Les Elgart was an American swing jazz bandleader and trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

er.

Lester E. (Les) Elgart began playing trumpet as a teenager, and by age 20 had landed professional gigs. In the 1940s he played in bands led by Raymond Scott

Raymond Scott

Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....

, Charlie Spivak

Charlie Spivak

Charlie Spivak was an American trumpeter and bandleader, best known for his big band in the 1940s.-Biography:...

, and Harry James

Harry James

Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...

, and occasionally found himself in bands alongside brother Larry

Larry Elgart

Larry Elgart is an American jazz bandleader, who with his brother, Les, recorded the original rendition of "Bandstand Boogie", theme to the long-running teen dance show, American Bandstand.-Biography:...

. Together they put together their own Les & Larry Elgart Ensemble in 1945, hiring Nelson Riddle

Nelson Riddle

Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...

, Ralph Flanagan

Ralph Flanagan

Ralph Flanagan , was a famed big band leader, conductor, pianist, composer, and arranger for the orchestras of Hal McIntyre, Sammy Kaye, Blue Barron, Charlie Barnet, and Alvino Rey.-Biography:He was educated at Lorain High School, where he was a member of the National Honors...

, and Bill Finegan

Bill Finegan

William James Finegan was an American jazz bandleader, pianist, arranger, and composer. He was an arranger in the Glenn Miller Orchestra in the late 1930s and early 1940s.-Life and Career:...

 to do arrangements. The union was short-lived, however, due to the Musician's Union recording strike and the waning of swing jazz's popularity; they split in 1946.

In 1952, the pair reunited and released a substantial number of albums on Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, many to considerable sales success. Among their better-known tunes is "Bandstand Boogie", which was used by Dick Clark as the theme song for American Bandstand

American Bandstand

American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...

. Later in the 1950s Les moved away from performing to handling the band's business end, and had essentially stopped performing by the end of the decade.

In 1963, the pair reunited, hiring arrangers like Charles Albertine and Bobby Scott

Bobby Scott (musician)

Bobby Scott was an American musician, record producer, and songwriter.-Biography:He was born Robert William Scott in Mount Pleasant, New York, and became a pianist, vibraphonist, and singer, and could also play the accordion, cello, clarinet, and double bass...

 for material that tended more toward the contemporary easy listening

Easy listening

Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...

 sound. Les continued to work until his death from heart failure in Dallas, Texas in 1995.

Discography

Columbia Records

Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

• Prom Date, Columbia E.P. (1954)
• Campus Hop, Columbia E.P. (1954)
• More of Les, Columbia E.P. (1955)
• Sophisticated Swing, Columbia CL-536 (1953)
• Just One More Dance, Columbia CL-594 (1954)
• The Band of the Year, Columbia CL-619 (1954)
• The Dancing Sound, Columbia CL-684 (1954)
• For Dancers Only, Columbia CL-803 (1955)
• The Elgart Touch, Columbia CL-875 (1955)
• The Most Happy Fella, Columbia CL-904 (1956)
• For Dancers Also, Columbia CL-1008 (1956)
• Les & Larry Elgart & Their Orchestra, Columbia CL-1052 (1958)
• Sound Ideas, Columbia CL-1123/CS-8002 (1958)
• Les Elgart On Tour, Columbia CL-1291/CS-8103 (1959)
• The Great Sound of Les Elgart, Columbia CL-1350/CS-8159 (1959)
• The Band With That Sound, Columbia CL-1450/CS-8245 (1960)
• Designs For Dancing, Columbia CL-1500/CS-8291 (1960)
• Half Satin Half Latin, Columbia CL-1567/CS-8367 (1960)
• It's De-Lovely, Columbia CL-1659/CS-8459 (1961)
• The Twist Goes To College, Columbia CL-1785/CS-8585 (1962)
• Best Band On Campus, Columbia CL-1890/CS-8690 (1962)
• Big Band Hootenany, Columbia CL-2112/CS-8912 (1963)
• Command Performance, Columbia CL-2221/CS-9021, (1964)
• The New Elgart Touch, Columbia CL-2301/CS-9101, (1965)
• Elgart au Go-Go, Columbia CL-2355/CS-9155, (1965)
• Sound of the Times, Columbia CL-2511/CS-9311, (1966)
• Warm and Sensuous, Columbia CL-2591/CS-9391 (1966)
• Girl Watchers, Columbia CL-2633/CS-9433, (1967)
• Wonderful World of Today's Hits, Columbia CL-2780/CS-9580 (1967)

Blue Heaven Records

• Do You Remember When Les Elgart & His Orchestra Played Walkin' My Baby Back Home