THIS IS THE MUSICAL STORY ABOUT A TEENAGER'S ADVENTURE WHEN HE TAKES HIS FATHER'S BRAND NEW CAR OUT FOR A DRIVE. THIS IS A VERY SIMILAR ADVENTURE I HAD WHEN I WAS 17. THIS IS THE FIRST PART OF 'MUSIC FOR YOUNG AMERICANS', WRITTEN BY RALPH HERMANN.
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Story behind the song
This is brilliantly performed by the Michigan University Symphony Band in 1965, conducted by the famed director Dr. William D. Revelli. Dr. Revelli directed the band from 1935-1971.
Ralph Hermann was born in 1914 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His early musical education was received from the school system there; at his high school graduation, he was awarded the Milwaukee Civic Music Medal for outstanding musical contributions. He later studied under Vittorio Giannini of the Juilliard School of Music. A long career as an instrumentalist started in junior high school, when he played for a “Kiddie Revueâ€, and culminated with his performances with various name bands including those of Freddy Martin and Jimmy Dorsey. He worked as an arranger for the major broadcasting networks and he is presently the musical director for the American Broadcasting Company. Since 1954, he has been composing for concert band. He has written for saxophone and clarinet artist Al Callodoro and saxophone soloist Eugene Rousseau. His works range from Concerto for Horn and North Sea Overture to arrangements of music from Tosca and a medley from Porgy and Bess.
Composer, songwriter, publisher, conductor, musician and arranger, educated at the Wisconsin Conservatory and Northwestern University and in private music study with Dick Koebner and Harvey Krueger. He was a musician in local orchestras and in the Wisconsin Symphony, and toured in bands. Eventually he joined the staff at WTMJ (Milwaukee) as a musician, conductor and arranger. During World War II, he founded the Weisbaden Symphony as well as a dance band. Joining NBC as a choral arranger, he eventually joined the NBC Symphony under Arturo Toscanini and went on to arrange for Guy Lombardo, Andre Kostelanetz, Dinah Shore, and Jane Pickens. In 1953 he joined ABC as a staff conductor, and he also began free-lance composing and arranging about that time, and then a music publisher.