Utube There I Said It Again

VAUGHN MONROE

"In that location, I've Said It Again"

by Christopher Popa December 2005

When he was in high school, he was  named "the boy most probable to succeed."  He certainly proved them correct with his rich bass - baritone singing phonation.

"Well, I remember he made some great, pop songs," Bucky Pizzarelli, guitarist with Vaughn Monroe'due south big band, told me.  "And he had some million-sellers, I know that for a fact."

vital stats

given proper name: Vaughn Wilton Monroe

birth: Oct. 7, 1911, Akron, OH

expiry: May 21,1973, Stuart, FL

heritage: Scotch-Irish

father: Ira C. Monroe

mother: Mabel Louisa (Maahs) Monroe

teaching: public schools, Cudahy, WI; graduate,

Jeanette High Schoolhouse, Jeanette, PA, 1929;

attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology,

1929-32; special coursework at the New England

Conservatory of Music

married woman: Marian Baughman Monroe, m. April 2, 1940

children:   Candace, b.1941; Christina, b.1944

hobbies: miniature trains, motorcycles, sports, flying

organized religion: Methodist

memberships: American Federation of Musicians

Local ix; ASCAP, 1945; Police force Athletic League,

New York City

concrete clarification: blueish eyes, brown hair, 215 lbs., vi'2"

residences: 1185 Park Ave., New York, NY; 35

Pickwick Rd., Westward Newton, MA; 41 High Point Dr.,        Jensen Beach, FL

with daughter Candace, 1943

recommended vocals - select list

There I Go Bluebird, 1940

When the Lights Continue Again Victor, 1942

Let's Get Lost with the 4 Lee Sisters Victor, 1942

Rum and Coca-Cola with Rosemary Calvin

and the Norton Sisters Victor, 1944

I Wish I Didn't Honey You And so with the Moon Maids

RCA Victor, 1947

Ballerina RCA Victor, 1947

They Were Doin' the Mambo RCA Victor, 1954

Don't Go to Strangers with chorus RCA Victor, 1955

medley: Something Sentimental / Blue Moon / Let's Take a Cigarette Together RCA Victor, 1958

"When Katie left, instead of looking for a substitute, we cutting the group downwards to four," Grogan said.  "And Tinker, who'd been singing the lowest office, moved up to singing the role side by side to mine.  I was the lead, and she was second.  And Arline sang third and Maree sang fourth.  So nosotros revamped, and they had to re-learn a lot of music."

Then Arline exited in 1948.

"That left u.s.a. with merely three, so we had to backup with someone," Grogan went on.  "Nosotros knew of June Hiett, who lived in Arlington, Texas, that she could practise this sort of thing.  And so we asked if she would similar to join us."

At that place were additional changes, with Ruth Wetmer one of the later replacements; she would marry the band's drummer, Eddie Julian.

Monroe meanwhile created a male song group, the Moon Men.

"And he hired 2 men to sing, a tenor and a bass, and and so he pulled 2 of the guys out of the band that could sing in a group fashion," Grogan clarified.

Bagni was there from the very start, and, even subsequently Monroe gave up his band, returned for of import recordings at least equally late every bit 1962, when they re-did My Devotion in stereo.

In the early '40s, other musicians with Monroe included Bobby Nichols and Benny West (trumpets), Art Dedrick and Ray Conniff (trombones), and Arnold Ross (piano).

"Arnold was a jazz guy.  He was before me, but I knew of him," Pizzarelli said.  "He subsequently became involved with a lot of that 'Jazz At the Combo,' on the Due west Coast."

From 1940 to 1953, Ziggy Talent provided comic relief with the ring, through, for example, The Majarajah of Magador and Sam,You lot Fabricated the Pants Too Long .

"He played tenor saxophone, and did a lot of one-act songs," Pizzarelli said.  "If we did a stage show, he was always featured.  But even on a one-nighter, later 2 or three hours of playing, they'd feature Ziggy, you see.  Ziggy would do his . . . act, just with the rhythm department, sometimes with the band.  Information technology'd give the band a little intermission."

Another loyal member of the band was drummer Eddie Julian, whose was present in 1942-43 and 1945-53, with a interruption away to serve in the Ground forces.

"He [ earlier ] played with Les Brown and Alvino Rey," Pizzarelli noted, "and I think he was happy to be dorsum with Vaughn over again, 'crusade I think he was on the band, besides, and went in the service."

Both Pizzarelli and Grogan complimented Don Costa'south arrangements for the band.

"The best arranger was Don Costa," Pizzarelli said.  "This child was from Boston and was sensational!"

"Well, we ever enjoyed the arrangements that Don Costa made," Grogan concurred.  "Really, he wrote a lot of arrangements for united states that were not big-big-big hits.  We sang 53 records with Vaughn, so, obviously, a lot of them were not big hits . . . I guess one of the first ones that we did, It'due south My Lazy Day . . . it had a pretty good popularity."

Costa went on to write arrangements for Frank Sinatra.

Vaughn Monroe... in his own words:

"Don't think I like the thought of making all those vocal records . . . We have plenty of good jazzmen in the band, and I'd like to do some instrumentals.  But Victor tells me to keep right on singing."

"The ring business organization isn't an artistic thing.  It's a business . . . I could proper name 4 or five bands that aren't doing very well today because they don't do what people ask for.  I can't feel deplorable for them."

"I put away my horn because I didn't want to be compared with such fine players as Harry James and Charlie Spivak."

Amid Monroe's terminal high-contour appearances were iii in New York Urban center: the Rainbow Grill (1966-vii), the St. Regis Hotel (1970), and every bit role of a big band festival at Madison Square Garden (1971).

Though Monroe passed away in 1973, his popularity was renewed in 2000 when a number of compact disc labels began reissuing his recordings and broadcasts, including lesser-known performances such as Requestfully Yours .

"Oh definitely, yes, yeah, and I really love information technology," Pizzarelli reflected.  "The arrangements are good, and I idea he had a helluva band.  The band was bully."

"He continued longer than many other of the large bands at that particular time, considering he was playing good, commercial music.  He wasn't a jazz ring," Grogan stressed.   "And a lot of people could identify with that, I recall.  The type of music he played."

In 2001, 2 fans, Lou Kohnen and Claire Schwartz, established an excellent, comprehensive Internet website dedicated to Monroe, and, in 2004, began a Yahoo word group nearly him.

"He was unique.  There wasn't some other bandleader that did what he did, in the whole band concern.  Considering he had that unusual vocalisation," Pizzarelli concluded.

sources:

Fowler, Glenn.  "Vaughn Monroe, 62, Dies; Singer and Bandleader," New York Times , May 22, 1973, p.44, col.1.

Garrod, Charles and Beak Korst. Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra 1940-1954 (Zephyrhills, FL:

Joyce Record Club, 1986).

Grogan, Mary Jo.  Interview with the author, February. 9, 2005.

Lamparski, Richard. Whatever Became Of...: Fourth Series , (New York City: Crown Publishers, 1973), pp.52-53.

Marill, Alvin H.  Liner notes, "This Is Vaughn Monroe," RCA Victor VPM-6073, 1973.

Pizzarelli, Bucky.  Interview with the author, November. 13, 2004.

Rautenberg, Tinker (Cunningham). "Complete Itinerary of the Vaughn Monroe Band: April 2, 1946 to July fifteen, 1950 ."

Rust, Brian. The American Dance Band Discography (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House Publishers, 1975).

Simon, George T.  "Vaughn Monroe," in The Big Bands , 4th ed. (New York City: Schirmer Books, 1981), p.374.

Terry, Clifford.  "Jogging with the moon," Chicago Tribune , June 18, 1972, p.H22.

"Vaughn Monroe," in Who Is Who in Music (Chicago: Who Is Who in Music, Ltd., 1951).

ship feedback about Vaughn Monroe: "At that place, I've Said It Over again" via electronic mail

return to Biographical Sketches alphabetize

From 1940 to 1954, Monroe had nearly seventy chart records, including the #ane hits When the Lights Keep Again (All Over the World) , Allow It Snow! Let It Snow! Let Information technology Snow! , Riders in the Heaven (A Cowboy Legend) , and Someday (Yous'll Want Me to Want You) .  One song he didn't have the nail on was Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer , which he supposedly turned down.

Every bit Grogan previously noted, Monroe even so would catch a horn at present and then, as he did on January 13, 1941, for a Bluebird recording session.

"He would selection upward the trumpet to brand it look good," Pizzarelli reiterated.  "And the trombone, also - he played the trombone, too."

"He was a expert musician.  He could sight-sing, y'all know," Pizzarelli said.  "I know when arrangers would bring their new arrangements on the task and they would pass out the music and nosotros would play it, and he would sing it similar he'd been singing information technology forever . . . It didn't faze him at all to sing something 'cold' right on the chore.  That's pretty good."

"A maestro who sings," Grogan reminisced, "though he started out every bit a trumpet actor, and trombone, and he did play both in the band, from time to time . . . Most people, when I say '[ I ] sang with Vaughn Monroe,' they say, 'Oh, <sings> Racing with the Moon ' . . . His voice was, as almost people called it '[ the ] voice with the muscles on it' or 'one-time leather lungs.'  I don't recollect they'd ever say it to his face, simply that was kind of the known mode that people would talk about him, and he would just laugh about it. "

"He was only a kind, nice man and I think that came through to his fans," Mary Jo (Thomas) Grogan, a member of the Moon Maids singing group, told me.  "He was nice to us.  He understood us.  He protected u.s.a..  We went to a Victor recording political party one fourth dimension, quondam, and he was running effectually in that location, getting lemonade for usa, just to be sure nobody gave us anything stronger."

It was at historic period 11 that Monroe began playing the trumpet, on an instrument given to him by a neighbor.  Monroe won beginning place in a Wisconsin school music competition, at age 15.

While studying engineering at Carnegie Tech, he earned tuition money equally a trumpeter -- and singer -- with several local trip the light fantastic bands.

In 1932, he abandoned his instruction to join Austin Wylie and His Aureate Pheasant Orchestra in Cleveland for 6 months, then, in 1933, moved on to Larry Funk'south Orchestra.  While with Funk, Monroe made his commencement recordings, including Pelting . Monroe stayed with Funk until 1936, when he joined a Boston orchestra led by booker Jack Marshard.

"Aye, they sent out lodge bands on weekends," Pizzarelli recalled.

The following year, Marshard asked him to front groups on his behalf throughout New England and in Miami Beach, and in 1939 used him on a slew of recordings, such as In the Still of the Night .

Conspicuously, Monroe's voice was the biggest drawing menu.

"Well, they had a lot of jokes about that, everybody, but I idea it was pleasing," Pizzarelli remarked.  "Information technology was different, and he was similar an opera singer."

Quite strong and masculine.

"Oh, very much so," he felt.  "Information technology was deep, a deep baritone, yous know."

Monroe could have been on the stage, in operatic or theatrical productions, if he desired.

"He could have," Pizzarelli said.  "When he was younger, he should have.  He had the vocalization for that."

The band'south jobs always included appearances at Monroe'due south successful nightclub and eating place, "The Meadows" [ pictured above ], located on Route 9 at the Turnpike, in Framingham, MA.

"Yep, nosotros opened that identify," Pizzarelli said.  "It was exterior of Boston."

"We usually would become in that location for a calendar month to half dozen weeks, at least once, perhaps twice a yr," Grogan remembered.

There, I've Said Information technology Again RCA Victor,

1958

Racing with the Moon (theme

  vocal) RCA Victor, 1958

Clown RCA Victor, 1960

My Devotion Dot, 1962

Mister Sandman Dot, 1962

Who Can I Turn To? Reader'south Assimilate,

1969

My Cup Runneth Over

Reader'south Digest, 1969

This Is My Song Readers Assimilate, 1969

"Jack Marshard actually was the brains behind Vaughn," according to Pizzarelli.  "All Vaughn had to do was to practice what Jack told him to do."

In April 1940, Monroe'south ain band fabricated its debut at Seiler'southward Ten Acres in Wayland, MA, and, within a short time, became nationally-known.

Marshard, still, met an untimely end in an automobile accident.

"Then he [ Monroe ] went with Willard Alexander, who took over.  He was a big-time guy, too."

When the band played the Paramount Theatre in New York City during the early '40s, Pizzarelli was in the audition.

"Oh, information technology was large," he reflected.  "I saw them at the Paramount, and they used to play operatic songs in a jazz form . . . jazz arrangements 'cause they were in the public domain.  I call back his arranger was Johnny Watson, who wrote Racing with the Moon ."

Watson also composed Accept It, Jackson , a catchy riff melody.

"In those days, the band played a lot of instrumentals," Pizzarelli recalled.   "But afterwards, when I was with them, information technology was all vocals, every nighttime.  We'd never record whatsoever instrumentals anymore."

"I joined him when I was 17 years sometime," Pizzarelli told me.  "I but got out of loftier school, and I did three or four one-nighters with him.  Of course, back during those days, they were taking guys out of the Army - it was 1943, in December.  And I stayed with the band until I got drafted.  When he constitute out, two years later, that I was being discharged, he called my female parent and said, 'Tell him to come back in our ring.  He's got the job.  Information technology'southward his, 'cause he went in the service.'"

But how had Monroe heard of him in the kickoff place?

"Some guys from my hometown were in the band," Pizzarelli explained.  "And they needed a guitar role player, and they said, 'Try Bucky.'  And so I went out and I played in the ring that night."

He was born John Pizzarelli, but, fifty-fifty as a teenager, his nickname was "Bucky."

"Oh, my father gave me that," Pizzarelli said.  "My begetter was in love with cowboys.  He went to Texas when he was a kid.  And they e'er had cowboy connotations < chuckles >."

Given the set-up of Monroe'south band, there were few solo opportunities for young Pizzarelli.

"Well, I wasn't looking for that," he admitted.  "I was just learning how to play rhythm guitar, and I learned how to do it in the band . . . You know, when yous're 17, you don't care whether yous're playing any solos.  You're glad to be in the ring, wearing a gabardine suit."

Pizzarelli'south job, every bit a member of the rhythm department, was to help back up and drive the band.

"Definitely, you had to," he said.  "That'southward the post of the band, you know."

In March 1946, Grogan joined Monroe as an original fellow member of the Moon Maids vocal group.

"Our commencement job, every bit I retrieve it, was Allentown, Pennsylvania, with the ring on a one-nighter," Grogan said.

The other voices were her friends Tinker Cunningham, Arline Truax, and Katie Myatt.

"Nosotros were in college, at N Texas, in Denton," she looked dorsum, "and were singing there every bit the 'Swingtet,' and had done a short USO tour for half-dozen weeks, I think, back when nosotros were 17.  We loved to sing.  We would sing on every street corner and every double-decker station < laughs > wherever we were.  We were together a lot, the iv of u.s.a., iv girls."

When they appeared equally guests with Stan Kenton's band one night in Fort Worth, TX, it just then happened that Vaughn Monroe'south publicity agent, Dixon Gayer, was present.

"So he heard united states and he said, 'Would you girls be interested a professional person career?'  Of course, we were in college at that time, and we said, 'Well, we don't know.  It sounds interesting.'  He said, 'I'll probably be dorsum in touch with you lot,' which he was, in almost 3 weeks," Grogan reminisced.  "He said Vaughn Monroe'due south grouping, I think information technology was The Norton Sisters, are leaving, or breaking upwardly, and Betty Norton was staying on with the band, equally a solo vocaliser.  Maree Lee [ from another of Monroe'due south female vocal groups, The Lee Sisters ] was going to be singing with u.s.a., as we found out, if we got the job.  She would sing with usa, and that would make a quintet of girls.  But we had a job on our hands, because we had to convince our parents that information technology would be safe and ok."

After all, they were fresh out of college from Denton, which was just a tiny town.  They now would be in shut-quarters with Monroe and his 16-piece ring, and going all around the state by charabanc.

"Nosotros said that nothing was going to change us . If anything, we'd alter them ," she laughed.  "Boy, talk about naive!  But, as it turned out, considering Vaughn'south band was a basically commercial band, the personnel in at that place were pretty steady, pretty fifty-fifty.  Most of them were married, and we even did babysitting for them.  I mean, their wives would travel with us once in a while, and if they needed to go out some place and if there was whatsoever time, we'd keep the kids.  It was actually like a family ring, and Vaughn called us his 'Texas kids.'"

Everything worked out fine, with Maree Lee being an instructive fifth voice added to the other four.

"He needed somebody to train us, to try to get the 'Texas' out of our talk," she chuckled.  "We learned a lot from her.  Nosotros teased her a lot, 'crusade she had the reply to everything."

The Moon Maids, with a number of personnel changes, worked with the band into 1952.

a recent photo of Pizzarelli

[ from l. to r. ] Arline Truax, Mary Jo (Thomas) Grogan, Maree Lee, Tinker Cunningham, Katie Myatt

One of Monroe'due south featured musicians was Andy Bagni.

"He was the best I always played with," Pizzarelli told me.  "Well, he had a lyrical way of playing the alto saxophone.  And a fashion of showing the rest of the saxophones how to follow him, with the vibrato - he made 'em all fifty-fifty."

Bagni solos on, for example, the start chorus of My Devotion .

"Oh, definitely, that'south Andy," Pizzarelli confirmed.  "The band featured the alto sax.  All the interludes and modulations and endings [ were ] Andy Bagni.  And he was offered jobs with Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, in those days.  He stayed with Vaughn.  He was a Boston guy, and he stayed with Vaughn."

Vaughn Monroe... on breaking upwards his band:

"I had decided that the big-ring business was on its manner out.  We could have been booked continuously for another three, four years, but each year television grabbed a little more than hold.  Starting in 1949, for case, I noticed that where nosotros had been doing perhaps 3,500 people in Des Moines for a ballroom dance, we were downwardly to maybe 2,800.

I figured I could brand it as a single.  I was in Chicago, as a affair of fact, the day I decided to surrender the band.  We had played Springfield the nighttime before and had gotten thru at 2 in the forenoon.  In that location had been a storm that afternoon, and the roads were covered with almost 2 inches of ice.  We came in on the motorcoach, arriving at the Chicago Theater nigh 9:45, and went on at ten:30.  About the third number I saw five spotlights, and I knew there was only one upwardly there.  I came off shaking from lack of food and sleep and said, 'This is ridiculous.'  I chosen my booker and told him, 'Equally of May iii, I'm thru.'  Our last appearance as a band was at W Point, on our Saturday night Camel Caravan."

Another unlikely material was given to Vaughn in 1949.

"He had a vocal chosen Riders in the

Sky ," Pizzarelli reminisced.  "Nosotros made it in Chicago . . . It was a funny record 'cause there were a lot of 8th-notes on the guitars, you know, a couple of guitars.  And it was a cowboy song."

It was different from the ballads that he normally sang, but, according to Pizzarelli, Monroe liked it.

"Oh certainly, yes, that was a big, 1000000-seller," he said.  "I call up that somebody from some other company came over to RCA Victor, to give him that vocal.  'Cause information technology was in a movie."

It was the championship song of a film which starred country singer Gene Autry.

"He [ Autry ] sang it in the moving picture," Pizzarelli continued, "and, all suddenly, they said, 'Let'due south give it to

Vaughn Monroe, and somebody

Monroe fabricated two films for Commonwealth Pictures, "Singing Guns" (1950) and "The Toughest Human being in Arizona" (1952)

jumped send and brought it over to RCA Victor and we jumped off the coach, and, practically, in a day or so, we had that record made.  And nosotros played it in Detroit a couple days later, and the people went 'bananas' over information technology."

As a follow-up, Monroe recorded another western number, Mule Train , which he himself performed in a film.

"Oh yeah, he did that in a movie," Pizzarelli recalled.  "He did that with The Sons of the Pioneers.  Aye, they made him a cowboy.  In fact, we played a rodeo in New York, for a week... a couple of weeks."

Monroe remained a top attraction throughout the 1940s.

"He was very popular, and we certainly had large, big crowds at the ballrooms," Grogan recalled.  "We did many, many ane-nighters, but we also did theatre dates.  We were at the Strand Theatre in New York . . . Then, we played the Commodore Hotel; that was maybe a calendar month that we'd be there . . . He also did what he called 'concerts.'  In certain venues, he would permit Tinker, who was an achieved pianist, play Fantasie Impromptu , and she was good . . . And Vaughn and I would sing Nelson Boil-Jeanette MacDonald-type duets.  And Vaughn would take me sing, of all things, Ave Maria ."

"the nigh talked of band

in America," 1944

Vaughn Monroe Orchestra 1947 itinerary - sample:

June 6-12, Earle Theatre, Philadelphia, PA

June 13, Geo. F. Pavilion, Johnson City, NY

June xiv, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

June 15: Pleasure Beach, Bridgeport, CT

June xvi: Scranton, PA

June 17: Berwick, PA

June 18: Dorney Park, Allentown, PA

June nineteen-25: Hippodrome Theatre, Baltimore, MD

June 26: recording session, RCA Victor, New York, NY

June 27-July 17: Strand Theatre, New York, NY

July 18: Worcester, MA

July 19: broadcast, New York, NY

July 20: Elmira, NY [ travel to Canada ]

July 21: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

How hard was life on the route with a big band?

"It was piece of cake," Pizzarelli reported.  "I was single and all I had to exercise was jump on the autobus!"

"Well, information technology isn't glamorous.  There was no glamour in it," Grogan countered.  "I used to retrieve, before we joined the band, that maybe people who did that sort of thing got their hair washed and their nails done and wore gorgeous dresses.  Well, we had some nice dresses, merely, certainly, we had to do our own pilus and one time we even had to wash our dresses in the bathtub and iron them ourselves, because they had gotten dirty."

For daughter singers, information technology could exist a trying job, living out of a suitcase or trunk.

"We had a passenger vehicle, but it wasn't like today's buses, with all the conveniences and CDs on them, information technology was only a apparently old jitney," Grogan pointed out.  "And, of course, nosotros slept with our heads on somebody'due south shoulder all the fourth dimension.  The truck that followed the bus carried nearly of the baggage and our hanging bags.  We all had a large, fat hanging purse.  Most of u.s. had a trunk and a suitcase, a brand-upwardly kit, and a hanging bag."

Those were necessities.

"I fourth dimension, in 1947, we were going for a job in Morgantown, West Virginia, and the bus started smoking," she recalled.  "We all got out -- information technology was on a curve, going up a mountainside -- we all got out and the bus driver said, 'Stand dorsum!' and he got the fire extinguisher, and tried to put out the fire.  This had happened many times before, and there would alwas exist a little fire, and they were ever able to put it out.  But this time, he couldn't go it out.  And so nosotros all either got far abroad, in case the bus exploded, or went, as I did, around the corner, where at that place was a little grocery store, it had a phone, chosen our parents and said, 'Don't worry, we're ok.'  And they called the fire section.  It took them 15 or xx minutes to get at that place, and then it took them an hour to put the fire out, because h2o was not bachelor.  They had to pump it out of a ditch.  And so, the jist of it is is that if we had not had that truck following backside with many things in it, we would have lost everything.  And some of the girls lost a expert bit, considering they happened to accept things with them, on the bus.  We were able to get into town to do the chore.  A department store opened up so we could purchase make-up, 'cause nosotros didn't have any of that.  And some of the girls had to purchase some other things, but our costumes were in the truck, thank goodness."

Vaughn Monroe on the cover

of Ring Leaders , Mar. 1946

"Vaughn then began his weekly Camel Caravan radio show," Grogan related.  "And that was washed from universities all effectually the land."

"When we were going good, nosotros had violins," Pizzarelli pointed out.  "We had, similar, uh, I think it was vi violins.  And then, when nosotros did the radio show, we had fourteen, every week we had the Camel Caravan.  And we'd become them locally... Chicago, or wherever."

Grogan today still recalls a particular commercial for Camel cigarettes.

"Information technology's so strange to hear them talk about 'not one unmarried case of throat irritation due to smoking Camels.'  Whoa!  Non at all like that," she remarked.  "Merely we sang, < sings > 'How mild, how mild, how balmy can a cigarette exist?'  Y'all know, the onetime... well, that was what he sang a lot on the radio bear witness."

By the early 1950s, the ring business organization was seriously failing.

"They got rid of the violins and nosotros went without," Pizzarelli recalled.  "Nosotros were on the road the last yr or so with no violins."

What caused the drib in the popularity of big bands?

"I don't know," he responded.  "It might have been the prices.  And television.  Everybody stayed home to watch goggle box shows, in those days... 'Uncle Miltie,' Milton Berle... On Tuesday night, everybody in the world watched him.  They had a variety show.  And Ed Sullivan, on Dominicus night.  So if you lot had to play a one-nighter, on a Sun nighttime somewhere, or a Tuesday night, nobody would be there."

Monroe decided to disband.

"Nosotros knew when the band was going to break upwardly," Pizzarelli recalled.  "The last gig was in W Point, I think."

When Grogan, who had left in 1949, heard in the press that Monroe was giving upward his band, she was surprised.

"I surely was, I really was," she told me.  "His band was moving on, lasting longer than a lot of the other bands were.  The big bands were kind of going out and then, but he did last longer and I guess I thought he'd go right on."

"I left about two weeks before," Pizzarelli recalled,"and I went with Joe Mooney, who was one of my heroes in Patterson, New Jersey, a blind accordion thespian.  We played at a club in New York and made some records, and that was it."

That was 1953.  Monroe notwithstanding sang well, and worked, primarily as a single, for almost 20 more years, doing a variety of material.

"Well, he'd do anything.  He was open up to everything," Pizzarelli commented.  "On the route, I saw him in Pittsburgh, I saw him at the Buffet Rouge when he did a unmarried.  He worked as an act and other bands would play for him.  He survived.  He went effectually, he went all over."

Texas included, ca.1956.

"Well, he came through here," Grogan said.  "And nosotros sang with him once.  We got three of the girls together and plant us a fourth one, and did There, I've Said Information technology Over again with him in a hotel, where he was singing."

RCA capitalized on Monroe'due south standing entreatment, past signing him to a lucrative bargain equally its corporate spokesman, "The Voice of RCA Victor," in a long series of Television receiver and print ads, including one which yet sticks in Pizzarelli's mind.

"Yeah, he did a commercial for RCA Victor - dropping a radio, an RCA Victor radio, off a ladder," he recalled.  "Some gimmick they had."

Monroe helps RCA sell portable televisions, 1961

On his last album for RCA Victor, "There I Sing / Swing It Once again," a  stereo recording made in April 1958, Monroe prevailed to include several out-and-out swingers into the sessions, never more than appealingly.

recommended instrumentals:

Cape Cod Clambake William Stegmeyer, arr.

Commodore Clipper Vaughn Monroe, comp.

Boston Rocker Vaughn Monroe, arr.

Have It, Jackson Johnny Watson, arr.

Andy Bagni returned to again atomic number 82 the saxophone section, and the band was stocked with other former large band stars, including Baton Butterfield (trumpet), Bobby Byrne and Urbie Dark-green (trombone), Boomie Richman (saxophone), Milt Hinton (bass), and Don Lamond (drums).

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