Tag: Leroy Anderson

‘The Phantom Regiment’

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

This piece of music by Leroy Anderson (Sleighride, The Syncopated Clock, and so many others) has always excited my imagination. Who were The Phantom Regiment? When did they live? But of course Mr. Anderson never answered any of those questions. I think he wanted it to haunt you. “A shadow portrait of valor, echoing down through eternity,” one critic said of it. Yeah: we can’t identify it because it’s timeless.

Written in 1951, The Phantom Regiment kept cropping up on radio programs in my childhood. In a high school assembly, a jazz combo performed it for us–that’s how I finally learned its name. But the music itself was always there.

Close your eyes and listen. What do you see?

Memory Lane: ‘Syncopated Clock’

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Do you remember Leroy Anderson? He was one of the most popular composers in America, in his time; and one of his best-known pieces was Syncopated Clock. It was chosen as the theme music for “The Late Show,” in the 1950s. Of course I never saw The Late Show, it was way past my bedtime. But Syncopated Clock was also the theme for “The Early Show.”

I offer it as a stress buster. Oh, those old movies on black-and-white TV!

Anderson was also famous for his Sleigh Ride, featuring a simulated horse (was it laughing or just neighing? I could never decide), The Phantom Regiment, and other numbers that became embedded in our pop culture. I still love to whistle a few of them.

If you’re old enough to remember these, I’m sure you still enjoy them–when you get a chance to hear them. If you’re young–well, there’s some wonderful great music waiting for you.

Remember This?

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Leroy Anderson had this hit tune in 1951, The Syncopated Clock.

I remember it as the theme music of The Early Show, back in television’s infancy. It was also the theme of The Late Show, but I wasn’t allowed to stay up anywhere near that late.

I was whistling this tune at the Y when a man stopped me in the hall. “I’m going nuts,” he said, “trying to remember what that’s called!” When I told him, he was delighted. “Of course, that’s it–The Early Show! I knew I’d heard it before, long ago.”

Long ago indeed.