The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra

In retrospect - and in Big Band history Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra must be recognized as one of the best all-around dance bands of them all. It could swing with the best of them, and no other band could come close to Tommy's when it came to playing ballads. Tommy Dorsey, "The Sentimental Gentleman of Swing," was a master at creating moods warm, sentiment and forever musical moods - at superb dancing and listening tempos. And what's more, Tommy selected arrangers who could sustain the moods: Paul Weston, Axel Stordahl, and Sy Oliver. He showcased singers who could project those moods wonderfully: Jack Leonard, Jo Stafford, the Pied Pipers, Frank Sinatra, and others.

Jack Leonard sang with the band for almost four years, recording such fine sides as For Sentimental Reasons, Dedicated to You, If It's the Last thing I Do, Little White Lies, You Taught Me To Love Again, Once In A While, and probably the most famous side of all, Marie.

The Marie side, with the band singing vocal rifts as Jack emoted a straight lyric, was so successful that he recorded several more standard tunes with the same formula: Who, Yearning, and East of the Sun. The other side of Marie was also a huge Dorsey hit, Song of India.

Frank Sinatra blossomed with Dorsey, and with Sinatra the band became more successful than ever. Frank has often admitted that listening to Tommy helped him develop his phrasing, his breathing, his musical taste, and his musical knowledge. Dick Jones, once a Dorsey arranger and later a close friend of Sinatra's, says simply, "Frank's musical taste was developed at Tommy's elbow." Sy Oliver infused the band with a new musical spirit. It was sort of a gentler version of the rocking, rhythmic sounds that he had created for Lunceford, now toned down somewhat and played with more precision by the Dorsey Band. But swing they did, including some great original pieces Sy wrote for the band. Things like Easy Does It, Quiet Please; Sing High; Yes, Indeed; Swingin' On Nothing; Well, Get It; and Opus No. 1.

Oliver also had a unique way of approaching a straight pop tune, injecting a soft, "two-beatian" feeling into it. This he did with resounding success in such arrangements as What Can / Say After I Say I'm Sorry, For You, Swanee River, Mandy, Make Up Your Mind, Chicago, and On The Sunny Side of the Street.

As for the singers, they worked individually and they worked together, turning out a slew of hits, all of them superior quality. Thus, there was Sinatra's Violets for Your Furs and This Love of Mine; Jo Stafford's For You and Embraceable You; the Pied Pipers and Sinatra's There Are Such Things; Just as Though You Were Here; Street of Dreams; Oh, Look at Me Now; and, of course, their biggest hit of all, the one that established vocal groups forever, I'll Never Smile Again.

This was the era in which the band was at its best. In the summer of 1941, it outranked every other band to finish first in one of the most indicative of all popularity polls, Martin Block's Make Believe Ballroom contest. Actually, this may have pleased Tommy less than most people suspected, because for years he had subscribed to the theory that it's best not to be Number One, because once you get there, you have no place to go except down. Jack Egan reports that, at one time, on Tommy's instruction, he went out on the road and extolled the virtues not of Tommy's band, but of Artie Shaw's because Tommy feared that he himself might be getting too popular.

By late 1946, it was becoming apparent that the band business was getting worse and worse. In the single month of December 1946, eight top bandleaders announced they were calling it quits: Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Les Brown, Jack Teagarden, Benny Carter, Ina Ray Hutton, and Tommy Dorsey. For all intents and purposes, this was the official end of the Big Band Era and yet it was Tommy Dorsey, more than any of the other big names, who in the years immediately following was to fight the cause of the Big Bands with words and action. Less than two years later, he was fronting a formidable new group. "It's about time somebody things going again." Tommy said at the time. "You can't expect to have, any real interest in dance bands if the bands don't go around the country and play for the kids."

And so it continues. The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, is traveling throughout the country playing for the kids (of all ages).

Inquire about The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra at our Contact Us page.

Marie
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Sunny Side of the Street
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Sentimental Over You
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