Next to a letter from home: Major Glenn Miller's wartime band

Next to a letter from home: Major Glenn Miller's wartime band by Geoffrey Butcher. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9781851580255.

For those who lived through WW2 one sound in particular has become indelibly associated with those times - the smooth strains of Moonlight Serenade announcing that Glenn Miller was on the air. To the millions of American servicemen in Britain Glenn Millers American Band of the AEF brought them what Miller called "a hunk of home". For the British people - with whom Millers pre-war records were already firm favourites - the Bands broadcasts over the BBC did much to keep up war-weary spirits during the last year of the War. The 40-piece Band, with its star personalities Ray McKinley and Mel Powell, thrilled millions playing the famous Miller favourites, plus new and exciting swing music, orchestral versions of popular tunes, and the often poignant popular songs of the day movingly sung by Johnny Desmond and the Crew Chiefs vocal group. This book is the first full story of the new, all-soldier Band Miller created in the US Army Air Forces in 1943 and brought to the UK soon after D-Day, with special emphasis on its 13 months in Britain and on the European Continent. The story covers the last phase of Millers distinguished career and is told against the military and broadcasting background into which Miller and the Band fitted. The author has drawn on wartime archives and much of the story is told in special contributions by musicians who played in the Band. The book also includes a day-by-day record of the Bands performances in Britain and Europe, a comprehensive list of sound recordings of the Band, and many photographs published for the first time. Besides being a fascinating story for Miller enthusiasts and record collectors, wartime veterans and the general reader, the book will be of permanent reference value to the broadcasters, journalists and anyone seeking information on Glenn Millers last Band and its place in the history of wartime broadcasting.