Music

The Big Bands: a Video RetrospectiveHumorist and WBZ radio personality Mel Simons took an enthusiastic Quincy crowd on a foot-tapping video journey back to the Big Bands of yesteryear. Musical greats Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman all did their part to help the war effort, and play the last hurrah in a musical era that would end within a few years of the troops coming home.

Mel Simons: “It was the greatest music ever”

Sentimental Journey: Popular Songs of the 1940s
Boston trio Outrageous Fortune put together a live show of old war tunes. Standards like “Comin’ in on a Wing and a Prayer,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” and “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home to” got rave reviews from library patrons, including the endorsement of 12-year-old Eli Kissman.

About the music:
Outrageous Fortune’s Rod Thomas
Reaction:
Peter Brewer
Mary Clarke
12-year-old Eli Kissman remembers his grandfather

Want to listen at home? Find a list of CDs of World War II era music that you can borrow from the library at Music of the War Years.