CoronaVinyl Day 138 (Big Band): The Stereophonic Sound of Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey by The Members of the Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is big band, and by that, I don't mean a band comprised of a lot of members, like Santana or Earth, Wind & Fire.  I mean the genre of jazz music popular in most of the early half of the 20th Century, although I supposed the bands that played this music were, in fact, big.  Hence the name big band.

The Dorsey brothers, older brother and saxophonist Jimmy and younger brother and trombonist Tommy, formed a jazz band -- and a big one at that -- in 1934, and it included famed swing era band leader and trombonist Glenn Miller.  The brothers had a falling out, as brothers tend to do, and Tommy left in 1935, leaving Jimmy as the leader.  The band would have 11 #1 hits under his tutelage.  Not be be outdone, after leaving Jimmy, Tommy formed his own big band, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, which went on to be one of the biggest (pun intended!) jazz and pop bands of the '30s and '40s (with 17 #1 hits), and featured the likes of legendary drummer Buddy Rich and a young Frank Sinatra.

In the early '50s, Jimmy and Tommy teamed back up, both musically and otherwise.  They had a TV variety show on CBS called Stage Show, which is important because Elvis Presley made his first-ever national TV appearance on the show.

Tommy, a Scorpio, died in 1956, a week after his 51st birthday, after choking to death in his sleep, thanks to some heavy sedatives.  Jimmy, a Leap Day baby, carried on the band for another six months, until his death in June 1957 at the age of 53.  At the time he died, Jimmy's song "So Rare" was #2 on the Billboard pop chart, making it the highest-charting song by a big band during the first decade of the rock and roll era.

The album I have is called The Stereophonic Sound of Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey, and it is by "The Members of the Tommy & Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra."  It came out in 1975, and as the name of the band indicates, it is comprised largely of former members of the brothers' bands, playing their songs.

The album isn't on Spotify, but someone made a YouTube playlist of the songs, so that's what I embedded below.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Deep River"

This is a catchy, uptempo ditty that we can imagine our grandparents really bustin' a rug to back in the early '40s.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Boogie Woogie"
This one is another one that makes you want to put on your zoot suit, get your dame, and hit the town.