and final record in this three record set that features many hits from the Bluebird record label. When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It w...

I'm going to be playing the second record in this three record set that features many hits from the Columbia record label. When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with...

When I was a youngster my dad bought a three record set called The Big Bands. In it were songs that went along with a book by George T. Simon. Each record was devoted to a particular record label. The three labels were Decca, Columbia, and RCA Bluebird. It was a nice set with a lot of the hits from the big band era. I came across this set the other day and thought it would be great to hear all tho...

I'm back from vacation and have some new programs under way. Here is the first, spotlighting one of my favorite big bands. Will Bradley was a great trombonist who worked with several name orchestras when he was persuaded to start up his own orchestra in 1939. They had an exciting pianist in Freddie Slack and sperked an interest in boogie woogie with their hit Beat Me Daddy Eight To The Bar. I hope...

May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. We continue our celebration of his birthday with some of his hits from the 1940's. These are some of my favorite recordings from the Herman Herd, songs like Caldonia, Early Autumn, Four Brothers, Northwest Passage and more. Plus, in this episode I have a few segments from an interview that...

May 13th is the birthday of Woody Herman and if he were alive today that would have been his 100th birthday. To celebrate this milestone we will be playing some of his early recordings made between the years of 1939 and 1946 on the show today which is part one of two. I was fortunate enough to see the Herman band in person not once but twice. They were a very exciting band and I have been a fan ev...