Quotes

Quotes by Glenn Miller

“We didn’t come here to set any fashions in music. We merely came to bring a much-needed touch of home to some lads who have been here a couple of years.” …written to George Simon from England in 1944
“A band ought to have a sound all of its own. It ought to have a personality.”
“I haven’t got a great jazz band and I don’t want one. Some of the critics, Down Beat’s among them, point their fingers at us and charge us with forsaking real jazz . . . It’s all in what you define as ‘real jazz.’ It happens that to our ears harmony comes first. Our band stresses harmony.” …1940
“It’s been a big week for our side. Over on the beaches of Normandy our boys have fired the opening guns of the long awaited drive to liberate the world.” …during a radio broadcast of “I Sustain the Wings” on June 10, 1944
“As long as [the Miller Luck] stays with us, we have nothing to worry about.” …to band manager Lt. Don Haynes, after the band narrowly missed being hit by a buzz bomb

” It got to where Pop and I used to wonder if he’d ever amount to anything.”
— Miller’s mother, about time he spent playing his horn
“Major Miller, through excellent judgment and professional skill, conspicuously blended the abilities of the outstanding musicians, comprising the group, into a harmonious orchestra whose noteworthy contribution to the morale of the armed forces has been little less than sensational.”
— from Miller’s Bronze Star Medal citation
” He had a good sense of humor, he was a very fine musician, he was a good businessman… he was athletically oriented, and he was a super patriot.”
— Paul Tanner, a trombonist in Miller’s orchestra