Did Glenn Miller have a theme song?

Answer 1

During the 1930s and 40s ALL big bands had a theme song, and in some cases more than one. Glenn Miller's theme was his own composition, the iconic Moonlight Serenade. Along with In the Mood, it's probably one of the most recognizable songs of the Big Band Era and even today causes people to stop what they're doing so they can listen to it.

The song had started out as a composition exercise when he was a student, and went through various titles and sets of lyrics. At one time it was called Gone with the Dawn, and almost was released as Now I Lay Me Down to Weep until RCA deemed that too depressing for a band's theme. The name Moonlight Serenade was almost a last-minute decision. The song was on the A-side of a record that also featured Glenn's version of the Frankie Carle theme Sunrise Serenade, and someone suggested "what's the flip side of sunrise?"

During the recording ban when ASCAP compositions couldn't be played, Glenn used the tune Slumber Song as his theme. Eventually that was sometimes as his closing theme, and Moonlight Serenade was used for the opening of a concert or radio show.

While nearly all performances of Moonlight Serenade have stayed close to the original Miller sound, Glenn had prepared a new version with strings and French horns to be used by his post-war band, the one that of course never came to be. There are two recordings available, one on a transcription by the original Army Air Force Band from 1944, and another performance re-created by the USAF Airmen of Note in 1998.