Pennsylvania 6-5000!
Pennsylvania 6-5000 - music by Bill Finegan & Jerry Gray
On this day in 1940, the swing number 'Pennsylvania 6-5000' was recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra in New York (mind the volume isn't too high for the beginning):
'PEnnsylvania 6-5000' is the phone number of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City. Before area codes, the first two numbers were called the "Exchange Code", and were represented by word whose first two letters were used as the numbers. Thus, 'Pennsylvania' represented the PE exchange code.
Bill Finegan and Jerry Gray wrote the music for this song, with Carl Sigman adding the lyrics. Carl came up with 'Pennsylvania 6-5000', cashing in on the popularity of 'Café Rouge', a hot nightclub situated in New York City's 'Hotel Pennsylvania', frequented by Swing Era icons such as Goodman, the Dorsey Brothers and Artie Shaw. The Glenn Miller recording, which repeats
'Pennsylvania 6-5-0-0-0' over and over, became a smash hit, reaching the top five on the pop charts.
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| The Glenn Miller Orchestra performing at the Café Rouge, Pennsylvania Hotel, NYC |
Glenn Miller
Glenn Miller was an America big band leader, arranger, composer, and trombonist, considered to be the musical symbol of the World War II generation.
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| Glenn Miller b. 1 March 1904, Iowa, U.S.A. - died December 16. 1944 at sea en route from London to Paris |
Miller was a perfectionist, more interested in mass acceptance than critical praise, and less concerned with how close his music came to a jazz ideal that with how well it connected with the listener. His hit songs define the swing era itself for many listeners and they are among the best-loved songs of the period.
Miller's reign at the top of the popular music charts came relatively late in his career, and he stunned the music world by disbanding his orchestra and enlisting in the army in the autumn of 1942. He had written that he wanted to "put a little more spring into the feet of our marching men and a little more joy into their hearts. To that end (and to raise millions of dollars for the war effort) he spent October 1942 - December 1944 leading the all-star Army Air Force Band, a 42-piece orchestra with a 19-piece swing band at its core. The band was made up of some of the best players from the classical and jazz fields, and its varied repertoire was well suited to Miller's ambitions as a leader and arranger.
When Miller boarded a London-to-Paris military flight on December 15, 1944, he transcended his celebrity status to become a figure of American myth. No trace of the plane was ever discovered. Miller's death came as a shock to his fans throughout the world, as well as to American servicemen who ranked Miller with Bob Hope and the Andrews Sisters as the war's greatest morale booster.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Songfacts
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