"Tuxedo Junction" is a popular song written by

Erskine Hawkins Erskine Ramsay Hawkins (July 26, 1914 – November 11, 1993) was an American trumpeter and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is best remembered for composing the jazz standard "Tuxedo Junction" (1 ...

, Bill Johnson, and

Julian Dash Julian Dash (April 9, 1916 – February 25, 1974) was an American swing music jazz tenor saxophonist born in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, probably better known for his work with Erskine Hawkins and Buck Clayton. Dash was a member o ...

with lyrics by

Buddy Feyne Buddy Feyne (born Bernard Feinstein, June 9, 1912 – December 10, 1998) was an American lyricist during the swing era. He wrote the lyrics for "Tuxedo Junction", which went to No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' chart in 1940 when Glenn Miller recorded ...

. The song was introduced by Erskine Hawkins & His Orchestra, a college dance band previously known as the Bama State Collegians. RCA released it in 1939 and it climbed to #7 on the American pop charts. The song was a No. 1 hit for

Glenn Miller Alton Glen Miller (March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944) was an American big band founder, owner, conductor, composer, arranger, trombone player and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the United States Arm ...

& His Orchestra in 1940.

Background

In the late 1930s Hawkins and his Orchestra were one of the house bands at the

Savoy Ballroom The Savoy Ballroom was a large ballroom for music and public dancing located at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Lenox Avenue was the main thoroughfare through upper Harle ...

. They alternated with the

Chick Webb William Henry "Chick" Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939) was an American jazz and swing music drummer and band leader. Early life Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. The year of his birth is disputed. ...

band and often used "Tuxedo Junction" as their sign-off song before the next band would take the stage so that the dancing would continue uninterrupted. A live -minute version of the song by the Hawkins Orchestra exists, with extended solos from Hawkins on the trumpet,

Paul Bascomb Paul Bascomb ( – December 2, 1986) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, noted for his extended tenure with Erskine Hawkins. He is a 1979 inductee of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Career Bascomb was a founding member of the Bama Sta ...

and

on tenor saxophones, and

Haywood Henry Frank Haywood Henry (January 10, 1913 – September 15, 1994) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist. In 1978 he was induced into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Career Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Henry began on clarinet before choosing ...

on the clarinet. It was recorded as an aircheck in the summer of 1942 at the Blue Room club in New York City. The song was written as an instrumental. When it was given to Lewis Music Publishing, they sent it to several prospective lyricists to see who could write the best words for the song.

asked

why he titled it "Tuxedo Junction." Erskine explained that the Junction was a whistle stop on the "

Chitlin' Circuit The Chitlin' Circuit was a collection of performance venues throughout the eastern, southern, and upper Midwest areas of the United States that provided commercial and cultural acceptance for African American musicians, comedians, and other enterta ...

". That information inspired Feyne's lyrics, which Hawkins preferred to the other submissions. Once the song had been published, European American bands added it to their playlists.

1940 Glenn Miller recording

and His Orchestra had the most successful recording of the song (''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' No. 1). Miller's arrangement slowed down the tempo and added trumpet fanfares. The trumpet lick in the original recording was played by band member

Johnny Best Johnny McClanian Best, Jr. (October 20, 1913, Shelby, North Carolina – September 19, 2003) was an American jazz trumpeter. Background Best played piano as a child and learned trumpet from age 13. He worked in the 1930s with Les Brown, Charli ...

. The main soloists on that recording were Best and

Bobby Hackett Robert Leo Hackett (January 31, 1915 – June 7, 1976) was an American jazz musician who played trumpet, cornet, and guitar with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hackett was a featured soloist o ...

. The Glenn Miller recording sold 115,000 copies in the first week. It was featured in the 1953 Glenn Miller biopic ''

The Glenn Miller Story ''The Glenn Miller Story'' is a 1954 American biographical film about the eponymous American band-leader, directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart in their second non-western collaboration. Plot The film follows big band leader Glenn ...

'' starring

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality h ...

and

Harry Morgan Harry Morgan (born Harry Bratsberg; April 10, 1915 – December 7, 2011) was an American actor and director whose television and film career spanned six decades. Morgan's major roles included Pete Porter in both ''December Bride'' (1954–1959 ...

. The Glenn Miller Orchestra recorded the song on February 5, 1940 in New York. The musicians on the Glenn Miller recording were: Saxes: Hal McIntyre, Tex Beneke, Wilbur Schwartz, Jimmy Abato, Al Klink; Trumpets: Clyde Hurley, John Best, R. D. McMickle, Legh Knowles; Trombones: Glenn Miller, Tommy Mack, Paul Tanner, Frank D'Annolfo; Piano: Chummy MacGregor; String Bass: Rowland Bundock; Guitar: Richard Fisher; Drums: Moe Purtill. The B side of the RCA Bluebird 78 single was "Danny Boy (Londonderry Air)".

Other recordings

"Tuxedo Junction" was covered by numerous bands and swing orchestras and solo artists, including

The Andrews Sisters The Andrews Sisters were an American close harmony singing group of the Swing music, swing and boogie-woogie eras. The group consisted of three sisters: contralto LaVerne Sophia Andrews (July 6, 1911 – May 8, 1967), soprano Maxene Anglyn Andre ...

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

Harry James Harry Haag James (March 15, 1916 – July 5, 1983) was an American musician who is best known as a trumpet-playing band leader who led a big band from 1939 to 1946. He broke up his band for a short period in 1947 but shortly after he reorganized ...

Frankie Avalon Francis Thomas Avallone (born September 18, 1940), better known as Frankie Avalon, is an American actor, singer, and former teen idol. He had 31 charting U.S. ''Billboard'' singles from 1958 to late 1962, including number one hits, "Venus" an ...

and Joe Jackson.

Stan Kenton Stanley Newcomb Kenton (December 15, 1911 – August 25, 1979) was an American popular music and jazz artist. As a pianist, composer, arranger and band leader, he led an innovative and influential jazz orchestra for almost four decades. Though K ...

included it on his 1961 ''Mellophonium Magic'' album. It became the theme song for

The Manhattan Transfer The Manhattan Transfer is a Grammy award–winning vocal group founded in 1969 that has explored a cappella, vocalese, swing, standards, Brazilian jazz, rhythm and blues, and pop music. There have been two editions of the Manhattan Transfer, ...

, first recorded on their album ''

'' in 1975.

Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981; baptised in 1980 as Berhane Selassie) was a Jamaican singer, musician, and songwriter. Considered one of the pioneers of reggae, his musical career was marked by fusing elements o ...

used this song as an inspiration for his hit "Kaya". It was also the inspiration for an all-girl disco group, entitled "Tuxedo Junction". The song is about a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

club in the Birmingham, Alabama suburb of Ensley. The area is referred to as "Tuxedo Junction", though the building is called the "Nixon Building" (built in 1922). This is due to the location of a

streetcar A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

crossing at Tuxedo Park, hence "Tuxedo Junction". A punk rock venue bearing the same name operated near there briefly in the mid-1980s. The song was used in the movies ''

'', ''

The Gene Krupa Story ''The Gene Krupa Story'' (also known as ''Drum Crazy'') is a 1959 biopic of American drummer and bandleader Gene Krupa. The conflict in the film centers on Krupa's rise to success and his corresponding use of marijuana. Plot synopsis The young ...

'', and the

Woody Allen Heywood "Woody" Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films. He began his career writing ...

film ''

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion ''The Curse of the Jade Scorpion'' is a 2001 American crime comedy film written, directed and starring Woody Allen. The cast also features Helen Hunt, Dan Aykroyd, Elizabeth Berkley, John Schuck, Wallace Shawn, David Ogden Stiers and Charlize Th ...

''.

Footnotes

{{Authority control 1930s jazz standards 1939 songs 1940 singles Glenn Miller songs The Manhattan Transfer songs Songs with lyrics by Buddy Feyne Jazz compositions in B-flat major Bluebird Records singles Historically African-American theaters and music venues