1940s Christmas Playlist - Part 11 - "The Jingle Bell Polka" (1947)

One more song for 1947 in our Christmas music, and this one's another seasonal song that doesn't mention Christmas, but has a jolly holiday feel.

So, here's "The Jingle Bell Polka" from the Modernaires on Columbia Records:

The song was written by long-time Modernaires member Hal Dickinson and he even gets "featuring" label credit!

Hal had been an original member of the group and seemed to emerge as the leader, staying with the group as the other original members, Chuck Goldstein, Ralph Brewster and Bill Conway left.

They came to national prominence when they joined Glenn Miller's band and sang on quite a few hit records.

Hal's wife Paula Kelly was the girl singer with the Miller band in 1941 and they all sang with Tex Beneke on the giant hit "Chattanooga Choo Choo" from the movie "Sun Valley Serenade."

The other side of "Choo Choo" is another movie song, "I Know Why," sung by Paula and the Modernaires and it's actually a sneaky seasonal song.

Here's the Bluebird recording:

See, the lyrics mention that it's December and snowing! So I include it in my big band holiday/seasonal playlist!

I really like that one. I like Paula Kelly's singing a lot, much more than Marion Hutton's, although Marion was the definitive Miller "girl singer."

After Glenn Miller broke up his band to join the service, the Modernaires went off on their own, had a few personnel changes, then reteamed with Paula Kelly and kept going for a long time with Paula and Hal.

The group did a remake of "I Know Why" in 1954 with a band led by Tex Beneke:

I like it! Tex gets a tenor sax solo here, whereas he didn't on the original Glenn Miller record.

The movie "The Glenn Miller Story" had been released in 1954 and was a big hit, so there was an upswing in Miller-type music of varying quality and authenticity. You can't get much more authentic than Tex Beneke and the Modernaires!

The foremost proponent of the revival of the Miller sound was bandleader Ralph Flanagan, who had been using the style for a while, but had no connection to the Miller band. The story goes that someone at RCA Victor thought he was Bill Finegan, one of Glenn's top arrangers!

Give a listen to this 1949 record by Ralph Flanagan with vocalist Harry Prime:

That label is sooo hard to read, but if that doesn't sound like a lost Glenn Miller record, I don't know what does!

As for the actual Bill Finegan, he teamed with fellow ace arranger Eddie Sauter to form the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra, which featured highly imaginative arrangements.

Here's a sort-of seasonal tune from them on RCA Victor in 1952:

Pretty fun!

Bill Finegan (please stop trying to add an extra N, autocorrect!) had worked on the arrangement for Glenn Miller's record of "Jingle Bells" from 1941 and Bill Conway and Hal Dickinson arranged the vocal part, so we've come back around once more!

Note: Before we move onto 1948, I always include 1947's "Merry Christmas, Baby" by Johnny Moore's Three Blazers, which you can hear here, on my 1940s Christmas music playlist.