Moonlight Cocktail
title: "Moonlight Cocktail" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1942-songs", "1942-singles", "glenn-miller-songs", "bing-crosby-songs", "songs-with-lyrics-by-kim-gannon", "bluebird-records-singles", "songs-banned-by-the-bbc"] topic_path: "arts/music" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonlight_Cocktail" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::data[format=table title="Infobox song"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Moonlight Cocktail |
| cover | File:Moonlight cocktail sheet music glenn miller 1941 2.jpg |
| caption | Sheet music for Moonlight Cocktail |
| artist | Glenn Miller |
| released | 1941 |
| recorded | 1941 |
| genre | Jazz, Big Band |
| label | RCA Victor |
| composer | Luckey Roberts |
| lyricist | Kim Gannon |
| :: |
| name = Moonlight Cocktail | cover = File:Moonlight cocktail sheet music glenn miller 1941 2.jpg | alt = | caption = Sheet music for Moonlight Cocktail | type = | artist = Glenn Miller | album = | released = 1941 | format = | recorded = 1941 | studio = | venue = | genre = Jazz, Big Band | length = | label = RCA Victor | composer = Luckey Roberts | lyricist = Kim Gannon | producer = "Moonlight Cocktail" is a 1941 big band song recorded by Glenn Miller during World War II. The music was composed by Luckey Roberts and the lyrics by Kim Gannon. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Moonlight_Cocktail_Glenn_Miller_11401A.jpg" caption="RCA Bluebird 78, B-11401-A, 1941."] ::
Background
The song was originally recorded by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra on December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The 78 rpm disc was released by Bluebird Records as #11401. Vocals were by Ray Eberle and The Modernaires. "Happy in Love" was on the B-side. The song had its first public performance in January 1942 on WABC radio in New York City. It was the best-selling record in the United States for ten weeks, from February 28, 1942 to May 2, 1942, and was the number two record for that year after Bing Crosby's "White Christmas".
Music
The music originated three decades earlier as a 1912 ragtime composition by Charles Luckeyeth Roberts called "Ripples of the Nile", described as "a syncopated tune that baffled the arrangers of the day".
Lyrics
The lyrics were written by New York attorney James Kimball "Kim" Gannon, who had dabbled with songwriting and poetry for years, before becoming a full-time songwriter when about 40 years old. Gannon, who wrote under the nickname "Kim", compared the development of a romantic relationship to the mixing of an alcoholic beverage in "Moonlight Cocktail". The following year, he wrote the lyrics to an even more enduring hit song, "I'll Be Home for Christmas".
Critical reception
Billboard called "Moonlight Cocktail" a "smash hit" and wrote "It's one of the smoothest, danceable discs we've reviewed in many a moon. A rippling piano and tenor sax feature the orchestral arrangement and Ray Eberle and the Modernaires take care of the vocal". In a later issue, Billboard wrote that the song was "imaginative and colorful" and featured a "sweet harmony with a dish of romance".
During World War II, the BBC initiated a program called "Victory Through Harmony" that sought to use musical radio broadcasts to maintain wartime morale and increase weapons production. Some types of music were seen as a hindrance to such goals. Along with many other popular songs of the era, "Moonlight Cocktail" was banned by the BBC as "sentimental slush" in August 1942.
Cover versions
Mary Martin sang the song on the radio for the troops. and Joe Reichman and his Orchestra.
Chico Marx performed the music on piano in the Marx Brothers 1946 film, A Night in Casablanca.
The song was later covered by Mel Tormé for his 1960 album Swingin' on the Moon, Michael Holliday for his album To Bing - from Mike (1962) and Stanley Black.
Nearly sixty years later, Andrea Marcovicci performed the song in her cabaret show "Double Old Fashioned", described as "piercing nostalgia leavened with humor".
References
References
- (1972). "Pop Chronicles 1940s Program #6".
- Flower, John. (1972). "Moonlight serenade: a bio-discography of the Glenn Miller civilian band". Arlington House Publishers.
- Schuyler, George S.. (June 1942). "America Caught Up With Him". [[NAACP]].
- Wheeldin, Herbert L.. (January 1963). "Jazz Elder Statesman". [[Negro Digest]].
- Hinckley, David. (December 19, 2005). "In Dreams. Wartime Christmas Weeper, 1943". [[New York Daily News]].
- (February 22, 1942). "ON THE RECORDS: Reviewing the New Discs". [[St. Petersburg Times]].
- Orodenker, M. H.. (January 10, 1942). "On The Records".
- Baade, Christina L.. (2011). "Victory Through Harmony: The BBC and Popular Music in World War II". [[Oxford University Press]].
- (August 8, 1942). "Popular Songs Banned As 'Sentimental Slush'". [[Ottawa Citizen]].
- Baade, Christina L.. (2013-09-01). "Victory through Harmony: The BBC and Popular Music in World War II". Oxford University Press.
- Orodenker, M. H.. (March 28, 1942). "On The Records".
- Grudens, Richard. (2004). "Chattanooga Choo Choo: The Life and Times of the World Famous Glenn Miller Orchestra". Celebrity Profiles Publishing.
- "Moonlight Cocktail by Mel Tormé". Yahoo! Music.
- (1962). "Discogs.com".
- "Moonlight Cocktail/Sophisticat in Cuba by Stanley Black". Yahoo! Music.
- Holden, Stephen. (June 1, 2001). "CABARET GUIDE: ANDREA MARCOVICCI". [[New York Times]].
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