Talk:Harry James

Untitled
"The night a sinner kissed an angel" The real beginning of Sinatra's greatness. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.139.23.60 (talk) 00:10, 25 October 2003 (UTC)
 * Sinatra recorded it with Tommy Dorsey, not Harry James 24.167.107.149 01:14, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

And he wrote "I Don't Want To Walk Without You" - Bacharach, weep your heart out. (James didn't write it, Jules Styne and Frank Loesser did 24.167.107.149 01:14, 21 July 2007 (UTC))

I think it would help this article to include some information on his favorite hobby, running race horses. I believe he had a few stakes winners over the years.T.E. Goodwin 05:22, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Georgia (country) flag??
Is there any reason to have the country of Georgia flag on the bio box for Harry James? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.221.242.101 (talk) 18:56, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Citations & References
See Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the  tags Nhl4hamilton (talk) 10:50, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

HARRY JAMES - Trumpet Blues
can someone please tell me what year harry james recorded trumpet blues? thanks.

.. remoat —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.59.8.42 (talk) 03:25, 23 August 2008 (UTC)

The Harry James Show
Harry James had a TV Show in 1951 and there should be mention of it in the article.

Possible copyright problem
This article has been revised as part of a large-scale clean-up project of multiple article copyright infringement. (See the investigation subpage) Earlier text must not be restored, unless it can be verified to be free of infringement. For legal reasons, Wikipedia cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or printed material; such additions must be deleted. Contributors may use sources as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously. Diannaa (talk) 22:41, 1 January 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified
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External links modified
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Jewish American musician
Revert edits listing James as a Jewish American musician. While there are a few questionable sources on the web making this claim, there are more reliable sources indicating James was not Jewish. Peter Levinson's biography, Trumpet Blues: The Life of Harry James, states on p.112 that when James discussed the matter of marriage to Helen Forrest, James's father objected to his marrying a Jewish girl. On p. 283, Levinson states that Father William Kenny of Christ the King Catholic Church gave James communion in Valley Hospital on July 2, 1983, three days before James died. On p. 118, Levinson states CBS approached James about taking over Glenn Miller's radio show, sponsored by Chesterfield cigarettes. At first, there was opposition from Ligget and Meyers, which owned Chesterfield, "largely because its executives believed that James was Jewish" - whether it was his prominent nose, his recording of "Eli, Eli," his sentimental approach to love songs, or any of several other reasons. If James was indeed Jewish, the sentence would have read instead, "largely because James was Jewish." It should be noted that James initially turned down the offer because of this apparent antisemitism.

On pp. 93-94, Levinson offers an explanation of how the misconception of Harry James being Jewish may have started. James wrote an instrumental arrangement of the Yiddish folk song "Eli, Eli." For the recording, in an attempt to establish the proper mood to play the song, James wore a yarmulke, thus becoming perhaps the first method trumpet player. As a publicity stunt, at James's premier performance of the tune at Flatbush Theater in Brooklyn, James was photographed with Rabbi Jacob Altman, who was invited by James to approve the mood and treatment of the James version of the song.

Bubbatex (talk) 02:30, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Jack Benny look-alike in Harry James Orchestra
Harry James' band often included a small string section. One of the violinists was a dead ringer for Jack Benny. It couldn't have actually been Jack; that would be well known, and I have yet to turn up any other mention of it.

I've seen him in about three or four movies that feature the Harry James Orchestra. The best shot (complete with supercilious grin) is in Springtime in the Rockies (1942), at 16:39 into the film. And it isn't just me hallucinating; when I showed this to my family, they all gasped.

Can anyone verify this? I don't mean the resemblance (that's beyond doubt), I mean Harry James being known at the time to have done it.

BMJ-pdx (talk) 09:13, 27 May 2018 (UTC)


 * The guy at the back centre in this photo? Martinevans123 (talk) 09:22, 27 May 2018 (UTC)

Turned Down by Lawrence Welk?
When I was growing up my parents used to watch Lawrence Welk every week. I remember one show where Welk said that years ago a young trumpet player auditioned for Wbelk's band. Welk did not like his plalying and did not hire him. He then went on to say that he had misjudged that trumpet player and that the trumpet player was a guest on his show that night. It was Harry James. Am I remembering correctly and, if true, shouldn't it be mentioned somewhere in the article that James was turned down by Welk early in his carreer? 2600:1700:7F11:6420:24FA:87F5:BC6A:A95D (talk) 05:17, 29 May 2021 (UTC)