Stardust: The Bible of the Big Bands - Softcover

Richard Grudens

9780976387756: Stardust: The Bible of the Big Bands

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0976387751 ISBN 13: 9780976387756

Publisher: Celebrity Profiles Publishing Company, 2008

The complete Big Band Bible covering the Bands, the bandleaders, the musicians, the vocalists, the arrangers, the singing groups of most of the previous century told through a collection of personal profiles featuring the twentieth century's greatest musical stars with a foreword by Frankie Laine and an introduction by Kathryn Crosby, Mrs. Bing Crosby. The book will include the history of the song Stardust, bandleader Van Alexander's 'So You Want to Lead a Band.' The lists will document every known band and its theme song, as well as two lists documenting every girl and boy singer who ever sang with a band or bands. Features: Your Lucky Strike Hit Parade, The Cotton Club, Big Band Million sellers, Presentation of the First Gold Record, Great Moments in Big Band History, WNEW radio polls, the Recording Ban, Anecdotes and Fables, interviews with almost every Big Band Leaders and their vocalists. Vignettes of every known singing group, Big Band Associates like Mitch Miller and John Hammond, a chapter on the songwriters, the arrangers, the broadcasters, the Ghost-tribute bands and their tours of today, a list and interviews with the current crop of singers, The Music of Your Life story, 50 pages devoted to the bands of England and Europe, the complete alphabetical list of all known bands from 1920-1980's, Big Band organizations, clubs, and publications. Big Band Anecdotes and Nom de Plumes; the performers real names, and much more. The book has over 600 photos, many never before published.

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About the Author:

About the Author Richard Grudens was initially influenced by Pulitzer Prize dramatist Robert Anderson; New York Herald Tribune columnist Will Cuppy; and detective/mystery novelist Dashiell Hammett, all whom he knew in his early years. Grudens worked his way up from studio page in NBC's studios in New York to news writer for radio news programs, the Bob and Ray Show and Today Show. Feature writing for Long Island PM Magazine ( 1980-86) led to his first book, The Best Damn Trumpet Player - Memories of the Big Band Era in 1997. He has written over 100 magazine articles on diverse subjects from personal interviews with legendary cowboy Gene Autry in Wild West Magazine in 1995 to a treatise on the Beach Boys in the California Highway Patrol Magazine, and countless articles on Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, including a major Hope cover article covering Hope's famous wartime USO tours published in World War II Magazine. He has written extensively about Henry Ford, VE Day, Motorcycle Helmet Safety, DNA History, among other subjects. His other books include The Song Stars-1997, The Music Men-1998, Jukebox Saturday Night - 1999, Snootie Little Cutie - The Connie Haines Story- 2000, Jerry Vale - A Singer's Life-2001, The Spirit of Bob Hope-2002, Bing Crosby-Crooner of the �entury - 2003 ( which won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Biography-Publishers Marketing Association),and Chattanooga Choo Choo - The Life and Times of the World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra-2004, The Italian Crooners Bedside Companion in 2005, and When Jolson was King in 2006 Commenting about the book Jukebox Saturday Night in 1999, Kathryn ( Mrs. Bing) Crosby wrote: " Richard Grudens is the musical historian of our time. Without him, the magic would be lost forever. We all owe him a debt that we can never repay." Richard Grudens resides in St. James, New York.

Review:

Well, here it is, Richard Grudens' long awaited Bible of the Big Bands. Not only is he the ideal craftsman to envision and create such a project, in my mind, he's the only one. Coverage of forty of our twentieth century's big bands, including Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Les Brown, Stan Kenton, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich, Harry James, Van Alexander, Jack Teagarden, Ben Grisafi, Lionel Hampton, many of their most famous musicians, over 50 of our greatest vocalists, including my own Bing and Frank Sinatra, their associates and arrangers, together with their predecessors, followers, and European counterparts, demands a scope which no other writer could presume to possess. Largely, as a consequence of my marriage to Bing, I was acquainted with perhaps a score of the celebrities whom you will encounter in this book, I could have recognized them on the street, and that was about it. Richard Grudens, on the other hand, has the greatest breadth of anyone who has ever undertaken to describe the giants of our musical world. Here you will meet, in intimate detail, the leading performers of our finest era, and I trust you will enjoy the brilliant narrative as much as I did. Read on, my friends. --Kathryn, Mrs. Bing Crosby

ANN JILLIAN: A great book about our musical heroes past and present, for certain. I m sure the very talented and professional musical artists in the world will agree that Richard Grudens books about them and their music is, without a doubt, the only history of the industry that is so well researched and well-presented that it not only acts as a clearing house, more, it s the factual history of it all that we must have. I loved this book and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys music and the stars that made that music. Richard Grudens has another hit with Stardust. --Ann Jillian

RICHARD GRUDENS scores again with another musical biography of the music of the Big Bands for all to enjoy. He is one of the most talented authors I have ever interviewed on GMMY Radio. The book shines and is capable of bringing the reader onto a beautiful highway of nostalgic memories. Here is describes the giants of our treasured musical world. Here you will meet the leading performers of our best musical era, the Big Band Era and Beyond. I trust you will enjoy this book as much as I did. You ll love it. It s pure Gold. The man did his homework in compiling exhaustive information about all the wonderful artists. We happily endorse this magical book. --GMMY radio Frank E. Dee, Host.

ANN JILLIAN: A great book about our musical heroes past and present, for certain. I m sure the very talented and professional musical artists in the world will agree that Richard Grudens books about them and their music is, without a doubt, the only history of the industry that is so well researched and well-presented that it not only acts as a clearing house, more, it s the factual history of it all that we must have. I loved this book and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys music and the stars that made that music. Richard Grudens has another hit with Stardust. --Ann Jillian

RICHARD GRUDENS scores again with another musical biography of the music of the Big Bands for all to enjoy. He is one of the most talented authors I have ever interviewed on GMMY Radio. The book shines and is capable of bringing the reader onto a beautiful highway of nostalgic memories. Here is describes the giants of our treasured musical world. Here you will meet the leading performers of our best musical era, the Big Band Era and Beyond. I trust you will enjoy this book as much as I did. You ll love it. It s pure Gold. The man did his homework in compiling exhaustive information about all the wonderful artists. We happily endorse this magical book. --GMMY radio Frank E. Dee, Host.

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