Monday has arrived – and you know that Monday means music! For the month of March, our Spotlight Dancer is our fearless leader and brainchild of Monday’s Music Moves Me, our very own Marie of Xmas Dolly! The theme selected for this week is “Glenn Miller Songs”. 

I’m just going to share my absolute favorite Glenn Miller song, since he was before my time, so I didn’t have a lot of exposure to his talent. 😉 This song was written for Sun Valley Serenade, a 1941 movie starring Sonja Henie, Milton Berle, and Joan Davis. It became the #1 song across the US in December of that year, and remained there for nine weeks, due in large part to the performance in the movie. The 78 rpm recording sold 1.2 million copies.

The Glenn Miller Orchestra stars in Sun Valley Serenade and performs the song in the film. Starlet Dorothy Dandridge sings, doing a dance routine with the tap-dancing brothers Harold and Fayard Nicholas.

The original Chattanooga Choo Choo train that inspired this song was a wood-burning steam locomotive owned by the Cincinnati Southern Railway that traveled from Cincinnati to Chattanooga – it was a newspaper reporter who dubbed it the “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” The actual Cincinnati Southern Railway train that gave this song its name became a museum artifact.

Many American men were serving in the military when this song was recorded, as World War II was raging in Europe, Glenn Miller asked his orchestra to think about a returning soldier with that feeling of excitement as he gets a shoe shine, boards the train and watches the scenery go by, knowing he’s headed for home.

The first ever “gold record” was awarded to Miller for this song. His version of this song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996.

Without further ado, here’s Dorothy Dandridge, The Nicholas Brothers, and Glenn Miller Band with “Chattanooga Choo Choo”:

That’s a wrap for this week – see you on the dance floor!

Now on to the particulars of Monday’s Music Move’s Me:   Photobucket

I have the supreme honor and privilege of being a co-host with the inimitable Xmas Dolly and our musical cohort, the awesome Cathy from Curious as a CAThy, Callie of JAmerican Spice, and Alana of Ramblin’ with AM!

Want to join in the fun? It’s easy – just find a tune that rocks your boat, post it and link up – don’t forget to grab Xmas Dolly…er, um, I mean her button…over at her place here. Check out Xmas Dolly’s sidebar for the random themes we sport each week – and you can always ask for a specific theme of music you like, too. Check out the other music lovahs and let’s jam!

INTRODUCING OUR “SPOTLIGHT DANCER”:

Marie of Xmas Dolly



4 Comments

  1. Awesome selection. I really enjoy these songs from the movies that have a dance performance included. Tap dancing was just the best.

  2. The Nicholas Brothers have dance moves like no others (I’ve seen them in some other old movies) – just takes your breath away, and the dance number with Dorothy Dandridge was just great. (Glenn Miller and his orchestra weren’t bad, either….)

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