Paul Whiteman

Mel Tillis

John Philip Sousa

Perhaps more than anyone else, John Philip Sousa is responsible for bringing the United States Marine Band to an unprecedented level of excellence: a standard upheld by every Marine Band Director since. Sousa grew up with the Marine Band, and his intimate knowledge of the band coupled with his great ability provided the ideal medium to showcase the marches which would earn him the title, the "March King."

Sousa was born November 6, 1854, at 636 G Street, SE, Washington, DC, near the Marine Barracks where his father, Antonio, was a musician in the Marine Band. He received his grammar school education in Washington and for several of his school years enrolled in a private conservatory of music operated by John Esputa, Jr. There he studied piano and most of the orchestral instruments, but his first love was the violin. John Philip Sousa gained great proficiency on the violin, and at the age of 13 he was almost persuaded to join a circus band. However, his father intervened and enlisted him as an apprentice musician in the Marine Band. Except for a period of six months, Sousa remained in the band until he was 20.

In addition to his musical training in the Marine Band, he studied music theory and composition with George Felix Benkert, a noted Washington orchestra leader and teacher.

After his discharge from the Marine Corps, Sousa remained in Washington for a time, conducting and playing the violin. He toured with several traveling theater orchestras and moved, in 1876, to Philadelphia. There he worked as a composer, arranger, and proofreader for publishing houses. Sousa was fascinated by the operetta form and toured with a company producing the musical Our Flirtation, for which he wrote the incidental music and the march. While on tour in St. Louis, he received a telegram offering him the leadership of the Marine Band in Washington. He accepted and reported for duty on October 1, 1880, becoming the band’s 17th Leader.

The Marine Band was Sousa’s first experience conducting a military band, and he approached musical matters unlike most of his predecessors. He replaced much of the music in the library with symphonic transcriptions and changed the instrumentation to meet his needs. Rehearsals became exceptionally strict, and he shaped his musicians into the country’s premier military band. Marine Band concerts began to attract discriminating audiences, and the band’s reputation began to spread widely.

Sousa first received acclaim in military band circles with the writing of his march "The Gladiator" in 1886. From that time on he received ever-increasing attention and respect as a composer. In 1888, he wrote "Semper Fidelis." Dedicated to "the officers and men of the Marine Corps," it is traditionally known as the "official" march of the Marine Corps.

In 1889, Sousa wrote "The Washington Post" march to promote an essay contest sponsored by the newspaper; the march was soon adapted and identified with the new dance called the two-step. "The Washington Post" became the most popular tune in America and Europe, and critical response was overwhelming. A British band journalist remarked that since Johann Strauss, Jr. was called the "Waltz King" that American bandmaster Sousa should be called the "March King." With this, Sousa’s regal title was coined and has remained ever since.

Under Sousa the Marine Band also made its first recordings. The phonograph was a relatively new invention, and the Columbia Phonograph Company sought a military band to record. The Marine Band was chosen, and 60 cylinders were released in the fall of 1890. Within two years, well over 200 cylinders were released, placing Sousa’s marches among the first and most popular pieces ever recorded.

The immense popularity of the Marine Band made Sousa anxious to take his Marine Band on tour, and in 1891 President Harrison gave official sanction for the first Marine Band tour, a tradition which has continued annually since that time, except in times of war.

After the second Marine Band tour in 1892, Sousa was approached by his manager, David Blakely, to organize his own civilian concert band, and on July 30 of that year, John Philip Sousa retired as Director of the Marine Band. At his farewell concert on the White House lawn Sousa was presented with a handsome engraved baton by members of the Marine Band as a token of their respect and esteem. The Sousa baton is now traditionally passed to the new Director of the Marine Band during change of command ceremonies.

With his own band, Sousa’s fame and reputation would grow to even greater heights. In his 12 years as Leader of the Marine Band, he served under five Presidents, and the experience he gained with the Marine Band would be applied to his civilian band for the next 39 years.

Sousa’s last appearance before the Marine Band was on the occasion of the Carabao Wallow of 1932 in Washington. Sousa, as a distinguished guest, rose from the speaker’s table, took the baton from Captain Taylor Branson, the band’s Director, and led the band through the stirring strains of "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

John Philip Sousa died on March 6, 1932, at Reading, PA, where he was scheduled to conduct the Ringgold Band the following day. His body was brought to his native Washington to lie in state in the Band Hall at Marine Barracks. Four days later, two companies of Marines and Sailors, the Marine Band, and honorary pall-bearers from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps headed the funeral cortege from the Marine Barracks to Congressional Cemetery.

His music was not the only memorial to John Philip Sousa. In his native city on December 9, 1939, the new Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge across the Anacostia River was dedicated to the memory of the great American composer and bandmaster. More recently, Sousa was enshrined in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1976.

In a fitting tribute to its 17th Leader, in 1974 the Marine Band rededicated its historic band hall at Marine Barracks as "John Philip Sousa Band Hall." The bell from the S.S. John Philip Sousa, a World War II Liberty ship, is there.

John Stafford Smith

John Stafford Smith was born in 1750 and christened in Gloucester Cathedral.After his education at the Cathedral School he was   a choir boy at the Chapel Royal London. He also studied under Dr. Boyce. He gained a reputation as a fine organist and composer and gained membership of the select Anachreonic Society. Member have included J.S.Bach, Henry Purcell and James Boswell.

In 1780 he composed the music to the societies constitutional song. It was entitled " To Anachreon in Heaven  ". It was inspired by a 6th century Greek poet and was about the pleasures of wine and love.

He played as organist at the Three Choirs Festival in 1790 at Gloucester. In 1836 he died at the age of 85.

His song became popular in England and America. During the war of 1812, the British fleet attacked Fort Mchenry which protected Baltimore. Frances Scott Key was aboard a British war ship trying to get the release of an American prisoner. He was held so that he could not pass on any warning about the attack.

When the sun rose next morning he notice the Stars and Stripes was still flying. He then penned the  verse to the tune of John Stafford Smith.

 This was printed on hand bills the next day and distributed through Baltimore. Interestingly, although the American navy and army had recognised the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem of the united states for some time, it was not until 1931 that it was officially recognised by congress.

Antoine Joseph Sax

Our inventor this month is Adolphe Sax, who invented the saxophone around 1840. He may well have been the first inventor to give his name to a musical instrument.

Born in Belgium
Antoine-Joseph Sax, who took the name Adolphe, was born in Dinant, Belgium. His father, Charles, made a wide variety of musical instruments for a living - from wind and brass instruments to pianos and guitars.

Adolphe studied the clarinet and flute at the Brussels Conservatory, and moved to Paris in 1842. He developed the saxophone from his attempts to redesign and improve the bass clarinet, and patented the new instrument in 1846.
Brass band man
The saxophone was Sax's most famous invention, but with his father's help he also developed a series of brass instruments based on the valved bugle called saxhorns, which still have a place in brass bands in the United States, Great Britain and France.

Courtroom drama
In 1857 Sax became the first saxophone teacher at the Paris Conservatory. Many of his instruments were adopted by French army bands. Although Sax had patented his new instruments, he did not make much money out of them, as he did not set up factories to produce them. In fact, he spent ten years fighting other instrument makers in court, who had served lawsuits on him in an attempt to have his patents removed.

In the last years of his life, Sax was living in poverty, and a group of influential French composers including Camille Saint-Saens (you'll probably know his Carnival of the Animals suite) petitioned the French Minister of Fine Arts to give him financial support.

Burle Ives

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Glenn Miller

Famous for being the leader of the most popular big band during the Big Band Era, Glenn Miller is the music symbol of a generation.

Born on March 1, 1904, in Clarinda, Iowa, Miller grew up in a solid mid-western family. During Miller's early years, his family moved frequently to places such as North Platte, Nebraska, and Grant City, Missouri. While in Grant City, Miller milked cows to earn money to buy a trombone. After graduating from high school, Miller attended classes for two years at the University of Colorado. It was in college, that his interest in music flourished. He continued to play the trombone and also worked with Boyd Senter's band in Denver. At that point, Miller's love for music took over. He left the university and went to the west coast to try his luck as a musician.

Miller played for several small bands until he joined Ben Pollack's orchestra in 1927. When Pollack's orchestra moved to New York, Miller left the band to pursue the many opportunities that the city offered including freelancing for other artists such as Red Nichols, Smith Ballew, and the Dorsey Brothers.

In 1934, Miller helped Ray Noble start an orchestra, which soon became popular through its radio broadcasts. By 1937, Miller's own popularity among big band circles enabled him to form an orchestra of his own, which eventually disbanded. In 1938, Miller put together a second band. Although he struggled through the first two years, Miller's imagination, strong will, and determination kept "The Glenn Miller Orchestra" and their aspirations alive. In March 1939, the band had its first important engagement to play at the famous Glen Island Casino in a New York suburb. A second engagement at Meadowbrook in New Jersey soon followed. By mid-summer, the orchestra had achieved great popularity and demand through their radio broadcasts from both engagements. Some of the orchestra's classics include "Chattanooga Choo Choo," "String of Pearls," and "Moonlight Serenade." The band was featured in two films, Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942).

In October 1942, Miller disbanded his orchestra and joined the US Army Air Force with the rank of captain and assembled a quality dance band to perform for the troops. When the troops moved to England, Miller's band followed. On December 15, Miller got on a routine flight to Paris for a scheduled appearance for his band in that city. The plane never arrived. Miller's death was mourned by music lovers all over the world, and he was heralded as a hero worldwide. The movie The Glenn Miller Story was filmed in 1953 as a tribute to Miller.

Francis Scott Key

Francis Scott Key was a respected young lawyer living in Georgetown just west of where the modern day Key Bridge crosses the Potomac River (the house was torn down after years of neglect in 1947). He made his home there from 1804 to around 1833 with his wife Mary and their six sons and five daughters. At the time, Georgetown was a thriving town of 5,000 people just a few miles from the Capitol, the White House, and the Federal buildings of Washington.

But, after war broke out in 1812 over Britian's attempts to regulate American shipping and other activities while Britain was at war with France, all was not tranquil in Georgetown. The British had entered Chesapeake Bay on August 19th, 1814, and by the evening of the 24th of August, the British had invaded and captured Washington. They set fire to the Capitol and the White House, the flames visible 40 miles away in Baltimore.

President James Madison,his wife Dolley, and his Cabinet had already fled to a safer location. Such was their haste to leave that they had had to rip the Stuart portrait of George Washington from the walls without its frame!

A thunderstorm at dawn kept the fires from spreading. The next day more buildings were burned and again a thunderstorm dampened the fires. Having done their work the British troops returned to their ships in and around the Chesapeake Bay.

In the days following the attack on Washington, the American forces prepared for the assault on Baltimore (population 40,000) that they knew would come by both land and sea. Word soon reached Francis Scott Key that the British had carried off an elderly and much loved town physician of Upper Marlboro, Dr. William Beanes, and was being held on the British flagship TONNANT. The townsfolk feared that Dr. Beanes would be hanged. They asked Francis Scott Key for his help, and he agreed, and arranged to have Col. John Skinner, an American agent for prisoner exchange to accompany him.

On the morning of September 3rd, he and Col. Skinner set sail from Baltimore aboard a sloop flying a flag of truce approved by President Madison. On the 7th they found and boarded the TONNANT to confer with Gen. Ross and Adm. Alexander Cochrane. At first they refused to release Dr. Beanes. But Key and Skinner produced a pouch of letters written by wounded British prisoners praising the care they were receiving from the Americans, among them Dr. Beanes. The British officers relented but would not release the three Americans immediately because they had seen and heard too much of the preparations for the attack on Baltimore. They were placed under guard, first aboard the H.M.S. Surprise, then onto the sloop and forced to wait out the battle behind the British fleet.

Now let's go back to the summer of 1813 for a moment. At the star-shaped Fort McHenry, the commander, Maj. George Armistead, asked for a flag so big that "the British would have no trouble seeing it from a distance". Two officers, a Commodore and a General, were sent to the Baltimore home of Mary Young Pickersgill, a "maker of colours," and commisioned the flag. Mary and her thirteen year old daughter Caroline, working in an upstairs front bedroom, used 400 yards of best quality wool bunting. They cut 15 stars that measured two feet from point to point. Eight red and seven white stripes, each two feet wide, were cut. Laying out the material on the malthouse floor of Claggett's Brewery, a neighborhood establishment, the flag was sewn together. By August it was finished. It measured 30 by 42 feet and cost $405.90. The Baltimore Flag House, a museum, now occupies her premises, which were restored in 1953.

At 7 a.m. on the morning of September 13, 1814, the British bombardment began, and the flag was ready to meet the enemy. The bombardment continued for 25 hours,the British firing 1,500 bombshells that weighed as much as 220 pounds and carried lighted fuses that would supposedly cause it to explode when it reached its target. But they weren't very dependable and often blew up in mid air. From special small boats the British fired the new Congreve rockets that traced wobbly arcs of red flame across the sky. The Americans had sunk 22 vessels so a close approach by the British was not possible. That evening the connonading stopped, but at about 1 a.m. on the 14th, the British fleet roared to life, lighting the rainy night sky with grotesque fireworks.

Key, Col. Skinner, and Dr. Beanes watched the battle with apprehension. They knew that as long as the shelling continued, Fort McHenry had not surrendered. But, long before daylight there came a sudden and mysterious silence. What the three Americans did not know was that the British land assault on Baltimore as well as the naval attack, had been abandoned. Judging Baltimore as being too costly a prize, the British officers ordered a retreat.

Waiting in the predawn darkness, Key waited for the sight that would end his anxiety; the joyous sight of Gen. Armisteads great flag blowing in the breeze. When at last daylight came, the flag was still there!

Being an amatuer poet and having been so uniquely inspired, Key began to write on the back of a letter he had in his pocket. Sailing back to Baltimore he composed more lines and in his lodgings at the Indian Queen Hotel he finished the poem. Judge J. H. Nicholson, his brother-in-law, took it to a printer and copies were circulated around Baltimore under the title "Defence of Fort M'Henry". Two of these copies survive. It was printed in a newspaper for the first time in the Baltimore Patriot on September 20th,1814, then in papers as far away as Georgia and New Hampshire. To the verses was added a note "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven." In October a Baltimore actor sang Key's new song in a public performance and called it "The Star-Spangled Banner".

Immediately popular, it remained just one of several patriotic airs until it was finally adopted as our national anthem on March 3, 1931. But the actual words were not included in the legal documents. Key himself had written several versions with slight variations so discrepancies in the exact wording still occur.

The flag, our beloved Star-Spangled Banner, went on view ,for the first time after flying over Fort McHenry, on January 1st,1876 at the Old State House in Philadelphia for the nations' Centennial celebration. It now resides in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History. An opaque curtain shields the now fragile flag from light and dust. The flag is exposed for viewing for a few moments once every hour during museum hours.

Francis Scott Key was a witness to the last enemy fire to fall on Fort McHenry. The Fort was designed by a Frenchman named Jean Foncin and was named for then Secretary of war James McHenry. Fort McHenry holds the unique designation of national monument and historic shrine.

Since May 30th, 1949 the flag has flown continuously, by a Joint Resolution of Congress, over the monument marking the site of Francis Scott Key's birthplace, Terra Rubra Farm, Carroll County, Keymar, Maryland.

Franz Joseph Haydn

Lionel Hampton

William C. Handy

William Christopher Handy, the "Father of the Blues," was born November 16, 1873, in a tiny log cabin on the west side of Florence, Alabama.
The future composer of "St. Louis Blues" and "Beale Street Blues" spent his childhood in the post-slavery South of the late 19th century.
As both the son and grandson of African Methodist Episcopal ministers, Handy's first exposure to music occurred in his family's church, Greater St. Paul AME. Attending Sunday services, Handy found himself instantly consumed by the soul-stirring sounds of sacred hymns and Negro spirituals.
From his earliest days in Florence, the imaginative young Handy would sneak down to the banks of the Tennessee River, where he'd listen intently for hours while dirt-poor black laborers sang their songs of toil and triumph.
Music from "the heart of the man farthest down."

George Fredrick Handel

Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy (Duke) Ellington was born April 29, 1899. His father was James William Ellington. He had little education, yet he still developed good speech, dress, and deportment. Times were bad in the south when he was young. Agriculture was depressed and Jim Crow laws were in effect. This caused many blacks to move north, including James Ellington.

Duke's mother, Daisy Kennedy Ellington, had never worked full-time. Together with James, they lived comfortably as middle-class citizens. They weren't wealthy but they weren't always poor. They married on April 29, 1899 and Daisy gave birth to Edward Kennedy Ellington. She could have married someone higher up on the social scale but she must have been attracted by James' wits and manner.

Edward Kennedy Ellington got the name "Duke" from his friends and family. The name seemed to have fit him well; it fit his personality well and stuck with him all through high school. Duke Ellington grew up listening to black music, such as ragtime. At the time, jazz was considered low and vulgar by most respectable and sophisticated people such as the Ellingtons.

As a boy, Duke liked to draw. He and his family had predicted he would go to college specializing in art. He wasn't interested in finer things such as refined dancing and the piano. He was more-so into boyish games like open-lot baseball but his mother still had him take piano lessons. After about two months of this, his parents decided that it was a waste of time and money to keep getting him lessons while he wasn't interested in the piano.

Duke Ellington's interest in music came when he was 13 years old. He also became interested in things like girls and parties. He then realized that anyone who could play music, especially the piano, was likely to be popular and be invited to parties. He started taking lessons again.

Things changed once again. Most kids his age who wanted to sharpen their musical skills would have asked their parents for music lessons, but this was not Duke's way. He was too proud to put himself under the authority of a teacher. He didn't want anyone telling him how to go about doing things. So instead of getting a proper music teacher and putting in many hours practicing scales and finger cycles, he went out looking for shortcuts, and one place he looked was Frank Holliday's poolroom, which happened to be next door to the Howard Theater, one of the most famous black theaters in the United States. 

Holliday's poolroom attracted all sorts of people who wanted a place to hang out: lawyers, gamblers, champion pool shooters as well as youngsters like Duke Ellington. And the entertainers from the Howard Theater found it a convenient place for them to go between shows. Among these entertainers were a number of very fine pianists who could sight read anything in a split second, or those who played by ear who nonetheless had their own tricks and stunts. Oliver "Doc" Perry would occasionally ask Duke to his house to teach him things about the piano that would help improve his playing and technique. Another pianist who helped was Henry Grant who taught music at the high school Duke attended.

Ellington's popularity came when he played at a Senior's dance at his high school, faking as a piano player. He played his first composition, "What You Gonna Do When the Bed Breaks Down?" When he finished, the crowd was hooting and yelling for more. He didn't have anything else to play so he switched up the version and style of the same composition. That night, the song became a hit, which began the popularity and fame of Duke Ellington.

Once when Duke was on vacation with relatives he was told of a young pianist in Philadelphia, Harvey Brooks. Harvey was known as a "monster" on the piano and so Duke was told that one day while he was away, he ought to hear him play. On his way back to Washington D.C. from New York, he took advantage of the offer. Brook's swing caught Duke's ear, which he insisted on incorporating into his own work. The experience inspired him to want to continue to play and be the best.

Duke Ellington's first gig was a sit-in for a pianist at Frank Holliday's poolroom. The gig was paying one-hundred dollars, Duke was to keep ten and give the pianist the other ninety. Getting a taste of his first gig, he began looking through the yellow pages. He noticed one advertising a barn dance. He set up the gig, but was later called and told to cancel all arrangements. The dance was on the second floor of the barn and there was no way they could get a piano up there! This wasn't enough to stop the Duke. He arranged it so that he would pretend to strum a guitar behind the volume of the band. He got away with it.

Duke Ellington was a human being. And like all human beings, he made mistakes and wrong choices. There were obstacles he had to overcome. He didn't graduate with his class and so he couldn't go to the Pratt Art Institute in Brooklyn, New York on the scholarship that was offered to him. The main reason for this was that he had fell in love with a girl   from his school named Edna Thompson. In 1918, they had a baby, Mercer Ellington. This forced Duke to have to find a way to make a living for his new family. He had a member of his group start a sign-painting business.

Duke Ellington died on May 24, 1974. The jazz world suffered a major loss.

Nat King Cole

George M. Cohan

This great American song and dance man spent 56 of his 64 years on the stage. During his lifetime, he wrote 40 plays, collaborated with others on another 40 plays, and shared production of still another 150 plays. He made

over a 1000 appearances as an actor. Some of the more than 500 songs that he wrote were major national hits.

His parents were circuit traveling vaudevillians, Jeremiah and Helen Cohan, who had three children. The first died in infancy, Josephine was the second child preceding George by just two years. As was the life of vaudevillians in those days, the family 'lived out of a trunk', traveling from town to town, staying in shabby boarding houses. Often the children would sleep in the theater dressing room while the parents were on stage.

George had only a mild taste of public school education, as well as just a few lessons on the violin. The theater became his school, - and he was an apt pupil. He appeared in one of his parent's stage sketches as a 'prop' while still an infant. When he was nine years old, he became a member of the act, with his sister Josephine joining him just one year later. Now, the act was officially billed as The Four Cohans. George would do sentimental recitations; a bootblack specialty, and often perform a "buck and wing dance." By age 11, he was writing special material, and by age 13 he was writing songs and lyrics for the act.

He was just 16 years old when in 1894, he sold his first song to Witmark Music Publishing.

'The Four Cohans' were now 'headliners' commanding a $1000.00 per week. George was writing the songs and the sketches; He became the starring actor. He was also selling original songs and sketches to other acts. And, he topped this all by managing the family's business affairs. He was now 20 years of age, and in complete control of the act. Isidore Witmark, in his autobiography, has pointed out that the young (and also the mature) George Cohan was an opinionated, brash, cocky youngster with a very high opinion (justified) of his own gifts.

In 1899, George married his first wife, Ethel Levey, a popular singing comedienne. She became the 'fifth' Cohan in the act.

Cohan now began to turn his attention to the Broadway Musical Comedy stage.

In 1904, George and Sam Harris formed a partnership that was destined to become one of Broadway's most successful producing firms.

1904, Cohan's 'Little Johnny Jones' opened on Broadway, with Cohan playing the role of a jockey. It became a huge hit.

In 1917, Cohan composed his greatest hit song. America had just entered World War 1. Cohan was living in New Rochelle ("Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway"). On the train down to New York, he thought of a song. Cohan has said "I read those war headlines, and I got to thinking and humming to myself, and for a minute, I thought I was going to dance. I was all finished with both the chorus and the verse by the time I got to town, and I also had a title." The title was "Over There". Charles King introduced the song in the New Amsterdam Theater in 1917; the Nora Bayes recording made it a national hit. 25 years later, Congress authorized President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to present the Congressional Medal of Honor for this war song.

In 1919, Actor's Equity called a strike in an effort to gain recognition as bargaining agent for it's membership. This strike closed the Broadway theaters. As a producer, Cohan was affected. He took it badly. Many of the people who aligned themselves with Equity, were folks whom Cohan had helped with their careers. He became quite bitter, lost his enthusiasm, even broke up the successful Cohan-Harris partnership, and retired from show business. He even cancelled his memberships in the Friar's Club and The Lambs. (Two Broadway organizations.) But show people can no longer stay away from the stage, than composers can stay away from music. After some rest and travel, Cohan returned to Broadway.

In was in 1942, while Cohan was recovering from an abdominal operation, that he paid his last respects to Broadway. He asked his nurse to accompany him on a taxi ride from Union Square (14th Street) up to Times Square (42nd Street), stopping briefly at the Hollywood Theater, to watch some scenes from 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. Cohan was taking one last look at all the places he had worked and starred. He was never to see Broadway again.

James Herbert "Eubie" Blake

Irving Berlin

With a life that spanned more than 100 years and a catalogue that boasted over 1000 songs, Irving Berlin epitomized Jerome Kern's famous maxim, that "Irving Berlin has no place in American music - he is American music".
Irving Berlin was born Israel Berlin in May 1888. When his father died, Berlin, just turned 13, took to the streets in various jobs, working as a buster, singing for pennies, then as a singer / waiter in a Chinatown café. In 1907 he published his first song, Marie From Sunny Italy and by 1911 he had his first major international hit, Alexander's Ragtime Band. 
Over the next five decades, Irving Berlin produced an outpouring of ballads, dance numbers, novelty tunes and love songs that defined American popular song for much of the century. A sampling of just some of the Irving Berlin standards included: How Deep Is the Ocean?, Blue Skies, White Christmas, Always, Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better, There's No Business Like Show Business, Cheek To Cheek, Puttin' On The Ritz, A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody, Heatwave, Easter Parade, and Lets Face The Music And Dance. In a class by itself is his beloved paean to his beloved country, God Bless America. 
He was equally at home writing for Broadway and Hollywood. He wrote seventeen complete scores for Broadway musicals and revues, and contributed material to six more. Among the shows featuring all-Berlin scores were The Cocoanuts, As Thousands Cheer, Louisiana Purchase, Miss Liberty, Mister President, Call Me Madam and the phenomenally successful Annie Get Your Gun. 

Count Basie

Throughout his career, the name of Count Basie was synonymous with swing. Basie, whose influence remains huge over a decade after his death, not only led two of the finest jazz orchestras ever, but he redefined the role of the piano in the rhythm section. Originally a stride pianist, Basie had such a strong rhythm section in the mid 1930s that he pared down his style drastically, eliminating the oom-pah timekeeping function of his left hand.

But Count Basie was really an institution by himself. Born as William Basie in 1904, he played for silent movies, learned from the great stride pianist of New York and played the vaudeville circuit. Stranded in Kansas City in 1927, he soon joined Walter Page’s Blue Devils (the best small group in the city) and eventually became the main pianist with Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Orchestra. After Moten’s premature death in 1935, Basie formed his own group (known originally as The Barons of Rhythm) and was based in Kansas City’s Reno Club. By 1937, the Count Basie band had caught on. Basie’s orchestra could hold its own against any other swing band. Its theme "One O’Clock Jump"; soon became widely recorded and "Jumpin’ at the Woodside" became a standard.

In the 1940s, the band’s arrangements became more formalized. Bad money management and the change in the public’s musical taste led Basie to reluctantly break up his orchestra at the end of 1949 and use a small group for the next two years. In 1952, during a period when very few jazz orchestras were being formed, Count Basie put together what became known as his New Testament band. Against all odds, Basie’s orchestra caught on, especially after recording "April in Paris"; in 1954. It was the arrangements and the sound of the swinging ensembles that were emphasized.

Louis Armstrong

One of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, Louis Armstrong was responsible for innovations that filtered down through popular music to rock and roll. Armstrong himself put it like this: "If it hadn't been for jazz, there wouldn't be no rock and roll." If it hadn't been for Armstrong, popular music of all kinds - from jazz and blues to rock and roll - would be considerably poorer. As a trumpet player, Armstrong was a pioneering soloist and one of the first true virtuosos in jazz. As a singer, he was one of the originators of scat-singing, and his warm, ebullient vocal style had a big impact on the way all pop music was sung. As an entertainer, his charismatic presence allowed him to break through race barriers to become one of the first black superstars - a figure who would eventually become known as America's Jazz Ambassador.

Chet Atkins

Though revered by a legion of highly respected guitarists, running the gamut from Paul McCartney to Eric Clapton, Chet’s list of accomplishments hardly stops there. After leaving his poverty-stricken home in eastern Tennessee, Chet landed a series of radio station jobs. At radio station WNOX in Knoxville, Chet made his first recording backing a group that would later become the Oak Ridge Boys. By 1946 he made his debut on RCA Records, a relationship that would last over three decades with Chet recording over 75 albums. Impressed with his eye and ear for raw, undiscovered talent, Chet was tapped to head RCA’s A&R department where he produced or guided a Who’s Who list of legendary greats. Serving as producer for Elvis Presley early in the singer’s career, Chet went on to arrange and play on such acts as the Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Perry Como, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold, Jerry Reed, Charley Pride, Dottie West and Don Gibson. Long regarded as one of a handful of musical architects for his pivotal role in creating what became known as the Nashville Sound, he soon was shaping the sound of rock-n-roll as well as country music.

Throughout the years, Chet has remained one of the most in-demand session guitarists in Nashville history and has collaborated with such contemporary artists as Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler on the Grammy   award-winning Neck & Neck album, Paul McCartney (who has credited Chet for being a major influence on the Beatles), jazz great Earl Klugh, pop star George Benson, country diva Dolly Parton and red-hot Suzy Bogguss. On the chart-topping Rhythm, Country and Blues project, Chet is paired with New Orleans great Alan Toussaint for one of the album’s most critically acclaimed tracks.

Chet moved to Columbia Records in 1982 and began recording albums with a renewed spirit as evidenced by his groundbreaking Stay Tuned album featuring such lofty musical counterparts as George Benson, Larry Carlton, Mark Knopfler and Earl Klugh which was followed by a Cinemax special "A Session With Chet Atkins, C.G.P." Always a respected musician in any genre of music, Chet’s influence has spanned several musical formats.

It was his genre-defying artistry that earned Chet over 25 major awards including nine Grammy awards and Guitar Player magazine’s "Popular Music’s Most Influential Stylist" -- and awesome achievement by anyone’s standards.

A new era in the Atkins legacy has emerged with Chet’s landmark effort, Read My Licks, a tantalizing taste of his signature country styling and unequaled shadings of jazz and rock that is sure to further his standing as a Musician’s Musician. Collaborating with a potpourri of gifted and widely diverse artists ranging from country songstress Suzy Bogguss. (on the lilting "After You’ve Gone"), Chet Atkins protégé and current charttopper Steve Wariner (the title track), Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler ("Around The Bend"), rock guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson ("Somebody Love Me Now") and George Benson (the jazz-infused "Dream"). "I’ve never been satisfied with the way I play and sound so I strive continually to try and get it right," says Chet with his unfathomable but genuine modesty. "I’m glad I’m that way. What excites me about this album is the musicians--they are the very best. I love to play with people of that caliber."