In addition to leading bands and playing the trombone, Glenn Miller composed music or lyrics to a number of songs. These and others were recorded by Miller with his pre-war civilian bands and his Army Air Forces Orchestra.
Compositions
"Moonlight Serenade" Glenn Miller composed the music to "Moonlight Serenade" in 1935, with lyrics added later by Mitchell Parish after two other sets of lyrics were written. "Moonlight Serenade" was Glenn Miller's theme for his radio programs between 1939 and 1942 (except for a brief period in 1941). This song has been covered by Frank Sinatra, Barry Manilow, Carly Simon Charlie Haden, The Rivieras, Toots Thielemans, Kurt Elling, Bucky Pizzarelli, Bobby Vinton, Deodato, Count Basie and his Orchestra, Gene Krupa and his Orchestra the Boston Pops with Arthur Fiedler, John Williams, and Keith Lockhart, each conducting during their time with the orchestra. Ray Conniff, Paul Mauriat, and the rock group Chicago have versions of "Moonlight Serenade" on a 1995 3 inch CD single in Japan and on the album Night & Day Big Band (1995). "Moonlight Serenade" appears in the films Rumor Has It… (2005) and The Aviator (2004).
It was released as a B-side to "Sunrise Serenade", written by Frankie Carle.
The record reached number three on the Billboard magazine chart and was the number five record of 1939 in the year-end chart. The 1939 RCA recording was issued as a V-Disc in November 1943 by the U.S. War Department. The recording reached number twelve in the UK in March 1954, staying on the chart for one week. In a medley with "Little Brown Jug" and "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade" reached number thirteen on the UK charts in January 1976, where it stayed for eight weeks.
"Room 1411 (Goin' to Town)" "Room 1411" was composed with Benny Goodman in 1928 when Glenn Miller was part of Benny Goodman's Boys, the instrumental was recorded on June 23, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois and was released as a 78 by Brunswick with "Jungle Blues". Benny Goodman's Boys consisted of Miller on trombone, Tommy Dorsey on trombone, who is not on the "Room 1411" recording, Dick "Icky" Morgan on guitar, Bud Freeman on tenor saxophone, Harry Goodman on bass and tuba, Fud Livingston on clarinet and tenor saxophone, Wingy Manone on trumpet, Jimmy McPartland on cornet, Ben Pollack on drums, Vic Briedis on piano, Harry Goodman on bass and tuba, and Benny Goodman on clarinet, saxophone, and cornet. On the January 1928 recording sessions, the band was referred to as "Benny Goodman's Boys with Jim and Glenn". The band continued to record in 1928 and 1929. Miller and Goodman lived in the same suite at the time in the apartments in The Whitby in New York whose number was 1411. In Hear Me Talkin' to Ya: The Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It (1955) by Nat Shapiro and Nat Hentoff, Jimmy McPartland recalled how the title originated: "[A]fter a couple of weeks we moved into the Whitby Apartments, where Gil Rodin, Dick Morgan, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller had a suite. We all moved into that, practically the whole band...The number of that apartment was 1411. And that is how that title came up, "Room 1411", by Benny Goodman's Boys." Goodman played baritone saxophone "on the more straight-ahead Chicago-style 'Room 1411'". "Room 1411 (Goin' to Town)" is Glenn Miller's first known composition. Two versions of the instrumental were released. The recording was reissued in 1949 as part of the Brunswick Collectors' Series.
"Sold American" "Sold American" was composed in 1938 by Glenn Miller and John Chalmers "Chummy" MacGregor, the pianist in the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The title was recorded on May 23, 1938, for Brunswick and again on June 27, 1939, for RCA Victor. A 78 was released in 1938 as Brunswick 8173 with "Dipper Mouth Blues". In 1939, a new recording was released as a Bluebird 78 A side, 10352A, with "Pagan Love Song". The title is based on an American Tobacco Company radio ad jingle of the 1930s for Lucky Strike cigarettes with a tobacco auctioneer chant delivered by North Carolina tobacco auctioneer Lee Aubrey "Speed" Riggs which ended with the phrase, "Sold, American!", stressing that American only purchased the highest quality tobacco for its cigarettes. The song was performed live by Glenn Miller on March 8, 1939, and broadcast on the radio from a remote at the Meadowbrook Ballroom in Cedar Grove, New Jersey. "Sold American" was released as a single in the UK paired with "Moon Love" on the HMV label as BD5854.