Search - Tex Beneke and His Orchestra :: Goodbye, Glenn Miller Strings

After World War II the Glenn Miller Orchestra was reformed at the behest of Glenn's widow, Helen, on a similar, but smaller scale to the A.A.F. Band. In January 1946 Glenn's former trombone man, Tex Beneke, led ten string players, in addition to the usual dance band instrumentation. Tex maintained the 'Strings With Wings' feature, especially on the 1948 'On The Beam' broadcasts, sponsored by the Armed Forces Radio Service. Despite the fact that the days of the big bands were numbered, Tex and the Glenn Miller Orchestra were very popular, even after Tex dropped Glenn's name from the band's billing on the 2nd of February 1948. In October 1948 the bend was billed as 'The Largest Dance Band In America', but just over three months later Tex reluctantly let the string section go at the end of January 1949 after a month long engagement at the Hollywood Palladium. Fortunately the last concerts of the orchestra with strings were transcribed and now many years later can be heard on this wonderful collectors CD.