Larry Wagner
| Larry Wagner | |
|---|---|
| Born |
September 15, 1907 Ashland, Oregon |
| Died | April 3, 2002 (aged 94) Roslyn Heights, New York |
| Genres | Big Band |
| Occupation(s) | composer, arranger, bandleader |
| Years active | late 1920s – 1970s |
| Labels | A440, Decca |
| Associated acts | Paul Whiteman, Casa Loma Orchestra |
| Notable instruments | |
| trumpet | |
Larry Wagner (September 15, 1907 – April 3, 2002) was an American arranger, composer, and bandleader. He worked for the band of Paul Whiteman and was long associated with Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra. His compositions "Whistler's Mother-in-Law", "No Name Jive" and "Turn Back the Hands of Time" became nationally popular.
Larry Wagner was born in Ashland, Oregon, on September 15, 1907. He graduated from Ashland High School in 1926, and went on to attend the University of Oregon, majoring in journalism. He dropped out of college in 1930 to play trumpet in the West Coast territory band of Johnny Robinson at Jantzen Beach Amusement Park. He moved with the band to Seattle during their tenure at the Olympic Hotel. During this time he took a correspondence course in musical arrangement offered by Archie Bleyer. He moved to New York and existed in subsidence mode as a freelance arranger, including work for Cass Daley, George Hall, and the publishing company of Clarence Williams. While in New York he befriended Bleyer on a personal basis; Bleyer helped him land a job arranging for Paul Whiteman's vocalist Durelle Alexander.
Wagner joined Whiteman's outfit permanently in 1936, but left as an employee in November of that year. When Whiteman needed a composition he could use for a theme-song in response to the ASCAP boycott, Murray McEachern brought Wagner's composition "Whistler's Mother-in-Law" to him as a possibility. The song greatly pleased Whiteman, who wanted to record it but did not have a recording contract at the time. Before Whiteman could record it, the song was published; a Bing Crosby and Muriel Lane duet took it to #9 on the charts and several other bands made recordings. This led to a permanent souring in Whitemans's and Wagner's relationship.
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