Jeff’s parents met in the 1940s while working as dance instructors at an Arthur Murray studio in Arizona. So naturally, they liked “music you can dance to” (Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, etc.)—swing music was their jam!
Although neither of them sang or played an instrument, over the years they amassed a vast music collection on vinyl, around 1,500 albums.
Marjorie was meticulous about organizing their collection; she had every album they owned indexed in a binder. She listed each song and every album on which it could be found. (This was before home computers!)
According to Jeff’s brother Terry, “So you could easily find all 18 versions of Stardust she had! Albums were stored alphabetically by artist and were numbered—for instance, Kay Starr #5, or Glenn Miller #7. Compilations, soundtracks, and other albums by more than one artist were filed under X #1 and so on.” She could tell you pretty much everything about each album, and she could find any particular album in seconds. As I recall, she also knew lots of trivia about many of the singers, and she was great at telling stories (a trait Jeff has inherited).
Jeff remembers as a little boy watching his parents dance in the living room and running in and out between them when they swung apart.
Jeff was obviously influenced by their taste in music, and so indirectly I was, too. The ambient music in our home these days includes various covers of songs from The Great American Songbook. And I couldn’t be more grateful! The background music in my house during my youth was Bobby Goldsboro, Wayne Newton, Eddy Arnold (mom) and Ray Price (Dad). So… I would say my taste in music has matured since marrying into this family. (Jeff also introduced me to classical music early in our marriage).
Sometime I may tell you about the albums my sister Lynn and I listened to in our room over and over when we were preteens. Hint: we had a poster of Mickey Dolenz.