Moonlight Serenade (song).html



"Moonlight Serenade" is an American popular song with original music by Glenn Miller and subsequent lyrics by Mitchell Parish. When Miller recorded "Sunrise Serenade" in 1939, he placed this song on the back. The song, recorded on April 4, 1939 on RCA Bluebird, was a Top Ten hit on the U.S. pop charts in 1939. It was the no.5 top pop hit of 1939 on Billboard. Glenn Miller had 5 records in the top 20 songs of 1939 on Billboard's list. In the UK, "Moonlight Serenade" was released as the A side of a 78 on His Master's Voice with "American Patrol" as the B side. It was an immediate phenomenon when first released in May 1939 as an instrumental arrangement and was adopted as Miller's signature tune.

Background

The most striking part of the piece was its use of clarinet-led saxophone section, which is widely considered the classic Glenn Miller style. The first eight bars of the melody follow the form of the 12-bar blues, written in the C-minor key. The song is a premier example of the American big-band sound from the mid-twentieth century. Miller studied the Schillinger technique with Joseph Schillinger,¹ who is credited with helping Miller create the "Miller sound", and under whose tutelage he himself composed what became his signature theme, "Moonlight Serenade."²

In 1939, Glenn Miller had a 15 minute radio series on CBS called "Moonlight Serenade" that ran three times a week, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 7:15 and 10:00 PM until 1942 sponsored by Chesterfield.

A famous vocal version can be found on Frank Sinatra's Moonlight Sinatra released in 1965, which also contains "Moon Love", "Moonlight Becomes You", and "Oh, You Crazy Moon", which were recorded by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra. "Moonlight Serenade" can also be found on Nothing But the Best, a 2008 Frank Sinatra greatest hits compilation by Reprise and on My Way: The Best of Frank Sinatra from 1997 by Warner Bros. and the Frank Sinatra compilation Greatest Love Songs from 2002.

"Moonlight Serenade" has been covered by Barry Manilow, Carly Simon, Charlie Haden, Marc Reift, Santo and Johnny, Thelma Houston, Carol Burnett, Toots Thielemans, Deodato, who reached no.18 on the Billboard Easy Listening Chart, Count Basie and his Orchestra, Gene Krupa and his Orchestra, Freddy Martin and his Orchestra, Ray Conniff, Lloyd Gregory on solo guitar, Dick Hyman, Maxwell Davis and his Orchestra, Tony Evans, Transatlantic Swing Band, the Frankie Condon Orchestra, The Romantic Strings, Paul Mauriat, the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler. John Williams, and Keith Lockhart, 101 Strings, Lawrence Welk, Henry Mancini, Buddy Emmons on steel guitar, The Rivieras, a 1950s Doo Wop group whose recording reached no.47 on the pop charts in 1959, Tuxedo Junction, Yasuko Agawa, German bandleader Kurt Edelhagen, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Rabin, Kurt Elling, Syd Lawrence, The Ventures, Archie Bleyer, Bobby Vinton, who reached no.97 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976, and the rock band Chicago.

The song evolved from a 1935 version entitled "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep" with music by Glenn Miller and lyrics by Eddie Heyman to a version called "Gone with the Dawn" with lyrics by George Simon [Simon, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, 71-72], and "The Wind in the Trees" with lyrics by Mitchell Parish. In his biography of Glenn Miller, George T. Simon recounted how vocalist Al Bowlly of the Ray Noble Orchestra sang him the Eddie Heyman lyrics to the Glenn Miller music of "Now I Lay Me Down to Weep" in 1935. The Noble Orchestra never recorded the song. Finally it ended up as "Moonlight Serenade" because Robbins Music bought the music and learned that Miller was recording a cover of "Sunrise Serenade", a Frankie Carle associated song[1], for RCA Victor. They thought "Moonlight" would be a natural association for "Sunrise". [Simon, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, 162-163].

"Now I Lay Me Down to Weep" was composed in 1935 with lyrics by Eddie Heyman and music by Glenn Miller:

"Weep for the moon, for the moon has no reason to glow now.

Weep for the rose, for the rose has no reason to grow now.

The river won’t flow now,

As I lay me down to weep.

You went away, and the break in my heart isn’t mending.

You went away, and I know there is no happy ending.

There’s no use pretending,

As I lay me down to weep.

When you were mine, the world was mine,

And fate constantly smiled.

Now in its place I have to face,

A pillow of tears, all through the years...

Though you are gone, I still pray that the sun shines above you.

Time marches on, yet I know that I always will love you.

I‘ll keep dreaming of you,

As I lay me down to weep."

After "Moonlight Serenade", originally released solely as an instrumental, became a smash hit in 1939, Mitchell Parish wrote new lyrics for the music under that title.

Appearances in popular media

Television

• In Cold Case episode "World's End", "Moonlight Serenade" is heard playing over the radio in the year 1938.
• In an All in the Family episode, "Archie and Edith Alone" (1972), Edith takes out a small 78 RPM turntable and plays "Moonlight Serenade" to Archie where he then dances with her to it.
• In The Simpsons episode "Lady Bouvier's Lover", "Moonlight Serenade" turns out to be Marge's mother's favorite tune, which is played at the dance and later by Grandpa Simpson at the wedding.
• In the King of the Hill episode "Luanne Virgin 2.0", "Moonlight Serenade" plays at the dance.
• The song has featured twice in the ABC series Lost. In the season 2 episode "The Long Con", Sayid and Hurley hear the song being played on a music station. It is heard again in the season 3 episodes "A Tale of Two Cities (Lost)", this time in a flashback, as Jack sits in his car.
• It is featured in the episode "Next Stop, Nowhere" from the series Quincey M.E. starring Jack Klugman in 1982.
• It has also been featured in several episodes of the sitcom The Golden Girls.
• "Moonlight Serenade" was part of a Glenn Miller tribute on the Carol Burnett Show.
• It was also featured in three Doctor Who episodes, "Revelation of the Daleks" "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances".
• In an episode of Doctors, Michelle and Nick walk next to the exit and dance in the moonlight.
• In a Growing Pains episode, Carol dances with a boy she likes to this song.
• In the episode of The Wonder Years called "Little Debbie".
• In the television miniseries Stephen King's Rose Red.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: song plays as Picard enters in a 1940s tavern generated by the Holodeck.
• In the Domino Day 2007 during the project "Everlasting Love"

Film

• In the 1939 Tyrone Power film Day-Time Wife
• In the 1940 Joel McCrea film He Married His Wife
• In the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade that starred Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, John Payne, Sonja Henie, Milton Berle, the Nicholas Brothers, and Dorothy Dandridge.
• In the 1942 film Orchestra Wives that featured Glenn Miller, George Montgomery, Ann Rutherford, Jackie Gleason (uncredited), Harry Morgan (uncredited), and Cesar Romero.
• In the 1954 film The Glenn Miller Story starring James Stewart.
• In the 1968 film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell starring Gina Lollobrigida.
• In the 1976 film that starred Orson Welles, The Voyage of the Damned.
• In the 1979 film The Marriage of Maria Braun.
• In the 1980 Woody Allen film Stardust Memories.
• In the 1988 comedy film Big.
• In the 1993 film Jack the Bear.
• In the 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut.
• In the 2004 biographical drama film The Aviator.
• In the 2004 romance film The Notebook.
• In the 2005 Rob Reiner film Rumor Has It starring Jennifer Aniston

References

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