Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols (May 8, 1905–June 28, 1965) a United States jaz… Read Full Bio ↴Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols (May 8, 1905–June 28, 1965) a United States jazz cornet player, became one of the busiest phonograph session musicians of his era, making hundreds of recording sessions of jazz and hot dance band music. In the 1920s alone he appeared on over 4,000 recordings, working with almost every important musician of his time. Though his style of playing was influenced by Bix Beiderbecke, Nichols, an excellent sight reader, was a considered a better, more polished musician.

Born in Utah, Nichols studied music under his father, a college music professor, and mastered a variety of instruments. After working in a number of pit orchestras, he joined a Midwestern band called The Syncopating Seven.

In 1923 Nichols moved to New York and soon teamed up with trombonist Miff Mole. Nichols most famously recorded under the name Red Nichols and His Five Pennies, but the same group of musicians also recorded under many different pseudonyms, including the Louisiana Rhythm Kings, the Charleston Seven, the Arkansas Travelers, Miff Mole and His Molers, the Hottentots, and the Red Heads. These sessions at first featured trombonist Miff Mole with Jimmy Dorsey on alto and clarinet, and later in the decade featured a virtual who's who of great white jazz musicians including Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Jack Teagarden, Pee Wee Russell, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Adrian Rollini and Gene Krupa.

Nichols survived the Depression by working in Broadway shows, even leading the pit orchestra for two of George Gershwin's shows; "Girl Crazy" and "Strike Up the Band". In 1934 Red fronted a band for a radio show sponsored by Kellogg's Cereal and led many studio orchestras, including one for the Bob Hope Show.

Around 1940 Nichols took advantage of the swing craze and tried updating his sound. The orchestra soon floundered and Nichols sold the band in 1942.

Nichols briefly found work as a member of the Casa Loma Orchestra before retiring to Hollywood, where he led several small groups throughout the rest of the 1940s and into the 1950s. The highly-fictionalized 1959 film, The Five Pennies, starring Danny Kaye, prompted Nichols to put together a new Five Pennies. Nichols died suddenly from a heart attack while on tour in Las Vegas in 1965.

Strike Up the Band
Red Nichols Lyrics

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Let the drums roll out. Let the trumpet call.
While the people shout, Strike up the band.
Hear the cymbals ring. Calling one and all.
To the martial swing, Strike up the band.

There is work to be done,to be done.
There's a war to be won, to be won.
Come you son of son of a gun. Take your stand.

Fall in line, yea bo. Come along, let's go.

Hey, leader. Strike up the band.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Red Nichols's song Strike Up the Band are a call to action, urging people to come together and unify under the banner of music. The song starts with an invitation to the drums and trumpet to begin playing, with the people responding by shouting and cheering. The cymbals start ringing, beckoning everyone to come together and join in the martial swing of the music.

The lyrics also allude to the fact that there is important work to be done and a war to be won. The call to arms is then directed at the listeners themselves, referring to them as "son of a gun" and urging them to take their stand and fall in line. The leader of the band is then called upon to strike up the band.

Overall, the song Strike Up the Band can be interpreted as a call for unity and action, with music being seen as a powerful tool in bringing people together and motivating them to work towards a common goal.

Strike Up the BandRed Nichols Lyrics

Strike Up the Band
Red Nichols Lyrics