Les Brown (bandleader)

Brown was born in Reinerton, Pennsylvania.^[1] He enrolled in the Conway Military Band School (later part of Ithaca College) in 1926, studying with famous bandleader Patrick Conway for three years before receiving a music scholarship to the New York Military Academy, where he graduated in 1932.^[3] Brown attended college at Duke University from 1932 to 1936.^[3] There he led the group Les Brown and His Blue Devils,^[4] who performed regularly on Duke's campus and up and down the east coast. Brown took the band on an extensive summer tour in 1936. At the end of the tour, while some of the band members returned to Duke to continue their education, others stayed on with Brown and continued to tour, becoming in 1938 the Les Brown Orchestra. The band's original drummer, Don Kramer, became the acting manager and helped define their future.

The band appeared regularly on the Spotlight Band radio programme, which broadcast to a military audience and made them permanent favorites of millions of men in uniform. Also on this show, the band was first referred to as "Les Brown & His Band of Renown" in 1942. The moniker stuck^[2] and became the official bandname from the 1950s onwards.

In 1941, Brown's band had a #1 hit, "Joltin' Joe DiMagio", with his lead vocalist Betty Bonney. In 1942, Brown and his band concluded work on an RKO picture, Sweet and Hot; played at the Palladium Ballroom, Hollywood. A few years later, in 1945, this band brought Doris Day into prominence with their recording of "Sentimental Journey".^[1] The song's release coincided with the end of World War II in Europe and became an unofficial homecoming theme for many veterans.^[4] The band had nine other number-one hit songs, including "I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm" (1949).^[3]

In 1952–53, Brown was the orchestra leader on Day's radio program, The Doris Day Show, on CBS.^[5]

Les Brown and the Band of Renown performed with Bob Hope on radio, stage and television for almost fifty years.^[3] They did 18 USO Tours for American troops around the world, and entertained over three million people. Before the Super Bowls were televised, the Bob Hope Christmas Specials were the highest-rated programs in television history. Tony Bennett was "discovered" by Bob Hope and did his first public performance with Brown and the Band.

The first film that Brown and the band appeared in was Seven Days' Leave (1942) starring Victor Mature and Lucille Ball. Rock-A-Billy Baby, a low-budget 1957 film, was the Band of Renown's second, and in 1963 they appeared in the Jerry Lewis' comedy The Nutty Professor playing their theme song "Leap Frog".^[6]

Brown and the Band were also the house band for The Steve Allen Show (1959–1961) and the Dean Martin Show (1965–1972). Brown and the band performed with virtually every major performer of their time, including Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. The annual Les Brown Big Band Festival, started March 2006 in Les' hometown, features area big bands preserving the songs of the big band era. At the 2012 festival celebrating the 100th birthday anniversary, the town of Reinerton renamed the street near Les' birthplace to Les Brown Lane. In 2013 his hometown of Reinerton, PA adopted as the town's official slogan: Reinerton: The Town of Renown in honor of Les and his band.^{[citation needed]}

Les Brown Sr. died of lung cancer in 2001, and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. He was survived by his wife Evelyn, son Les Jr., and daughter Denise. He was 88 years old at the time of his death.

His grandson, Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, co-created the Disney Channel animated series Phineas and Ferb and Milo Murphy's Law.^[7]

Brown was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010.^[8]

In 2001, Les Brown Jr. (1940–2023), became the full-time leader of the Band of Renown. It performed throughout the world and had a regular big band show in Branson, Missouri. Brown Jr. also hosted a national radio show on the Music of Your Life network. Brown Jr. was a television actor in the 1960s (Gunsmoke, General Hospital, The Baileys of Balboa, Gilligan's Island), a rock musician and producer who worked with Carlos Santana, and a concert promoter for many country music artists including Merle Haggard and Loretta Lynn. In 2004, Brown Jr. received the "Ambassador of Patriotism" award from the POW Network. Brown Jr. died from cancer at his home in Branson, Missouri, on January 9, 2023, at the age of 82.^[9]

• Les Brown & His Orchestra, Vol. 2 (Hindsight, 1949)
• Connee Boswell I Don't Know (1950)
• Connee Boswell Martha (1950)
• Over the Rainbow (1951)
• Les Dance (1953) with Lucy Ann Polk, and The Rhythmaires
• Concert at the Palladium Vols. 1, 2 (1953; reissue as Palladium Concert 1953: Group 7, 2005)
• Live at the Hollywood Palladium (1954)
• Le's Dream (Coral, 1954)
• The Cool Classics (Columbia, 1955)
• Dancer's Choice (Capitol, 1956)
• Radio Days Live (early radio recordings, 2001)
• Les Brown & His Band of Renown (Coral, 1957)
• Swing Song Book (Coral, 1957)
• Concert Modern (Capitol, 1958)
• Live at Elitch Gardens 1959 (1959)
• The Les Brown Story: His Greatest Hits in Today's Sound (Capitol, 1959)
• The Lerner and Loewe Bandbook (Columbia, 1961)
• Play Hits From The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Others (Columbia, 1963)
• Stereophonic Suite for Two Bands: The Les Brown Band and Vic Schoen and His Orchestra (Kapp, 1959)
• A Sign of the Times (Decca, 1966)
• Today (MPS, 1976)
• Goes Direct to Disc (The Great American Gramophone Company, 1977)
• Digital Swing (Fantasy, 1986)
• Anything Goes (USA, 1994)
• America Swings (Hindsight, 1995)
• Bandland / Revolution in Sound (Collectables, 1995)
• Sentimental Thing with Bing Crosby & Billy Eckstine (Sounds of Yesteryear, 2003)
• The Les Brown All-Stars (Group 7, 2006)
• No Name Bop
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find
• Thank You for Your Fine Attention
• The One and Only (Intersound / Memorylane, 2016)

• Spreadin' the Jam (1945) dir: Charles Walters
• Les Brown (1948) (10 min) dir: Jack Scholl
• Les Brown and His Band of Renown (1949) (15 min) dir: Will Cowan
• Art Lund-Tex Beneke-Les Brown (1948) (10 min) dir: Jack Scholl
• Connee Boswell and Les Brown's Orchestra (1950) (15 min) dir: Will Cowan
• Crazy Frolic (1953) (19 min) dir: Will Cowan
• Dance Demons (1957) (14 min) dir: Will Cowan
• Rockabilly Baby (1957) (81 min) dir: William F.Claxton

• Bob Hope Show (1945) NBC Radio
• Bob Hope Show (1959–1966) NBC
• The Steve Allen Show (1958–1960) NBC
• The New Steve Allen Show (1961) NBC
• Hennesey (1962) CBS
• Hollywood Palace (1964) NBC
• Bob Hope Thanksgiving Show (1964) NBC
• Dean Martin Show (1965) NBC
• Dean Martin Summer Show (1966) NBC
• Rowan and Martin at the Movies (1968) NBC
• Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968) NBC
• Dean Martin and the Golddigger's (1968) NBC
• The Christmas Songs (Mel Torme, host)(1972) PBS
• Bob Hope Special: Joys (1976) NBC
• The Good Old Days of Radio (1976) NBC
• Doris Day's Best Friends (1985) NBC
• Ooh-La-La, It's Bob Hope's Fun Birthday Special from Paris (1981) NBC
• Biography: Doris Day "It's Magic" (1985)
• Rocko’s Modern Life

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Les Brown.

• Les Brown Historical Marker and Photographs
• Les Brown Scores Collection Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University
• With Bob Hope Show Christmas Day 1968 Vietnam
• Connee Boswell and Les Brown (1950) Short Film (15 min.)
• New York Military Academy archives page - Alumni of Distinction
• Les Brown Interview NAMM Oral History Library (1994)
• Les Brown recordings at the Discography of American Historical Recordings
• Les Brown discography at Discogs
• Les Brown discography at Discogs Entry for Les Brown Jr.
• Les Brown at IMDb
• Les Brown at IMDb Entry for Les Brown Jr.