Jimmy Dorsey

AKA:

The Juke Box King

Birth Name:

James Francis Dorsey

Birth Date:

February 29, 1904

Birth Place:

Shenandoah, Pennsylvania

Death Date:

June 12, 1957

Place of Death:

Doctors Hospital, New York City, New York

Age:

Cause of Death:

Cancer of the throat

Cemetery Name:

Annunciation Blessed Virgin Mary Church Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Music

Jimmy Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, and bandleader who played a key role in the big band and swing eras of the 1930s and 1940s. His father, a coal miner turned music teacher, taught Tommy and Jimmy to play and appreciate music. They both started by learning to play the cornet, but Jimmy would soon learn and excel at the clarinet and alto saxophone while Tommy would perfect playing the trumpet and trombone. The brothers would form their first band, Dorsey’s Novelty Six, while they were still teenagers. In 1927 they began recording on their own label, The Dorsey Brothers and Their Concert Orchestra, though it did not officially debut until 1934. During this period of time, the lead vocals for their orchestra was Bing Crosby. Their combined orchestra did not last long. Tension and rivalry ran high among the brothers and less than a year after their official debut, Tommy left to form his own band. On the night of May 30, 1935, the growing tension between the two brothers exploded. As the band started “I’ll Never Say ‘Never Again’ Again,” the two started to argue about the tempo and in the middle of the performance Tommy walked off the stage, abandoning his brother and the band. They both went on to successful solo careers when they reunited 1953 and co-led The Dorsey Brothers Orchestra again. They appeared on the television program “Stage Show”, which famously introduced Elvis Presley to national TV audiences. Before his sudden death at the age of 53, Jimmy Dorsey had eleven number one hits with his orchestra in the 1930s and the 1940s including "Green Eyes", "Blue Champagne", "Tangerine", "Bésame Mucho" and "Pennies from Heaven" with Bing Crosby.

Fun Fact

Jimmy Dorsey’s “So Rare,” an idiosyncratic but transcendent mashup of R&B, swing and 1950s pop by a star of the 30s and 40s, was one of the biggest hits of 1957. For thirty-eight weeks, eighteen of them in the Top Ten, it rubbed elbows and shared the airwaves and jukeboxes with Elvis’s “Jailhouse Rock,” Buddy Holly and the Crickets’ “That’ll Be the Day,” Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me,” the Coasters’ “Searchin’,” the Dell-Vikings’ “Come Go With Me,” “Chuck Berry’s” School Day,” and the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love.” In December, it came in at #5 in Billboard’s year end survey, ahead of all those records.

A marker in front of the former home of one of the big band era’s most popular bands marks the childhood home of the Dorsey Brothers. The marker, a red metal sign atop a tall pole, stands at 227 E. Abbott St., where Tommy and Theresa Dorsey raised their musical family, which included brothers Tommy and Jimmy.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Annunciation Blessed Virgin Mary Church Cemetery

29 Cemetery Road

Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, 17976

USA

North America

Grave Location:

Dorsey Family Plot

Grave Location Description

As you enter through the “exit only” opening to the cemetery at the intersection of Cemetery Road and Schuylkill Road, drive approximately 50 feet and park. Look to your left 10 spaces from the road and 6 rows from the fence line for the grave of legendary musician and band leader Jimmy Dorsey.