in the mood

The first time you listen to In the Mood, the saxophone that opens the song leaves you no choice: it sweeps you away. That opening riff, with its short and repeated notes, is like a call you can’t ignore. After thirteen measures, the brass instruments enter the scene — trumpets and trombones — and the piece expands in layers, as if each instrument were telling its part of the same story. There are two solos that stand out: one by saxophones, where Tex Beneke and Al Klink challenge each other in a kind of duel; and another by trumpet, shorter but just as intense. The ending, with that crescendo that cuts off abruptly, leaves the feeling that the party ended too soon.

The song was born from someone else’s idea. Joe Garland and Andy Razaf composed the main theme years earlier, under the name Tar Paper Stomp, and it was recorded by Wingy Manone in 1930. But Glenn Miller took it, polished it, and turned it into something different. Miller’s version hit the stores in 1939, just before the U.S. charts changed forever. Although it didn’t top the sheet music charts — which at the time were the measure of success — it did dominate the Record Buying Guide for thirteen consecutive weeks. In 1940, the show Your Hit Parade placed it in the ninth spot, but only for one week. What’s curious is that, years later, the same song was covered by artists as different as Jerry Lee Lewis, Chet Atkins, Bill Haley & His Comets, and even Bad Manners. Ray Stevens even recorded it in 1977 mimicking chicken clucks, under the title Henhouse Five Plus Too, and managed to fit into three genres at once: pop, country, and adult contemporary.