].IEWSLETTERVOLUME 138 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER JANUARY.FEBRUARY, 201 2

T NTERVT EW - MARLEN E VER P LAN CK

The Background

The phrase, "a singer's singer" comes to mind whenreferring to Marlene VerPlanck, so precise is her work.Her career began as a very young singer with CharlieSpivak, Tex Beneke and the last Dorsey Brothers Or-chestra. Without knowing it you' ve heard her on dozensof singing commercials as she crisply proclaims, forexample, the goodness of Campbell's Soup. (Mmm-rrunrn, good!)

Her most important work, though, has been bringing tolife both old and new great lyrics, resulting in dozens ofCDs and appearances across North America and muchof Western Europe. Marlene VerPlanck was heard onAlec Wilder's historic '70s National Public Radio se-ries, "American Popular Songs" and she's appeared atCarnegie Hall, the Rainbow Room and national TVshows including "Entertainment Tonight," "The TodayShow" and the CBS program "sunday Morning." HerCDs often feature the arrangements of her husband,Billy VerPlanck, providing accompaniment with someof the finest musicians in New York as well as a uniquealbum with a French saxophone group.

It is Marlene who's heard with Julius LaRosa and MelTorme on the Glenn Miller Estate Band CD "In ADigital Mood," the frst Big Band CD to go gold. Oneof her CDs was the result of a composer's request.Richard Adler, who's best known for the shows "DamnYankees" and "Pajama Game," asked Marlene to recordsome of his songs. Marlene's CD titled "You GottaHave Heart" was the result of that request. She expandson that in the interview.

The Scene

We interviewed Marlene VerPlanck nearly a quarter-century ago when she was appearing in a concert ofJohnny Mercer songs, but recently got back in touchwhen looking for a contact number for Bucky Pizzarelliwhose interview was featured in the last issue. She

strongly suggested

we also interviewher and that was a

good idea; hencethis deeperlookintoMarlene'scareer. Inour previous con-versation we asked

how old BuckyPizzarelli was, andheranswerwastypi-cal of her forward-movingpersonality.She said, "Enoughwith the age!" Andshe was right.

Artists such as

MarleneVerPlanck,regardless of age,continue to promotethe most valuablemusic of America

and the world with theirtalent anddedication to quality.When we asked if she was still involved in commercialadvertisingjingles, she responded, "Have you heard thejingles lately?" The meaning of that statement was, ofcourse, that she would not lend her considerable talentto the kind of music permeating the airwaves of muchof radio and television today. Our first question wasabout that very subject; the deterioration of musicquality.

BBJ Today's music?

MVP Let's start with rock n' roll. I don't understandthe words when they're speaking, but every-

body who listens to those records seem to nod alongwith them. I guess I'm the only one who doesn'tunderstand it. Then we go on to rap, which I find in alot of cases a little too vulgar for my taste. I like theGreat American Songbook which is so beautiful....sowell crafted into music and words and sentiment. I likeinstrumental classical music like Rachmaninoff and

Marlene at work

VOLUME 138 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 201 2

Tchaikovsky, Ravel and Debussy and all those guys.

BBJ: Youwereacommercialjinglesinger. Howhasthat changed?

MVP: If you listen to the commercials today, thecommercial goes on for thirty seconds, some-

times sixty seconds, whatever the length of time. Youlisten to it and you don't know what they're selling.They don't mention the product. That to me is a puzzlebecause when I was doing commercials....and I didliterally thousands of commercials. . . .the first thing youtalked about was the product, whether it was cigarettesor airlines or cars or whatever. You knew right awaywhat we were talking about. Today you listen to thecommercial, if you can understand it, and then youthink, "What was that? What were they selling?"

BBJ: Is there a difference in music appreciationbetween those audiences overseas and audi-

ences here?

MVP: I go to England every March; I work up anddown the country, North, South, East and West,

and I do a lot ofjobs. I get to work every night and it'san awful lot of fun. The thing they like the most is thefact I don't do the well-known standards. I try to bringin forgotten songs, songs that haven't been done foryears and years. I try to bring something new to the tableand they seem to like that. The comment I get afteralmost every show, "I never heard so many songs Ididn't know but I like!" That to me is rewardingbecause I do a lot of research and try to bring somethingfresh and new to the piece and that's what it's about.

BBJ: Tell us about your Big Band experience.

MVP: That's where I met Billy. He was playingtrombone and I was singing with the Charlie

Spivak Band. We had a long and wonderful marriageuntil two years ago when he passed away. Then wewent on to the Tommy Dorsey Band....Tommy andJimmy, I should say....and we stayed with that banduntil it dissolved, the same year Jimmy died. Then westayed in New York and Billy got busier and busier andso did I. We became studio musicians for many goodyears. It's a wonderful part ofthe business because younever know what you're going to do, whether you'regoing to do a commercial or a record background. I've

worked with just about everybody in the business as a

back-up singer from Sinatra to KISS, and I've doneevery commercial. I had six cigarettes when they wentoff the air.

That part of the business is gone. The people they douse now are mainly the producers and you can hear thequality yourself; I don't have to remind you about thecurrent quality of commercials.

The relaxed Marlene

BBJ: Tell us about your recording with Saxomania,a French group.

MVP: We did three with Saxomania. The first onewas "Marlene VerPlanck Meets Saxomania In

Paris" which is one of my favorite albums. The secondone was'oWhat Are We Going To Do With All ThisMoonlight" which isjust aboutmy secondfavorite, and

because of those two albums we got a call from thesongwriter fuchard Adler who wrote "Damn Yankees"and "Pajama Game" and he said I want you to do analbum for me with that group. We finally did the albumafter about six months; he called about every week.

We've done a couple of projects over in England as

well. When I go over in March I'm going to startanother project with a group I've been working withnow for a couple of years.

BBJt The only other interview I've done with youwas at a Johnny Mercer concert.

VOLUME 138 BIG BAND JUMP NEWSLETTER JANUARY.FEBRUARY, 201 2

MVP: I did a Johnny Mercer album in 1978 forAudiophile and it's still one of the best-selling

albums on that label. How can you go wrong withMercer? Hejustknew what to do with a song. He hadso many different subjects. He loved birds and he lovedtrains and he loved the blues and he knew how to writea love song. He will go down in history as one of thevery, very best.

BBJt What is the makeup of the audience when youdo a club date or concert?

MVP: I only do places where they sit and listen. It'sa sit down concertforall my club dates. There's

no background conversation at the bar.

Our thanks to Marlene VerPlanck for her inter-view and for continuing to develop appreciationfor the Great American Songbook.

David Thompson I listen to BIG BAND JUMPBelleville, TX on the internet. You're cur-

rently playing a somewhat re-cently recorded CD (sounds great) of the Big Bandthemes. Thank you. This reminds me how goodmusicreally was. Unfortunately I was born in 1947 andmissed it all. Well, except for your program.

Mr. Thompsonwas referring to the Henry Mancini"Big Band Montage" from a CD titled "MoonRiver." The CD notes say aII the selections wererecorded before 1972. When we asked HenryMancini about that medley he recalled growingup during the Big Band Era and his appreciationfor the sound of the bands, expressed in this CDwith nostalgic-sounding Mancini arrangementsof the themes of Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman,Benny Goodman, Harry James, Glenn Miller, Stan

What a greatnewsletter. Iwasso glad you had a photo of BBJhost Don Kennedy. What a

nice looking man. I have to tell you I keep in touch withDoris Day who lives in Carmel, California. Her birth-dayis April thirdand I sendheracardandletters andherreturn letters are great and so is her singing. Thank youso much for the newsletter. My best to all who contrib-ute.

Elsie SpidleWatsonville, CA

Years ago you played HerbieFields in a segment of one ofyour programs at my reqirest.

It was, and still is, one of the highlights of my life. Iwanted to share another highlight with you which has todo with Artie Shaw. It was a Saturday night in 1983when I tookmy wife Sandy to the GlenlslandCasino inNew Rochelle, New York where WNEW sponsored thethree nights of Artie's music. (Thanks to you and theBig Band cruises on the S.S Norway, I got to know DickJohnson a decade later.)

Artie explained to the audience why he spent so muchtime and energy finding the musicians and putting theband together under Dick Johnson's leadership. Artiementioned when he was leading his band in the '30s,'40s and early '50s he was too busy to listen and thinkabout the music. He described a typical day starting

Irwin RossWestbury, NY

LETTERS TO ThIE EDTTOR fi,ii,tri;"lrtie shaw, Les Brown and Duke

Letters to BIG BAND JUMP or the BBJ NEWSLET-TERmary be sent to the address below or e-mailedtodon@bigbandjump.com. When you e-mail, pleasegive your name and address.

BBJ NEWSLETTERBox52252

Atlanta GA 30355

The published letters have been edited for space.

William T. Burke Your newsletter item onSeattle, \ilA Claude Thornhill was of par-

ticular interest. He was origi-nally from Terre Haute. I went to college at IndianaState located in Terre Haute and as a third year studentI hired the Thornhill Band to play at our junior prom inI 948 for what was then the enormous sum of $ 1,500.00,creating consternation in the school administration atthe prospect of losing money. Fat chance of that. Hewas a real lure and we easily sold out the event. Myrecollection is that Fran Warren was the singer.

The main idea for getting this well-known orchestrawas that this would lead to a successful campaign formy being elected the senior class president. Claudeworked out fine but the electorate was not impressedand I lost the election. I enjoy BIG BAND JUMPregularly over KIXI.