50 Fun Facts About Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman's 1930s big-band fame earned him which royal nickname from the press?

King of Swing stuck to Goodman in 1936, though a drum company had first used the title to promote his own drummer. Radio announcers had been calling him something else entirely.

'Why Don't You Do Right?', recorded by Benny Goodman's band in 1942, is sung by which character in a 1988 film?

Jessica Rabbit performs it in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, with actress Amy Irving supplying the singing voice. The tune began life in 1936 under a different title.

The NBC radio show that gave Benny Goodman his 1934 break was sponsored to promote which new snack?

Ritz Crackers were brand new when Nabisco sponsored the three-hour show, which ended abruptly in 1935 after a labor dispute at the company.

Benny Goodman's 1938 concert, hailed as jazz's 'coming-out party', filled which New York venue?

Carnegie Hall sold out weeks in advance, and the recording, released twelve years later, was among the first jazz albums to sell a million copies.

Which drummer starred on Benny Goodman's 'Sing, Sing, Sing', then quit shortly after the famous 1938 concert?

Gene Krupa joined in December 1934 and became a national celebrity, until conflict with Goodman sent him off to form his own orchestra.

In 1962 the Benny Goodman Orchestra made a Cold War cultural-exchange tour of which country?

Soviet Union audiences heard the band in 1962, and a live album, Benny Goodman in Moscow, reached American record shops that December.

Which singer joined Benny Goodman's band in 1941 and later voiced several characters in Disney's Lady and the Tramp?

Peggy Lee became famous through the band's hit 'Why Don't You Do Right?', which sold more than a million copies. A radio host had renamed her from Norma Egstrom.

Which bandleader, later the voice of King Louie in The Jungle Book, wrote Benny Goodman's hit 'Sing, Sing, Sing'?

Louis Prima wrote and first recorded it in 1936; Goodman's 1937 version ran past eight minutes and filled both sides of a 12-inch record.

The lost recordings of Benny Goodman's famous 1938 concert resurfaced around 1950 in which unlikely place?

A family closet held them: his sister-in-law had the acetate discs, which Goodman then used as leverage to land a new record deal.

Which trumpeter, raised in a traveling circus, left Benny Goodman to lead a band that hired a young Frank Sinatra?

Harry James launched his own big band in 1939 with financial backing from Goodman himself, then signed Sinatra for $75 a week.

Benny Goodman, the ninth of twelve children, grew up in poverty near Maxwell Street in which city?

Chicago gave him his start: his father enrolled the ten-year-old in free music classes, hoping music would lift his sons out of poverty.

Which future jazz legend made her recording debut at 18 on a 1933 Benny Goodman session?

Billie Holiday cut 'Your Mother's Son-In-Law' with Goodman's studio band after a talent scout heard her singing in a New York club.

Which future bandleader co-wrote his first known composition, 'Room 1411', with Benny Goodman in 1928?

Glenn Miller was then a young trombonist working beside Goodman, and the tune came out on Brunswick under the name Benny Goodman's Boys.

Which star, a pianist who had never played clarinet, took the title role in The Benny Goodman Story?

Steve Allen took clarinet lessons so his fingering would look right on screen, while Goodman himself recorded the clarinet heard on the soundtrack.

Which pianist joined Benny Goodman's trio in 1935, forming one of the first racially integrated jazz groups?

Teddy Wilson first played with the trio during the big band's intermissions, after a jam at a house party caught a producer's ear.

Which vibraphonist turned the Benny Goodman Trio into a quartet in 1936?

Lionel Hampton was invited to join after Goodman came to hear him play, and he stayed until 1940, when he left to form his own big band.

Benny Goodman's 1935 stand at the Palomar Ballroom, often called the big-band era's launch, was in which city?

Los Angeles dancers had heard the band on late-night radio, and they erupted once Goodman dropped stock arrangements for his hotter charts.

Which trumpet legend fell out with Benny Goodman during a 1953 joint tour of their two bands?

Louis Armstrong refused to return to the stage when Goodman called him back to close a show, and their friendship never recovered.

Which composer's Clarinet Quintet and Clarinet Concerto did Benny Goodman record in 1956 with Boston Symphony players?

Mozart suited Goodman's early training: as a boy he took two years of lessons from a classically trained symphony clarinetist.

Benny Goodman's CBS radio series from 1936 to 1939 was sponsored by a brand of which product?

Cigarettes paid the bills: the show was the Camel Caravan, which ran for 21 years and featured Goodman's band from June 1936.

Which electric guitar pioneer joined the Benny Goodman Sextet in 1939 and died of tuberculosis at just 25?

Charlie Christian, in the best-known telling, was slipped onto the bandstand unannounced; Goodman called a tune to trip him up, and the jam ran 45 minutes.

Which bandleader, a trained chemist, wrote the arrangements behind Benny Goodman's 1935 breakthrough?

Fletcher Henderson had disbanded his own debt-ridden orchestra during the Depression, and Goodman hired its players to teach his band the style.

Which talent scout, who later championed Bob Dylan, guided Benny Goodman's career and became his brother-in-law?

John Hammond persuaded Goodman to hire black musicians and produced many of his records; Goodman married his sister Alice in 1942.

Which American composer wrote the clarinet concerto Benny Goodman commissioned in 1947 and premiered on NBC radio?

Aaron Copland's concerto later found a second life on stage, when Jerome Robbins choreographed it as the ballet The Pied Piper.

Benny Goodman's hit 'Stompin' at the Savoy' is named after a famous ballroom in which New York neighborhood?

Harlem's Savoy Ballroom is also where Goodman's orchestra challenged the house band to a battle of the bands in 1937, and lost.

Besides clarinet, which instrument did Benny Goodman sometimes play as a young New York session musician?

Saxophone work, on both alto and baritone, helped him earn a living in radio, Broadway musicals and recording studios.

Benny Goodman's boyhood idols, such as Jimmie Noone and Johnny Dodds, were clarinetists from which city?

New Orleans players had moved north for work, so the teenage Goodman could study them up close in the clubs of his hometown.

Which modern jazz style did Benny Goodman try with a new band in the late 1940s, then publicly dismiss?

Bebop won him critical praise, but after more than a year he returned to the music he knew best and later called the style mostly publicity.

Which opening theme, adapted from a Carl Maria von Weber piece, did Benny Goodman use for over 50 years?

Let's Dance took its name from the radio show that made the band famous, and Goodman never recorded it with its lyrics.

Trumpeter Cootie Williams made headlines in 1940 by leaving which bandleader to join Benny Goodman?

Duke Ellington's loss was big enough news that Raymond Scott wrote a tune about it, 'When Cootie Left the Duke'.

Which Hungarian composer wrote the 1938 trio Contrasts on a commission from Benny Goodman?

Béla Bartók scored it for clarinet, violin and piano, then sat at the keyboard himself when the three made the first recording in 1940.

Which conductor played piano for Benny Goodman at the 1963 premiere of Francis Poulenc's Clarinet Sonata?

Leonard Bernstein stepped in because Poulenc, who was meant to accompany Goodman himself, had died suddenly ten weeks earlier.

Which rival clarinetist and bandleader, famous for 'Begin the Beguine', was Benny Goodman's chief competitor?

Artie Shaw's fans answered Goodman's royal title by crowning their man 'King of the Clarinet', and Shaw felt the two titles should be swapped.

Benny Goodman's band is heard in two segments of which 1946 Disney animated anthology film?

Make Mine Music has his quartet playing 'After You've Gone' while cartoon instruments come to life and parade through a musical playground.

Benny Goodman's 1942 marriage to Alice Duckworth made him an in-law of which Gilded Age dynasty?

Vanderbilt was the family of his wife's mother, a granddaughter of William Henry Vanderbilt; Alice's brother was also Goodman's record producer.

Benny Goodman, known as a stern taskmaster, secretly paid for which of these for several people?

College educations were his quiet gift, kept secret because, he told a friend, everyone would otherwise come to him with a hand out.

Benny Goodman's musicians gave which nickname to the icy glare he fixed on players who slipped up?

The Ray was dreaded in the band: one guitarist who displeased Goodman was moved to the back of the bandstand, where he could barely be heard.

Which actress played Benny Goodman's love interest, Alice, in the 1956 film The Benny Goodman Story?

Donna Reed was already an Oscar winner for From Here to Eternity when she played the society heiress Goodman married.

As a boy Benny Goodman joined the boys' club band at which famous social settlement in his hometown?

Hull House, co-founded by reformer Jane Addams, gave him band lessons and two weeks at a summer camp, his only escape from a tough neighborhood.

Which jazz pioneer composed 'King Porter Stomp', a 1935 Benny Goodman hit, and named it for a fellow pianist?

Jelly Roll Morton said he wrote it back in 1906 and named it after his friend Porter King; he did not record it until 1923.

Which drummer-bandleader's house band beat Benny Goodman's orchestra in a 1937 battle at the Savoy Ballroom?

Chick Webb's band was declared the winner; two years earlier he had begun featuring a teenage Ella Fitzgerald as his vocalist.

Which future bossa nova star of 'The Girl from Ipanema' played in Benny Goodman's band before joining Woody Herman?

Stan Getz later turned up on screen too, appearing as himself in the 1956 film The Benny Goodman Story.

Which guitarist met Benny Goodman at a PBS tribute taping in the 1970s and then played on his album Seven Come Eleven?

George Benson stood in for Goodman's late sextet guitarist, recreating duets the band had first played some three decades earlier.

Which melancholy Gordon Jenkins song served as the closing theme of Benny Goodman's radio broadcasts?

Goodbye was written after Jenkins lost his first wife in childbirth, and another bandleader reportedly turned it down as too sad.

Before his famous royal nickname stuck, Benny Goodman was introduced on mid-1930s radio broadcasts as what?

Rajah of Rhythm was his billing on 1935–36 broadcasts from the Congress Hotel, where a short booking stretched to six months.

Which bandleader's orchestra did a teenage Benny Goodman join in the mid-1920s, making his first recordings with it?

Ben Pollack had an eye for talent, also hiring trombonist Jack Teagarden, and he played himself in the 1956 film about Goodman's life.

Which pianist's unplanned solo during 'Sing, Sing, Sing' became a highlight of Benny Goodman's 1938 concert?

Jess Stacy later said he was glad to get no warning, because knowing in advance would have made him nervous enough to botch it.

Which vocalist drew five curtain calls for 'Loch Lomond' at Benny Goodman's celebrated 1938 concert?

Martha Tilton's ovation forced Goodman into his only announcement of the night: no encore was ready, but she would be back shortly.

Which songwriter wrote the words to 'And the Angels Sing' while working on Benny Goodman's radio show in 1939?

Johnny Mercer was the show's singer and announcer, and the trumpet tune he fitted with words became a number one hit for the band.

Which Benny Goodman instrumental topped the charts for four weeks in 1942 and became a nickname for wartime bombers?

Jersey Bounce was painted on several B-17 Flying Fortresses and a B-24 Liberator, and one pilot gave the name to all three of his P-51 fighters.