The Mills Brothers- The Glow Worm

Details

Description

Album: Memories Nice And Easy
Release Date: 1979
Record Label: Reader's Digest
Audio Source: Vinyl Record
Sound Type: Stereo
Speed: 33 1/3 RPM
Record Number: RDA 2371A

Tracks:
Record 1
Side 1: The Mills Brothers' Greatest Hits
1. Paper Doll - (Black)
2. Lazy River - (Carmichael/Arodin)
3. Till Then - (Seiler/Marcus/Wood)
4. You Always Hurt the One You Love - (Roberts/Fisher)
5. Basin Street Blues - (Williams)
6. The Glow-Worm - (Lincke/Mercer/Robinson)

Side 2: The Mills Brothers' Greatest Hits
1. Nevertheless (I'm in Love with You) - (Kalmar/Ruby)
2. Daddy's Little Girl - (Burke/Gerlach)
3. Across the Alley from the Alamo - (Greene)
4. Rockin' Chair - (Carmichael)
5. Be My Life's Companion - (Hilliard/De Lugg)
6. Cab Driver - (Parks)

Description: Musical fads come and go, but the Mills Brothers, blending two of America's all-time favorite styles-close harmony and swing-have now been turning out hits for more than 50 years. Originally, the four teen-aged brothers-John, Herbert, Harry, and Donald-built a regional reputation singing on WLW, Cincinnati, from 1925 to 1929. A year later, they moved to New York, where they played the legendary Palace Theater for 14 weeks, and became legends themselves. When John, the oldest brother, died suddenly in 1935, the others considered breaking up the group-until their father, John Sr., a barber who had once been a concert singer, volunteered to take his son's place. Since their father's retirement in 1956 the three remaining brothers have carried on by themselves-Donald normally singing lead, Herbert tenor and Harry baritone. They often switch roles, even in the course of a song, however-a tactic that is as much a trademark of the Mills Brothers as is their superb vocal imitation of musical instruments.

The Glow Worm: One Sunday afternoon in 1952, the Mills Brothers dropped in at a piano recital where they heard a little girl playing the melody that started running through their heads. They knew the tune, but could not think of the title. On the way back to New York, the Mills Brothers hummed up a swing arrangement of the melody, which they taped and sent to Johnny Mercer in California. Within a week Mercer had shipped back a set of typically clever Mercerian lyrics. Another copy of the Mills' tape went to Sy Oliver, who wrote an orchestral arrangement. By the time the Mills Brothers got to the studio with the lyrics and the arrangement, they had learned that the tune was "Gluhwurmchen Idyll," written for a German operetta in 1902, but best known in the United States as "The Glow-Worm," a favorite piece for beginning pianists. Mercer's breezy modern verses are in sharp, delightful contrast to the archaic, though charming original ones by Lilla Cayley Robinson. The brothers do both the old and new stanzas.

Final Note: Manufactured Especially For Readers Digest By RCA Records, New York, N.Y. - Under license from ABC Records, Inc.