Search - Tex Beneke, Glenn Miller :: Five Minutes More: A Tribute

Carrying On A Tradition

07/28/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Coming as it does from the U.K.-based ASV Living Era outlet, I can only assume that many of the tracks were hits there, i.e., 8, 9, 13 to 19, 21, 22, 24, and 25, whereas none made any national charts in North America.



Having said that, this is still a great compilation which starts off with two songs made famous by Glenn and which feature his tenor saxophonist/ vocalist Tex Beneke. After Glenn disappeared over the English Channel while en route to Paris on December 15, 1944, Tex took over the band's direction and, beginning in 1946, chalked up 17 more hits hits featuring the same unique sound developed by Miller which had accounted for 128 hit singles before his death.



And while the above-mentioned tracks were not part of those 17 hits, here you do get 10 of them, with wonderful sound reproduction and two pages of liner notes written in 2001 by Peter Dempsey.



Under the billing Tex Beneke & The Glenn Miller Orchestra, he began that string in June 1946 with the two-sided hit Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop, with Tex doing the vocals (# 4 on the Billboard Pop charts) b/w The Whiffenpoof Song (Baa! Baa! Baa!), which features vocalist Artie Malvin and The Crew Chiefs (# 19). Two more North American hits followed in that same month, starting with It Couldn't Be True (Or Could It?), which reached # 12, and Cynthia's In Love with vocals by Artie Malvin, Lilian Lane and The Crew Chiefs (# 15), and in August he had another with I Know (# 9). None of the three, unfortunately, is in this volume.



But the next six are here, starting with Give Me Five Minutes More which, with Tex doing the vocals, topped out at # 4 in September 1946, followed by the two-sided hit The Woodchuck Song (# 22 in October with Tex and The Crew Chiefs doing the vocals) b/w Passé (# 9 featuring Lilian Lane). Yet another double-sided hit was up next as A Gal In Calico hit # 6 on the charts in late 1946/early 1947, again featuring Tex & The Crew Chiefs, b/w Oh, But I Do (# 11 with Artie Malvin doing the vocals).



In the early spring of 1947 vocalist Garry Stevens and The Mello Larks took The Anniversary Song (track 12) to # 3, the best of the 17 hits. Then came two more not included here: My Heart Is A Hobo (# 22 in July 1947 featuring The Mello Larks b/w As Long As I'm Dreaming (# 21 with vocal by Garry Stevens).



In 1948 RCA Victor changed the billing to Tex Beneke & His Orchestra, and in February Monnlight Whispers went to # 26 (not included). Later that spring, Tex re-recorded one of the better tunes from the days of the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band, and saw St. Louis Blues March reach # 5, and while that is here, the follow-up hit in July, Meadowlands (# 21) is not. His last hit is, however, included, that being I Can Dream Can't I which topped out at # 12 in late 1949/early 1950.



A very nice package which should be part of any serious Glenn Miller collection.







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