History O/T Music from WWII, the greatest American Generation

I have seen several posts before about music,.... I really love the music of the Big Band era especially the WWII era, Sometimes when we were kids my Dad would fire up the old Victrola and play his 78 R.P.M. for hours ,... I just started slapping together a really lack lusted 40's style Deuce Highboy with left over junk,..... just a parts chaser, something just to mess with between serious projects,....

Anyway working on this car and thinking about Dad (a WWII combat veteran that served in the Pacific ) those old songs just kept bouncing around in my head,... I found a sight that some of you might enjoy, its music from WWII, it's free and it's just a blast (for old farts like me anyway).

It's amazing when you think about it, that the entire nations people and industries put life as normal on hold to concentrate on the War effort, It's been said that it was the greatest American generation,...... even tho I am inclined to believe this,... I guess we all have to decide that for our self's,..
But I can tell you one thing for sure,.... even with all our misunderstandings and locking horns,.... the best man I ever knew, and my best friend of my life was Dad,.....


Music of WWII
http://www.6thcorpsmusic.us/

And heres a link to news broadcasts from 1918-1951
http://www.archive.org/details/worldwarIInewsOTRKIBM

I hope you enjoy,... Moderators, if you feel this is to far off topic or unsuitable in any way please delete this thread.

Here's the guilty party,....

 

I've still got one of my folks Glenn Miller albums... has all the great songs including In The Mood, Pennsylvania 6-5000, Moonlight Seranade and others.

I don't listen often but , when I do, it brings back the memories of my mom and dad doin' the jitterbug in our living room...

 

The soundtrack from the PBS series "The War" is new and old stuff but great music to work to as well!

 

I'm bookmarking that RIGHT THE F NOW!!!!

Thanks, man!

~Jason

 

Great post it really gets the mood right in the shop when Im workin on my 39,If ya ever get a chance find Benny Goodman live in carngie hall 1939 with Gene Kurpa on drums......

 

The Detroit PBS station is running "TheWar" series all day today. And folks think things are tough these days!. . . . Great background music from a great time in USA history. 'course I've already got most of the music, have loved big band & 30s/40s music since I was a kid.

 

Great post... "In the mood" by Glenn Miller is one of my favorites from that era, can't help but tap your feet! Thanks

 

As a real old fart,I was fortunate enough to see Gene Krupa in person,even went up on stage during a break and talked with him...good ole days

 

I'm not old enough to have enjoyed any of these bands first hand but during the 911 time a local station played Kate Smiths "God Bless America" every few hours. I fell in love with the sounds and have since amassed an enourmous collection of WWII era music. What a frightening yet wonderful time my parents lived through. They were able to enjoy the big band stuff and experience the rise of R&R and Doo Wop. When you listen to the great bands of the 40's you can really hear where early rock & roll acts like the Platters, Duprees and the Skyliners among many others came from.

 

My 2 favorite Miller tunes are =American Patrol & Jeep Jockey jump ! this is the stuff that gets the old school vibes rollin in my shop,anout 50% of the time

 

My dad will be 90 in February. B-17 mechanic in WW2. Got me into working on cars. He used to play all his old records on his player. He loved Pete Fountain a bit later.

 

do i feel like an ignoramous, i didnt realize they made music past 40's/50's! but seriously it is the best i love a good 6,7 or 8 piece swing band the best. and what the hell why not a little self promotion if you folks like rockabilly www.myspace.com/kevinfayteandthefortunes i play bass in this band.

 

Check out AOL radio. It's free, very few commercials, has a cool 40's station, plus many others. http://music.aol.com/radioguide/bb?flv=1&icid=templatized_template_test.M

hopefully that link works...

I love learning about wwII like the rest of you guys. here is my pappys squadron. He's around here someplace ready to drop some bombs.

 

This is the stuff I grew up with, I still can't get it out of my head. the music from this era has all ways been my 1'st choice . I need some thing that does not assault my ears.
I'm loveing that website, had to book mark it as soon as I could pull myself away .

Thanks .........Jack

 

Thanks for posting Harm that's a great link. I have a few cd's of big band stuff. I like the swing stuff and the jump jazz. It's great to listen to the Dorsey brothers and Harry James, those guys could rock the house. Praise the Lord and Pass the ammunition!

 

I still have Mom & Dad's old Detrola radio,.... they would dance around in the kitchen sometimes to the slower stuff,.... but when we were kids our family went to a wedding,.. during the reception ( I was angeling for a extra piece of cake),.... Mom & Dad got up on the dance floor,... geeezzzzz they were flying all around ,..... scared the daylights out of me !

Dad never totally understood my fixation with Hot Rods, one evening when he got home from work, he came out to the garage and was talking to me about the car,... one thing led to another and he started telling me about this crazy kid in his outfit that was always talking about Jalopies and Hop Up's,.... and how this Kid was able to trade a Nymbo pistol to a guy in a supply co. for some Coca Cola and a smoked Ham to share with the guy's,. he went on about other stories with a smile on his face,... we both laughed.
In a moment of ungraded stupidity I asked what ever happened to him ?...

The next few seconds drug on like hours with the most deafening silence I had ever heard in my life,....... not knowing what to say, I just started jabbering on about what I wanted to do with the car,...... in a few minutes Dad was back in the conversation,....

 

Thanks for the post. Its great to hear that music. I just book marked it.

 

I posted a bit earlier here, but forgot to mention those great old radio shows too. They're available all over the web on CDs and there's some really great listening, even the commercials! Fibber McGee & Molly, the Aldrich Family, Gildersleeve & others...lots of good stuff to listen to in the garage. And if you've got rod from those golden days I find it interesting to see what was playing from the same year the cars were built. That music is REAL! just like the cars.

 

Very cool man, I've been looking for a good online early swing radio station.. Thanks

 

Big Bands and cool jazz are what turn me on. Have a huge collection of LP's and play them every day.

My favorite internet station is Pandora.com ; you can select your favorite band or artist and it will select that artist's tunes along with others in the same style as the ones you select.(It's free and commercial free)

Have you seen Zach Suhr's clever video of his recreation of a boardtrack motocycle in the HAMB classified's? The background music is Stan Kenton's 1946 "Artistry Jumps". Fits perfectly with the old timey effects .

 

I am very happy to see the amount of respect we still have for our WW-2 vets hell all our vets.
I have a cd thats the best of the war years, jimmiy dorsey, tommy also, bob crosby as well as the first real girl super group the andrew sisters, the count, sir duke,
also for movies look for glen miller story the benny goodman story the band leaders wives, holleywood cantena,for the boys( one of the few movies you will see cab callaway, fats waller , bill robenson,Ms.Lena Horn,as well as the Nicklas Bros danceing
if you have never seen them dance go to you tube and look !

 

I grew up listening to 40's music, that and polka. I listen to the 40's on 4 quite a bit on XM while I am in the garage.

 

Awesome stuff guys....i LOVE the 40s Big band era of music, cars,. clothes , and style.

One of my favorite Internet Radio stations that I like to listen to when Im wrenching is this one:

http://www.live365.com/stations/torgen_magnusson

Just click the lil yellow button to listen.......


Great stuff !!

Rat

 

I am in this world because of Glenn Miller. My Dad met my mother in Plymouth England during the war. My Dad was a Captain at the time and was in charge of procurement for a Company. He was to fly across the English Channel on Army business when he was "bumped" from the plane by Glenn Miller. That's the plane that went down in the fog in the Channel with Glenn Miller on it. My Dad was supposed to be on that plane!!!! I agree that the misic of that era was great, and of course Glenn Miller is best!

 

Thanks Harm, I spent my hitch in the "gator navy" and never realized that there was an amphibious battle hymn til I saw this site. I'm bookmarking now thanks a million, Mike

 

don't forget Western Swing guys!! Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Al Dexter, Spade Cooley, Tex Williams, Hank Thompson, just to name a few of the more 'well known' groups. oh, and that ace brown and his ohio valley boys do pretty well

Some guys like Bob Wills, Hank Thompson and Spade Cooley had huge groups and could do "regular" swing sounding stuff but then throw fiddles and steel guitar in and BAM western swing. Cool stuff. There's a few good videos of these guys on youtube.

One of my favorite Western Swingers was Adolph Hofner who i believe was of Czech descent but living in texas. Once WWII kicked in he was still performing but changed his name to Dolf Hofner. He felt a name like Adolph (and even Hofner was close to Hitler) wasn't a good carreer move...not the Dolf was a name that demanded a crowd either...but at least it wasn't confused with Adolph Hitler!

 

I love music from the 40s. I grew up listening to that era of music with my grandparents. While I really wasn't into it growing up, nowadays I find myself playing their old records in their old house (which is now mine) pretty often. The house has somewhat of a finished basement they didn't really use. I plan to turn that whole area into a place where I can display my WWII memorabilia and the pictures of them from that era, their era.

I agree that the 40s station on XM plays a great selection. I also like their news bulletins, kind of like a this day in history segment.

 

Last month I donated 1,100 (78 rpm) records as well as a Hi Fi that once belonged to my Mother to the Alzheimers care unit where she resided before her death.

It took a group of 20 young volunteer students to catagorize and label the music and many of Students couldn't believe how Great the music was and that people from all over the facillity would gravitate to the music room just to listen to "REAL records.

No matter how far they are in their illness... they identify with records and then they would select the records they want to hear and "Sing along" with the songs....!

Our family lived in a house of music and my Mom sang in a choir and in community plays... so when she came down with "Dimencia" we had a stack of "CD's" and a small stereo.

What we found was that My Mother didn't understand "CD's" or how to operate the player that had a "million tiny buttons".. so all of us children would change out the music for her everytime we visited!

But we found out that when we'd take her to our house she'd put a record on the player and start sing along with it! (Old School Technology!)

I highly recommend that if you're sitting on a "Stack" of records... that you find a facility that would appreciate them and "Donate" them to a worthy cause...!

I've been told that All the nurses have noticed a positive difference not only in the patients but in the Staff as well...!

For Gods sake visit these homes and give back a little something to our elder generation that they can appreciate!

 

Holy crap! That's crazy.

Hank Penny too! Though they didn't really get famous until 1946.

Check out this link for some mp3 you can download.
http://www.stelzriede.com/ms/html/sub/mshws.htm

Also of note are some mp3s of Charlie and his Orchestra. They were the German Propaganda Swing Band, created by Goebbals. http://www.stelzriede.com/ms/html/sub/mshws.htm

I've loved big band music since I was a kid. Probably because of hearing Glenn Miller over the loud speakers at airshows. I learned to play clarinet specifically to play swing music in high school band. That of course went no where as they wouldn't let us play it. These days, I bet I have 2000 songs in my swing playlist on my iPod. (My iPod is probably 40% Swing, 40% Rockabilly and 20% '80s Hair Metal.)

Learning to swing dance was one of the greatest things I ever did. It was fun, and I got to meet tons of people, including the fine lady that would become my wife. If you like the music at all I highly suggest learning to swing dance. It's good exercise, it gives you a more personal connection to the era, and most of all, it's fun! I've been all over the country dancing. Even to Catalina Island, and saw Vic Edelbrock Jr walking around!

A few favorites:

Rum and Coca Cola: Andrews Sisters (or really ANYTHING by the Andrews Sisters. ) Listen to the lyrics. It's not the sweet song is appears to be if you're not paying attention.

One O Clock Jump: Count Basie

Anything by Django Reinhardt (betcha didn't see that coming... )

Hubba-hubba-hubba: Perry Como (listen for the B-29 reference)

Once Too Often: Betty Grable

Der Fuehrer's Face : Spike Jones (pretty good for a laugh)

No self respecting warbirder should be w/o Frenesi, Shoo Shoo Baby or Sentimental Journey!

Flat Foot Floogie

Jumpin' at the Woodside

Shout and Feel It : Count Basie

The version from the Swing Kids soundtrack was always a popular "jam" song at all the dances we went to, along with Sing Sing Sing. And they always played the longest version they could find.

Anyone else a swing dancer too?

Oh, and am I the only one that likes original recordings vs the "hi-fi" re-releases of the '50s and up? It just sounds weird (less authentic?) in stereo. Which sounds silly. I've been to enough swing dancing events and concerts (plus high school band playing clarinet) to know what a live orchestra is SUPPOSED to sound like vs the wartime recordings. Guess I'm just weird.

 

I've certainly done my share. So has Faith (HiBoy Girl).

~Jason