As a youth, he was recognized as an extraordinary talent and formed a traveling duo with Danny Polo, a musical prodigy on the clarinet and trumpet from nearby Clinton, Indiana. As a student at Garfield High School in Terre Haute, he played with several theater bands.
Thornhill entered the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at age 16. That same year he and clarinetist Artie Shaw started their careers at the Golden Pheasant in Cleveland, Ohio with the Austin Wiley Orchestra. Thornhill and Shaw went to New York together in 1931.
Claude went to the West Coast in the late 1930s with the Bob Hope Radio Show, and arranged for Judy Garland in Babes in Arms.
In 1935, he played on sessions for Glenn Miller's first recordings under his own name, as Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. He played on Glenn Miller's composition "Solo Hop," which was released on Columbia Records.
After playing for Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Ray Noble, Glenn Miller, and Billie Holiday, and arranging "Loch Lomond" and "Annie Laurie" for Maxine Sullivan, in 1939 he founded his Claude Thornhill Orchestra. Danny Polo was his lead clarinet player. Although the Thornhill band was originally a sophisticated dance band, it became known for its many superior jazz musicians and for Thornhill's and Gil Evans' innovative arrangements; its "Portrait of a Guinea Farm" has become a classic jazz recording.
The band played without vibrato so that the timbres of the instruments could be better appreciated, and Thornhill encouraged the musicians to develop cool-sounding tones. The band was popular with both musicians and the public; the Miles Davis Nonet was modeled in part on Thornhill's cool sound and use of unconventional instrumentation. The band's most successful records were "Snowfall," "A Sunday Kind of Love" and "Love for Love."
His most famous recording, "Snowfall," was released in 1941 as Columbia 36268. He released the song also as a V-Disc recording, as V-Disc 271A1.
Playing at the Paramount Theater in New York for $10,000 a week in 1942, Thornhill dropped everything to enlist in the US Navy to support the war effort. As chief musician, he played shows across the Pacific Theater with Jackie Cooper as his drummer and Dennis Day as his vocalist.
In 1946, he was discharged from the Navy. Then in April, he reformed his ensemble. He kept his same stylistic lines, but added some Bop lines to it. He got his old members of Danny Polo, Gerry Mulligan, and Barry Galbraith back together, but also added new members like Red Rodney, Lee Konitz, Joe Shulman and Bill Barber. Barber was a tuba player, who was considered as a "soft brass" player rather than a bass as to not interfere with (Joe) Shulman on the bass. Their creative and immaculately clean and delicate interpretation of Evans’s arrangement of Dizzy Gillespie’s fast bop theme "Anthropology" (1947) provides a particularly noteworthy example of Thornhill’s style, which influenced Miles Davis’s recordings in 1949 for Capitol and many musicians who followed .
In the mid 1950s, Thornhill was briefly Tony Bennett's musical director.
He offered his big band library to Gerry Mulligan when Gerry formed the Concert Jazz Band, but Gerry regretfully declined the gift, since his instrumentation was different. A large portion of his extensive library of music is currently held by Drury University in Springfield, Missouri.
After his discharge from the Navy he continued to perform with his orchestra until his death of a heart attack at 1:30 a.m., July 2, 1965, at his home in Caldwell, New Jersey. Claude was booked at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey, at the time, the engagement was kept in his honor with his music director in his place. He was survived by his wife, actress Ruth Thornhill, and his mother, Maude Thornhill (81 at the time), of Terre Haute, Indiana, still active at the time conducting choirs.
Claude Thornhill's compositions included the standard "Snowfall", "I Wish I Had You", recorded by Billie Holiday and Fats Waller, "Let's Go", "Shore Road", "Portrait Of A Guinea Farm", "Lodge Podge", "Rustle Of Spring", "It's Time For Us To Part", "It Was A Lover And His Lass", "The Little Red Man", "Memory Of An Island", and "Where Has My Little Dog Gone?"
In 1984, Claude Thornhill was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
You Go to My Head
Claude Thornhill Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And you linger like a haunting refrain
And I find you spinning round in my brain
Like the bubbles in a glass of champagne
You go to my head
Like a sip of sparkling burgundy brew
And I find the very mention of you
The thrill of the thought
That you might give a thought to my plea, cast a spell over me
Still I say to myself get a hold of yourself
Can't you see that it never can be?
You go to my head
With a smile that makes my temperature rise
Like a summer with a thousand July's
You intoxicate my soul with your eyes
Though I'm certain that this heart of mine
Hasn't a ghost of a chance in this crazy romance
You go to my head
You go to my head
In Claude Thornhill's masterpiece "You Go to My Head," the singer is deeply in love, and the object of his affection is always on his mind. He is completely enamored by this person, and they appear to have complete control over his thoughts and emotions. The singer describes this person as haunting, like a phrase that's hard to forget. They're always in his head, as though he can't escape their grasp. The idea of this person is like the bubbles that form in a glass of champagne, effervescent and intoxicating. The singer compares the feeling of this person's presence to a sip of sparkling burgundy brew. They are spellbound by the idea of this person thinking about them.
The singer is aware of the power the object of their affection holds over them, but they can't help themselves. They're drunk on the possibility that this person might care about them, which makes them feel alive. The thrill of it all is enough to make them lose their grip. The singer knows that this is a "crazy romance," and their rational mind tells them to "get a hold of yourself," but they can't help it. The relationship is a fantasy that can never be real. Despite all of this, the singer can't let go. Their love is like summer with a thousand Julys; it's all-encompassing, and the other person's eyes intoxicate their soul.
Line by Line Meaning
You go to my head
You are constantly on my mind and I can't stop thinking about you
And you linger like a haunting refrain
Your presence stays with me and I can't shake it off like a melody that sticks in one's mind
And I find you spinning round in my brain
I can't stop thinking about you, no matter how hard I try
Like the bubbles in a glass of champagne
You are effervescent and always present like the bubbles in a glass of champagne
Like a sip of sparkling burgundy brew
Just a thought of you is enough to make me feel a sense of intoxication, like a sip of sparkling burgundy brew
And I find the very mention of you
Even hearing your name brings up feelings of excitement and anticipation in me
Like the kicker in a julep or two
You are the key ingredient that makes everything else worthwhile, like the kicker in a julep
The thrill of the thought
The excitement I feel when I think about the possibility of being with you
That you might give a thought to my plea, cast a spell over me
The idea that you might consider being with me is so alluring, it's as if you're casting a spell over me
Still I say to myself get a hold of yourself
Despite my feelings, I try to remind myself to be practical and not get carried away
Can't you see that it never can be?
I know we can never be together for one reason or another
With a smile that makes my temperature rise
Your smile is so captivating, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside
Like a summer with a thousand July's
Being with you feels like the perfect summer, with no end in sight and nothing to worry about
You intoxicate my soul with your eyes
Just looking at you is enough to make me feel like I'm under the influence of a powerful drug
Though I'm certain that this heart of mine hasn't a ghost of a chance in this crazy romance
Despite my feelings, I know deep down that we can never be together, no matter how much I want it
You go to my head
You are constantly on my mind and I can't stop thinking about you
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., MEMORY LANE MUSIC GROUP
Written by: J FRED COOTS, HAVEN GILLESPIE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
K Lee
Haven't heard this recording before. Could you please give some more information about it?