Still alive? : If he is alive, he’d be 108 years old as of 2012. He disappeared on December 15, 1944.
If anyone ever asks you, “What was the #1 song in the United States when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor?” you can tell them “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”. Aside from a brief bump in December when it was displaced by “Elmer’s Tune” (also by Glenn Miller), the song resumed its number one position until the end of January 1942. The year 1941 had been Jimmy Dorsey’s year; 1942 was going to belong to Glenn Miller.
“Chattanooga Choo-Choo” is very recognizable. It’s been covered over and over and over and the hook is very catch. I’m sure there are a lot of teenagers out there who could at least sing at least, “Pardon me boy/is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?” The music, words, and driving tempo of the song still surprise and delight a modern listener, the signs of a classic song.
Certainly, Americans entering the World War II Era thought so. The song sold 1,200,000 copies, the first million-selling song in the United States since “My Blue Heaven”:
Glenn Miller was awarded a gold record on February 10, 1942. By “gold record” we mean just that – a gold-plated record presented to Miller by the company that released the song, RCA Victor. We were years away from “official” gold-record designation in 1958 by the RIAA that set “gold record” status at 500,000 sales. Gold records back then were few and far between, and only for singles – no album would crack the 1,000,000 sales barrier until 1957.
Of course, I suspect that Miller had some help. He was appearing on national radio with his orchestra three times a week, between 1939 and 1942 – according to Wikipedia, the orchestra first split time with the Andrews Sisters on a program sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes, and then had the program to its own. I suspect that people had plenty of chances to hear “Chattanooga Choo-Choo”.
Furthermore, Miller’s song had already been showcased in a movie, Sun Valley Serenade . Glenn Miller and his orchestra practice “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” in the movie:
I suggest you watch that clip. It’s a full-fledged music video by modern standards. The song-and-dance at the end is by Dorothy Dandridge and The Nicholas Brothers. The Brothers might have been some of the greatest dancers ever, and that is no hyperbole. (It’s a pity that Southern movie theaters often cut this scene out. Their white audiences didn’t know what they were missing.)
Oddly enough, Sun Valley Serenade’s plot has some ominous foreshadowing. Sonja Henie, of all people, plays a Norwegian war refugee that a band decides to adopt as a publicity stunt – the band is surprised to find that Henie is all full-grown. Clearly, the American public knew about the war refugee problem, and Henie’s Norwegian good looks wouldn’t have to remind Americans that a lot of war refugees weren’t tiny Nordic blondes.
The song was nominated for Best Original Song at the 1942 Academy Awards but had to compete with eight other songs; “The Last Time I Saw Paris” by Kern and Hammerstein took the trophy. Well, “Paris” won the battle but it seems that “Chattanooga” won the war.
The vocalists on “Chattanooga” were Tex Beneke (“Hi there Tex/What you say?“), Paula Kelly and The Modernaires. Beneke would take over the Glenn Miller band after Miller went missing in action. Paula Kelly would join the all-male Modernaires as a member after Miller went off to war. They would end up adding lyrics to a lot of Miller’s instrumental songs and making hits of their own. (Kelly would marry an original member of the Modernaires.) The Modernaires are still out there, with two of the children of Paula Kelly making up the quartet.
Later on, the song would be borrowed by a lot of singers - including Bill Haley - and versions of the song became popular in Germany. These German-language versions sarcastically altered the lyrics to refer to the unreliability of German train service after the war.
Extra: As it turns out, there’s a song on the South Park Christmas Album called “It Happened in Sun Valley” which comes from Sun Valley Serenade.
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