Leroy Anderson

Blue Tango

Leroy Anderson was the son of Swedish immigrants. He studied music and foreign languages at the famous Harvard University before starting a brilliant musical career. He was a great church organ player, a fine conductor a great composer and mostly the successful arranger for the famous 'Boston Pops Orchestra' conducted by Arthur Fiedler. He turned into one of the very big champions of the musical 'novelty' with hits such as 'Belle of the Ball', 'Bugler's Holiday', 'Sandpaper Ballet', 'The Syncopated Clock' and 'The Typewriter' (all these items have also been published by Molenaar Edition). In was in 1947/48 that Anderson was obsessed by a tune which was to become his world famous 'Blue Tango'. He choose 'tango azul' as title, but this did not sound very commercial. (Usually Anderson first choose a title and then composed a piece, but in this case he did the opposite). The Decca label released this piece on the second Anderson long playing record in october 1951. Unexpectedly Blue Tango became the big success and made its way into the Top ten. Between january and halfway june 1952 one million records with this tune were sold. It was the very first instrumental piece to reach the top of the hit parade: it was number one for seven weeks and remained fifteen weeks in the top of the charts.