Benny Goodman Quartet Plays “Moonglow”

Will Hudson, Eddie De Lange and Irving Mills worked on the words and music in 1934 for one of the best remembered songs in the Goodman quartet's repertoire, "Moonglow" which was part of a stage music called "Blackbirds of 1934." But it gained it's greatest fame in the 1956 film "Picnic" in which Kim Novak and William Holden seductively danced with each other. Teddy Wilson accompanies subtly while Goodman on clarinet and Lionel Hampton on vibes play shimmering counter melodies against each other. Drummer Gene Krupa adroitly stays in the background, slightly heard on brushes. Hampton provides his own special take on the melodic theme with his well remembered facile reading. The performance ends very simply and gently.