THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

146-Glenn Miller and His Orchestra-In the Mood.

1939-It has never charted in the UK. There was no UK chart until 1952.

Best Bit-At 3.07. The false ending would catch out (I won’t call them DJ’s since it was 1939) music presenters, as it was very rare if ever up until then that a song would conclude in such a manner.

Alton Glenn Miller (see also best songs 808 and 321) was born on March 1st, 1904, in Clarinda, Iowa, United States, he died on December 15th, 1944, when the aircraft he was travelling on disappeared in bad weather over the English Channel. The actual cause of the crash has never been confirmed , but the general consensus is that the plane probably crashed as it’s carburettor froze in the cold weather, Glenn Miller was 40 years old. The discography of Glenn Miller consists of 266 singles which were issued on 10 inch shellac 78 rpm format, with 69 of his recordings reaching the top 10 on the music charts in America. On the very first national Billboard chart on July 27th, 1940, Glenn Miller had three of the countdowns first ever top 10 singles.

I suppose you could say that ‘In the Mood’ is a very early example of ‘sampling.’ The song is ‘based’ on the composition ‘Tar Paper Stomp’ which was written and performed in 1930 by the American Jazz trumpeter Wingy Manone, (1900-1982) hence his name being added to ‘In the Mood’s’ song writing credits. It was the American Jazz saxophonist Joe Garland (1903-1977) who is credited as the composer of ‘In the Mood’ which has many similarities to ‘Tar Paper Stomp.’ Under copyright laws at that time, a tune that had not been written down and registered with the copyright office could be appropriated by any musician with a good ear.

The first recording of ‘In the Mood’ was made in 1938 by Edgar Hayes and his Orchestra, and released as the ‘B’ side to his rendition of ‘Stardust.’ The song was then sold to Artie Shaw (1910-2004) (see also best songs 295) who after experimenting with it decided not to record it as his arrangement lasted six minutes, and when played live received a lacklustre response. Then in 1939 ‘In the Mood’ was sold to Glenn Miller, who with others rearranged the song, and it would go on to become the most successful ‘Swing’ instrumental of all time. In 1941 Miller performed ‘In the Mood’ in the movie ‘Sun Valley Serenade’ (see also best songs 321.)

There are some versions of ‘In the Mood’ that include lyrics. These lyrics were written by Andy Razaf (1893-1973) (see also best songs 412) who co-wrote 215 published compositions including ‘Honeysuckle Rose,’ (1929) and ‘Ain’t Misbehavin” (also 1929.) ‘In the Mood’ has been recorded numerous times by artists of many different genres including Ernie Fields (1904-1997) who took his recording to Number 4 on Billboard in 1959, but perhaps the most famous cover is by the British novelty Pop act ‘Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers,’ who prominently featured ‘In the Mood’ as part of their hit medley ‘Swing the Mood’ which reached Number 1 in the UK, and Number 11 on Billboard in 1989.