Happy Birthday, Harry!

March 15, 2009   //   1940s, ads, birds, Columbia Records, instruments, jazz, music

Born this day in 1916. In 1939 the trumpeter, already a top-tier bandleader, hired a smooth, upcoming but relatively unknown vocalist from New Jersey, but failed to convince the kid to change his name to “Frankie Satin.” Within a year, James and singer had parted ways, the latter to join Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra. Within a few years, both James and the kid crooner were on their respective ways to becoming music legends.

Columbia Records ad (detail) from Look magazine, 1943.

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