Chattanooga Choo Choo
| "Chattanooga Choo Choo" | ||
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"Chattanooga Choo Choo" cover
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| Song by Glenn Miller Orchestra | ||
| Published | August 20, 1941 | |
| Recorded | 1941 | |
| Genre | Big band, swing | |
| Writer(s) | Lyricist: Mack Gordon Composer: Harry Warren |
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| Language | English, German, Italian (see other versions) |
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A recording by the Glenn Miller AAF Orchestra (with Ray McKinley and The Crew Chiefs on vocals) for the Swing Shift radio broadcast
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"Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren. It was originally recorded as a big-band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade.
The song was an extended production number in the 20th Century Fox film Sun Valley Serenade. The Glenn Miller recording, RCA Bluebird B-11230-B, became the #1 song across the United States on December 7, 1941, and remained at #1 for nine weeks on the Billboard Best Sellers chart. The flip side of the single was "I Know Why (And So Do You)", which was the A side.
The song opens up with the band, sounding like a train rolling out of the station, complete with the trumpets and trombones imitating a train whistle, before the instrumental portion comes in playing two parts of the main melody. This is followed by the vocal introduction of four lines before the main part of the song is heard.
The main song opens with a dialog between a passenger and a shoeshine boy:
After the entire song is sung, the band plays two parts of the main melody as an instrumental, with the instruments imitating the "WHOO WHOO" of the train as the song ends.
The 78-rpm was recorded on May 7, 1941, for RCA Victor's Bluebird label and became the first to be certified a gold disc on February 10, 1942, for 1,200,000 sales. The transcription of this award ceremony can be heard on the first of three volumes of RCA's "Legendary Performer" compilations released by RCA in the 1970s. In the early 1990s a two-channel recording of a portion of the Sun Valley Serenade soundtrack was discovered, allowing reconstruction of a true-stereo version of the film performance.
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Wikipedia