SerenadeinBlue.net

In September of 1942, Glenn turned his Chesterfield Radio show over to Harry James and said so long to everyone for the last time before reporting for duty to the US Army a couple of weeks later. A brief audio clip of the end of that show was posted to YouTube recently.

Conspiracy theorists, unfortunately, will never be fully placated, but I’m looking forward to the release of what is being called the “definitive” report on Glenn Miller’s disappearance later this summer. An effort spearheaded by the Glenn Miller Archive at the University of Colorado, they have reviewed a considerable amount of information and documents and hopefully this will resolve a lot of the bunk theories that have floated around pretty much since 1944.

Folks, this is significant. If you want to see a group of people get really stirred up about a topic, get a bunch of Glenn Miller fans together in a room and simply mention a date: December 15, 1944. About the only thing they’ll agree on is that he boarded a plane and was never seen again (though some even argue about whether or not he ever boarded the plane to begin with). What happened to him when that plane faded into the fog, has been part of speculation, rumors, trite theories and crazy “fictional crap” for more than 65 years.

If this report lays any of the conspiracy theories to rest, it’ll be a miracle. It’s definitely long overdue, as there have been too many books in the past few years claiming to have the answers as to what happened to Glenn and each of them have been outrageously off the mark.

The one thing it won’t change, however, is it will not bring Miller back. But maybe it will bring some sense of closure about his untimely death at the age of 40.

My first exposure to Glenn Miller’s music happened sometime in my youth. A movie, a TV show, a commercial I don’t know where, but the strains of “Moonlight Serenade” was a sound that stayed with me, even when I had no idea what it was I had just heard.

As I got older, I started to understand the association of the song with WWII and the 1940s. At some point “In The Mood” was heard and became another tune that caught in my mind’s playlist and never got lost in the shuffle.

Funny thing was though, I never knew who the band or artist was until I got older but I always recognized the two songs whenever I heard them.

Back in the early 90’s a group called “Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers” put out a song called “Swing the Mood.” The medley which included several early rock n’ roll hits is bookended by none other than “In the Mood.”

There were a lot of us who loved this medley song. Apparently so did Jive Bunny as they used it again in their Glenn Miller Medley and used other Miller tunes in several of their remixes.

The original (or at least this version from the Sun Valley Serenade film) never gets old tho’.

About two years ago I had put a note up saying I would be adding a blog to this site at some point. After some thought I decided to convert the whole thing over to the very versatile WordPress format. Previously I was utilizing templates which I didn’t set up right in the first place so updating was a pain in the rear. All the sections that were here before are still here (some still need completion) but now I’ll have an easier time of updating the site. I can now also post thoughts and musings on the great music and interesting career and life of Glenn Miller.

Enjoy!