Sweeter As The Years Go By

In the 1944 Broadway show "On The Town", Adolph Green, John Battles and Cris Alexander performed the hit song "New York, New York, It's A Wonderful Town". Nothing new about that - New York was always a wonderful town but never more so than during the latter years of the Thirties, particularly if you were a devotee of big band music when you were spoiled for choice. For a great night out on the town, you could enjoy Benny Goodman's Band at the Manhattan Room of the Hotel Pennsylvania, hear Helen O'Connell and Bob Eberle singing with Jimmy Dorsey's Orchestra in the Terrace Room of the Hotel New Yorker, or take in Les Brown's Band at the Green Room in the Hotel Edison. If you didn't want to dress up you could go to the Roseland where, if you were lucky, you might hear Woody Herman. There was music at the Commodore, the Lexington, the Biltmore, and the Grill Room of the Roosevelt, and so many more. But if your timing was right you could give yourself a real treat and catch a fabulous band led by clarinettist Artie Shaw at the Blue Room of the Hotel Lincoln and hear the delectable Helen Forrest, "The Voice Of The Big Bands". It is to her this collection of songs is dedicated.