He initially formed a large marching band that was to be the core of a network of service orchestras, but his attempts at modernizing military music were met with some resistance from tradition-minded career officers. An example is the arrangement of "St. Louis Blues March", combining blues and jazz with the traditional military march. This was recorded October 29, 1943 at the Victor studios in New York City. [The Best of Glenn Miller and the Army Air Force Band] "Miller's striking innovations and his adaptions [sic] of Sousa marches for the AAF band prompted Time magazine to claim that he had rankled traditionalists in the field of Army music and had desecrated the march king. The magazine also criticized Miller's injection of casual enjoyment into the disciplined cadences of military music, stating that the Army was 'swinging its hips instead of its feet.'" ["Stripes"] In the end though, the soldiers had a positive reaction to the new music and the Army gave tacit approval to the changes. ["Stripes"]
The orchestra was first based at Yale University.[10] From mid-1943 to mid-1944 they made hundreds of live appearances, transcriptions, and "I Sustain the Wings" radio broadcasts for CBS and NBC. Miller felt it was important that the band be as close as possible to the fighting troops. In mid-1944 he had the group transferred to London, where they were renamed the American Band of the Allied Expeditionary Force. While in the United Kingdom the band gave more than 800 performances to an estimated one million Allied servicemen. After one of the band's performances, General "Jimmy" Doolittle told then Captain Miller, "Next to a letter from home, Captain Miller, your organization is the greatest morale builder in the ETO (European Theater of Operations)."
On November 17, 1944, Miller, now a major, was scheduled to fly from the United Kingdom to Paris to play for the soldiers who had recently liberated Paris. His plane departed from RAF Twinwood Farm, [Butcher 203-205] Clapham, Bedfordshire, but disappeared over the English Channel and was never found. Miller's disappearance remains a mystery; neither his remains nor the wreckage of his plane (a single-engined Noorduyn Norseman UC-64, USAAF Tail Number 44-70285) were ever recovered from the water. (Clive Ward's discovery of a Noorduyn Norseman off the coast of Northern France in 1985 was unverifiable and contained no human remains.)[12]
There have been sixty years of theories about what happened to Glenn Miller. Buddy DeFranco, one of the leaders of the post war Glenn Miller orchestra explained to George Simon, that at many of the concerts where he was leading the Glenn Miller band in the nineteen-seventies, more than a few people confided to him what "really" happened to Glenn Miller. "If I were to believe all those stories, there would have been about twelve thousand four hundred and fifty eight people there at the field in England seeing him off on that last flight!" [Simon 446]. It is now thought more than likely that Glenn Miller's plane was accidentally bombed by RAF bombers over The English Channel, after an abortive air raid on Germany and short on fuel dumping four thousand pounds of bombs in a safe drop zone to lighten the load. The logbooks of Royal Air Force pilot Fred Shaw record that a small mono engined plane was seen to spiral out of control and crash into the water.[13][14]
Blue Rain
Glenn Miller & The Army Air Force Band Lyrics
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But when you return there'll be a rainbow
After the blue, blue rain
And there's a blue star
Looking down asking where you are
But when you return there'll be a sunbeam
Hiding the blue, blue star
Skies will be much brighter than they were before
Then there'll be no more blue rain
Just the sound of my heart's refrain
Singing like a million little blue birds
After the blue, blue rain
The song "Blue Rain" by Glenn Miller & The Army Air Force Band features lyrics that portray a sense of loneliness and longing. The opening line, "Blue Rain, falling down on my window pane," sets a melancholic tone, as the singer appears to be experiencing a difficult time. However, the lyrics also suggest that hope is on the horizon. The singer mentions a rainbow and a sunbeam that will appear when the person they are missing returns. The blue star, which represents the singer's missing loved one, will also disappear, and the skies will become brighter. The repetition of the phrase "blue rain" throughout the song emphasizes the sadness the singer feels, but the final lines suggest that once the person they are missing returns, their heart will sing like a million little blue birds.
Line by Line Meaning
Blue Rain, falling down on my window pane
The singer is feeling sad and lonely, probably due to missing someone, and is expressing this feeling with the metaphor of blue rain falling on the window pane.
But when you return there'll be a rainbow
The singer is hopeful that the person they are missing will return and bring happiness, symbolized by the rainbow after the rain has ended.
After the blue, blue rain
This line simply repeats the metaphor of the blue rain representing sadness or loneliness.
And there's a blue star
The artist sees a blue star and relates it to their current state of sadness, as if the star is also feeling blue or empathizing with the artist's emotions.
Looking down asking where you are
The artist imagines the blue star is wondering where the person they miss is, perhaps implying that the star represents the artist's feelings and thoughts.
But when you return there'll be a sunbeam
The singer is once again hopeful that the return of the person they miss will bring happiness, symbolized by the sunbeam replacing the blue star.
Hiding the blue, blue star
The sunbeam, representing happiness or love, will replace the blue star and its sadness or loneliness.
Skies will be much brighter than they were before
The arrival of the person the artist is missing will metaphorically brighten up their life, represented by the skies becoming brighter.
When you and love come strolling through the door
The tone becomes more positive as the artist imagines the person they miss coming back with love, implying that a romantic relationship may be involved.
Then there'll be no more blue rain
The arrival of the person they miss and the love they bring will end the artist's sadness and loneliness, represented by the end of the blue rain.
Just the sound of my heart's refrain
The singer will no longer feel the loneliness they expressed at the beginning of the song, instead their heart will be filled with the sound of joy and love.
Singing like a million little blue birds
The artist's heart will be filled with happiness and they will express it joyfully, represented by the metaphor of singing like little blue birds.
After the blue, blue rain
This line once again repeats the original metaphor of the blue rain, but it now adds the implication that the rain will inevitably end and be replaced by happiness, giving the song an ultimately optimistic tone.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Written by: JOHNNY MERCER, JIMMY VAN HEUSEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind