I have featured this film before, but for a different reason. The last time was the anniversary of Glenn Miller’s Chattanooga Choo Choo becoming the first gold record. Today is for a much sadder anniversary.

It was on this day in 1944 that Glenn Miller’s plane disappeared somewhere over the English Channel. The incident remains an unsolved mystery. No wreckage was ever found.  There are a few theories about what happened including bad weather causing the carburetor to freeze up, a fire on board, and even some sort of espionage.

In the film, Jimmy Stewart portrays Miller.  It covers his early days in the music business in 1929 through his disappearance on this day in 1944.

Moonlight Serenade was released as an instrumental in May of 1939. It is often referred to as the song that first introduced the “Miller Sound.” What made his music unique is that many of his songs, including Moonlight Serenade, have a clarinet lead.  Often times, the melody in most big bands would be done by the trumpet or trombone.

The song would become Miller’s signature song.  Lyrics were added to the instrumental that were composed by Mitchell Parish.

In 2004, a jazz critic named Gary Giddins told the New Yorker, “Miller exuded little warmth on or off the bandstand, but once the band struck up its theme, audiences were done for: throats clutched, eyes softened. Can any other record match ‘Moonlight Serenade’ for its ability to induce a Pavlovian slobber in so many for so long?”