Alan Copeland

Juke Box Saturday Nights

BearManor Media (2007)

           Noted jazz critic Stanley Dance described Alan Copeland's works as "combining musicality with wit." Now the Grammy Award-winning arranger and composer has combined "literary savior faire with wit" in his autobiography, Juke Box Saturday Nights, recently published by BearManor Media. During the past 60 years of his illustrious career, Copeland, now 80, single-handedly re-wrote the repertoire for the celebrated vocal group, The Modernaires, formed his own critically acclaimed vocal troupe - the Alan Copeland Singers - for records and television, and has long been a favorite among a diversity of artists including Count Basie, Horace Silver, David Rose, Les Brown, Sarah Vaughn, Dick Haymes, Helen Forrest, Ella Fitzgerald, Jim Nabors, Engelbert Humperdinck, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Peter Marshall, among others.

Copeland's 312-page tome, written in the present tense, takes readers on a magical, musical, mystery tour of the golden era of American popular music. His captivating way of telling such a story is only rivaled by J. M. Barrie's enchanting children's tale, Peter Pan. While Copeland himself admits that his take on music is often times a little "off-center," his story is truly "right-on," painting with vibrant pastels an insightful masterpiece of  the times and its personalities, and through it all following his own muse. 

Copeland started his career early on, as one of the choir boys in the famous Robert Mitchell Boys Choir, and performed in several movies such as Going My Way, Yankee Doodle Dandy, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Meet John Doe. In 1947, he organized the vocal group, The Twin Tones, a featured attraction with Jan Garber's orchestra. From 1948 to 1952 he was a member of The Modernaires and was on Bob Crosby's radio show five nights a week, along with the Andrews Sisters, Dick Haymes, and Jerry Gray's Orchestra. From 1952 through 1956 he was a regular on The Bob Crosby Television Show five days a week. From 1957 to 1960 he joined Your Hit Parade TV Show in New York. Then from 1965-69 he signed on once again with the Modernaires for The Red Skelton Show on television, and won a Grammy Award in 1968 with his Alan Copeland Singers for Mission Impossible-Norwegian Wood. Known primarily for his vocal arranging, Copeland was the choral director for Bing Crosby's Christmas television shows for over two decades. Since 1995, Copeland has rejoined the Modernaires and still performs with them on a part-time basis.

From cover to cover, Juke Box Saturday Nights is a delightful and nostalgic read. It's a must-have book for the music aficionado who hungers for what commentator Paul Harvey calls the "rest of the story."

Rating:  *****

- Stephen Fratallone/Jazz Connection Magazine

Juke Box Saturday Nights may be ordered in paperback directly through BearManor Media by logging on to the publishing company's website at www.bearmanormedia.com  The suggested selling price is $27.95 plus $5 priority mail postage. The book may also be ordered through Amazon.com at www.amazon.com  

*****