Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene.^[1] They are often credited with taking the first steps toward popularizing grunge music, and have continued to achieve critical and commercial success in the new millennium, with popular bands such as Fleet Foxes, Dinosaur Jr., Foals, Beach House, The Postal Service, Flight of the Conchords, No Age, Wolf Parade and The Shins on their roster. In 1995 the owners of Sub Pop sold a 49% stake of the label to the Warner Music Group.

History[link]

Formation[link]

The origins of Sub Pop can be traced back to the early 1980s when Bruce Pavitt started a fanzine called Subterranean Pop that focused exclusively on American independent record labels. Pavitt undertook the project in order to earn course credit while attending Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. By the fourth issue, Pavitt had shortened the name to Sub Pop and began alternating issues with compilation tapes of underground rock bands. The Sub Pop #5 cassette, released in 1982, sold two thousand copies.^[2] In 1983, Pavitt moved to Seattle, Washington and released the ninth and final issue of Sub Pop. While in Seattle, he wrote a column for local newspaper The Rocket titled "Sub Pop U.S.A.", a column he ended in 1988.^[3][4]

In 1986, Pavitt released the first Sub Pop LP, the compilation Sub Pop 100, which featured material by artists including Sonic Youth, Naked Raygun, Wipers, and Scratch Acid. Seattle group Green River chose to record their Dry as a Bone EP for Pavitt's new label in June 1986; Pavitt couldn't afford to release it until the following year. When finally released, Dry as a Bone was promoted by Sub Pop as "ultra-loose grunge that destroyed the morals of a generation".^[5] Also in 1987, Jonathan Poneman provided $20,000 in funding for Sub Pop to release the debut Soundgarden single "Hunted Down"/"Nothing to Say" in July 1987, followed by the band's first EP Screaming Life that October.^[6] Poneman soon became a full partner in the label. Pavitt focused on the label's artists and repertoire aspects, while Poneman dealt with the business and legal issues.^[7] Both men decided they wanted the label to focus on "this primal rock stuff that was coming out," according to Pavitt.^[8]

The "Seattle sound"[link]

In early 1988 Pavitt and Poneman quit their jobs to devote their full attention to Sub Pop. Raising $43,000, they incorporated that April. "Of course that was spent in, like, thirty days", Pavitt recalled. "We almost went bankrupt after a month".^[9] That August Sub Pop released the first single by Mudhoney, a band featuring former members of Green River. Sub Pop released the Mudhoney single "Touch Me I'm Sick" in an intentionally limited first pressing of 800 copies to create demand. The strategy was later adopted by other independent labels.^[10]

Pavitt and Poneman studied earlier independent labels ranging from Motown to SST Records and decided that virtually every successful movement in rock music had a regional basis. The pair sought to create a cohesive brand identity for Sub Pop. The label's ads promoted the label itself more than any particular band. The label also sought to market a "Seattle sound", which was accomplished with the help of producer Jack Endino, who produced 75 singles, albums, and EPs for Sub Pop between 1987 and 1989. Endino recorded cheaply and quickly; in order to operate this way, he utilized some consistent studio techniques, which gave the records a similar sound.^[11]

In November 1988 Sub Pop released "Love Buzz", the debut single by Aberdeen, Washington band Nirvana, as the first entry in the Sub Pop Singles Club, a subscription service that would allow subscribers to receive singles by the label on a monthly basis by mail. At its peak in 1990, the club had two thousand subscribers.^[12] The club made Sub Pop a powerful force in the Seattle scene, and effectively made the label's name synonymous with the music of the Seattle area—much in the same way Motown Records was to Detroit—and helped to secure the label's cash flow.^[13] The original series was discontinued in 1993, followed by Singles Club V.2, launched in 1998 and discontinued in 2002.^[14]

Mindful that garnering the attention of the American mainstream music press was difficult for all but the largest indie label, Pavitt and Ponemen took inspiration from alternative bands like Sonic Youth, Butthole Surfers, and Dinosaur Jr. and sought to publicize the label via the British music press. In March 1989, Pavitt and Poneman flew Melody Maker journalist Everett True to Seattle to write an article on the local music scene. As Pavitt had anticipated, the British press became enamoured with Sub Pop and the grunge sound. Pavitt said, "I really felt that the Brits and the Europeans wanted to see something that was unruly and that was more of an American archetype -- something that was really primal and really drew from the roots of rock & roll, which was very American."^[15] Poneman explained the label's success: "It could have happened anywhere, but there was a lucky set of coincidences. Charles Peterson was here to document the scene, Jack Endino was here to record the scene. Bruce and I were here to exploit the scene."^[13]

When Nirvana moved to Geffen Records, Sub Pop received royalties from sales of Nevermind that kept the label going for years afterwards.^[13] A stipulation was also implemented where selected future Nirvana studio LPs were required to carry the Sub Pop logo alongside Geffen's. After the mainstream success of Nirvana, many successful grunge bands had left Sub Pop for major record labels. Soon afterwards, a joint venture was formed with Warner Bros. Records (which had distributed Geffen since that label was founded in 1980; after 10 years under Warner, Geffen was sold to MCA Music Entertainment Group), thereby ending Sub Pop's status as an entirely independent label.

Pavitt's departure[link]

Poneman and Pavitt had a disagreement about the direction the label should take, with Poneman wanting the label to become larger and make more money.^[13] In 1996, unable to take the new corporate culture following the Warner partnership, Bruce Pavitt left the label and was able to spend more time with his family.^[16] The split between Pavitt and Poneman was not amicable, and they did not speak for seven years.^[16]

The label opened offices worldwide and began major investment in new artists, but without achieving great commercial success, prompting a scaling down and a return to Seattle.^[13]

In 2006, Sub Pop Records became the first Green-e certified record label. Through work with the Green-e program and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, Sub Pop "greened" their label by purchasing enough renewable energy certificates to offset 100 percent of the electricity they use in their office, showing their commitment to putting renewable energy in the mainstream as a way consumers can take action to do something about global warming.^[17]

In early 2007, Sub Pop started a sister label by the name of Hardly Art.^[18][19] This label is also partially owned by Warner Music. In August 2008, Sub Pop relaunched the singles club for one year to celebrate its twentieth anniversary.^[20]

Commercial success[link]

Sub Pop has two platinum records, Nirvana's Bleach; and Flight of the Conchords's Flight of the Conchords, as well as two gold records, The Postal Service's Give Up and The Shins' Wincing the Night Away. The Shins' "New Slang" has gone gold, and The Postal Service's digital single for "Such Great Heights" has gone platinum. On January 31, 2007, Sub Pop announced that The Shins' third full-length for Sub Pop, Wincing the Night Away, debuted at number two on the Billboard charts, reporting first week sales of 117,991 (35K in digital sales). This is the first time any album in Sub Pop history has ever charted in the top ten or broken 100,000 in the first week of sales.

See also[link]

• List of artists who have worked with Sub Pop
• List of record labels

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Azerrad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life. Little, Brown and Company, 2001. ISBN 0-316-78753-1
• Furek, Maxim. "The Death Proclamation of Generation X: A Self-Fulfilling Prophesy of Goth, Grunge and Heroin, i-Universe, 2008. ISBN 978-0-595-46319-0
• Information on SubPop and Warner Music Group's partnership in the Alternative Distribution Alliance

External links[link]

• Official Sub Pop site
• Sub Pop A&R team contact list

Look up pop in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Pop may refer to:

Music and dance[link]

• Pop music, a musical genre
• Pop!, a UK pop group
• Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band
• PoP!, the fictional band in Music and Lyrics
• Pop (U2 album)
• Pop (Mao Abe album)
• Pop (Gas album)
• Pop (Same Difference album)
• Pop (Joachim Witt album)
• "Pop" (song), by 'N Sync
• Popping, a style of dance

People[link]

• Iggy Pop, musician
• Iulian Pop, Romanian mayor of Cluj
• Gregg Popovich, National Basketball Association head coach
• Pop Chalee, also known as Merina Lujan (1906–1993), American painter, muralist, performer and singer
• Pop Corkhill (1858-1921), American Major League Baseball (MLB) player
• Pop Dillon (1873-1931), American MLB player
• Pop Foster (1878-1944), American MLB player
• Pop Gates (1917-1999), American basketball player and Harlem Globetrotters coach
• Pop Ivy (1916-2003), American football player and coach
• Pop Levi, English singer, musician, record producer and filmmaker
• Pop Robson (born 1945), English footballer
• Pop Schriver (1865-1932), American MLB catcher
• Pop Smith (1856-1927), Canadian MLB player
• Pop Snyder (1854-1924), American MLB player, manager and umpire
• Pop Tate (baseball) (1860-1932), American MLB player
• Glenn Scobey Warner (1871-1954), American football player and coach better known as Pop Warner
• Pop Williams (1874-1959), American MLB pitcher

Sports and games[link]

• Pop (professional wrestling)
• Pop (video game)
• Pokémon Organized Play, a trading card and figure organization
• Prince of Persia

Computing and technology[link]

• Package on package, a circuit packaging technique
• Parallel Ocean Program, an ocean circulation model
• Partial-order planning, an algorithm
• Point of Presence, a demarcation point between communications entities
• Post Office Protocol, an Internet e-mail protocol
• An operation of a stack data structure

Media and publications[link]

• Pop (UK TV channel), a UK channel
• Pop (fashion magazine), a British fashion magazine
• Pop Magazine (Australia), a sports magazine
• Pop (Swedish magazine)
• POP TV, a Slovenian television network
• Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, a medical journal

Places[link]

• Pop River (Jijia), Romania
• Pop River (Sadu), Romania
• Puerto Plata Airport, IATA code POP
• Poppleton railway station, station code POP
• Pacific Ocean Park, an amusement park

Other uses[link]

• Eton Society, an organization at Eton College, nicknamed "Pop"
• Pay on production
• Plaster of Paris
• Persistent organic pollutant, an organic compound resistant to degradation
• Pop art, a visual art movement
• Pop culture, the mainstream phenomena of a society
• Pop, another term for soft drinks
• Population, the collection of humans or organisms in a given area
• Probability of precipitation, a weather forecasting measure
• Problem-oriented policing, a policing strategy
• Process Oriented Psychology
• Progestogen only pill, a contraceptive
• Point of Purchase used often in retail
• Proof-of-payment, a fare collection approach

See also[link]

• Pops (disambiguation)
• PoP (disambiguation)
• Popping (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Mister Heavenly is an indie rock "supergroup"^[1] consisting of Honus Honus of Man Man, Nicholas Thorburn of Islands and The Unicorns, and Joe Plummer of Modest Mouse and The Shins. They recorded their first album in late 2010, finishing the year with a string of tour dates supporting Passion Pit, joined by Michael Cera as their touring bassist.^[2] In January 2011, they released two songs, the eponymous "Mister Heavenly" and "Pineapple Girl". Their first album, Out of Love, was released August 16, 2011.^[3][4][5]

Discography[link]

• Out of Love (2011)

References[link]

This indie rock band-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Chad VanGaalen
VanGaalen at the Primavera Sound festival in 2009
Background information
Also known as	Black Mold
Born	1977 (age 34–35) Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Genres	Indie rock, Folk, Electronica
Instruments	Guitar, drums, keyboards, harmonica
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Flemish Eye Sub Pop
Website	chadvangaalen.com

Chad VanGaalen (born 1977) is a Canadian musician and artist from Calgary, Alberta.^[1][2]

Career[link]

[edit] Infiniheart

Following a few scattered independent releases, done mostly on homemade CDs with hand-drawn art, VanGaalen released Infiniheart (2004) on Canadian independent label Flemish Eye. Infiniheart, a collection of songs selected from recordings made in his bedroom/makeshift studio, was picked up in 2005 by indie label Sub Pop.^[3] In late 2005, the album was re-released with a bonus six-song EP entitled Green Beans.

[edit] Skelliconnection

On 22 August 2006, VanGaalen's second album, Skelliconnection, was released in the U.S. on Sub Pop and in Canada on Flemish Eye. The album is composed of new songs as well as tracks previously released on his earlier independent recordings and features exclusive artwork^[4] and videos made by VanGaalen.

ChartAttack reported on 17 January 2007 that Skelliconnection was #31 and had been on the chart for 19 weeks.^[5]

Skelliconnection was named to shortlist on 10 July 2007 for the 2007 Polaris Music Prize. The winner was announced at a gala ceremony on 24 September 2007, with the prize going to the band Patrick Watson.^[6][7][8]

[edit] Soft Airplane

VanGaalen's third studio album, Soft Airplane, was released 9 September 2008.^[9] Soft Airplane marked a significant change for Vangaalen's songwriting as, unlike previous Vangaalen releases (where songs were collected from a vast catalogue of previous home recordings), Soft Airplane was written within the two year time span since Skelliconnection.

Soft Airplane garnered many favourable reviews internationally. It was both nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year and shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize. Furthermore, the album maintained a #2 placement in Exclaim!'s Top Albums of 2008 and, upon release, spent 22 weeks on !earshot's Top 50.

Vangaalen toured Soft Airplane extensively; performing live dates throughout North America, Europe, and the UK throughout 2008 and 2009. Vangaalen opted to tour with Flemish Eye label mates Women for many of his performances allowing him to utilize certain bandmembers as his backing band.

In September 2009, to celebrate the success of Soft Airplane, Vangaalen released an accessory EP for free download.

VanGaalen's song "Rabid Bits of Time", off of Soft Airplane, was featured in the trailer for the 2011 indie film Norman.^[10]

Black Mold[link]

On 11 August 2009, VanGaalen released a full-length album Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz under the alias Black Mold. The album features the organic instrumental and electronica-oriented sound merely hinted at on his other releases. Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz was released with a download code to 100 plus minutes of glitchy odds and ends, unfinished ideas, analogue improvisation, and experimental manipulation.

Live shows[link]

VanGaalen is sometimes assisted live by bass player Mathew Flegel of the indie rock band Women and drummer Eric Hamelin from No More Shapes. Also, occasionally by Monty Munro.

Other activities[link]

In 2008 VanGaalen recorded the debut album of Women as well as their second album. VanGaalen is also an illustrator and animator,^[11] and has made his own album artwork and animated music videos to accompany several of his songs, including "Clinically Dead", "Flower Gardens", "Red Hot Drops", and "Molten Light", as well as the Love as Laughter song "Dirty Lives". He has also designed album covers for other artists, including Shout Out Out Out Out's Not Saying/Just Saying.^[12] VanGaalen's video for "Molten Light" was featured on Aux.tv.^[13]

Discography[link]

• 2004: Infiniheart
• 2005: Green Beans EP
• 2006: Skelliconnection
• 2006: Skelliconnection EP
• 2008: Soft Airplane
• 2009: Soft Airplane EP
• 2011: Your Tan Looks Supernatural EP
• 2011: Diaper Island

Black Mold

• 2009: Snow Blindness is Crystal Antz

See also[link]

• Music of Canada
• Canadian rock
• List of Canadian musicians

References[link]

External links[link]

• Chad VanGaalen official site at Flemish Eye
• Chad VanGaalen on Myspace

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chad VanGaalen

Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw in Second Chorus (1940)
Background information
Birth name	Arthur Jacob Arshawsky
Born	(1910-05-23)May 23, 1910 New York City, New York, United States
Died	December 30, 2004(2004-12-30) (aged 94) Thousand Oaks, California, United States
Genres	Swing, big band
Occupations	Bandleader, composer
Instruments	Clarinet
Years active	1925–2004

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky (May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004), better known as Artie Shaw, was an American clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings.

Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists",^[1] Shaw led one of America's most popular big bands of the late 1930s and early '40s. Their signature song, a 1938 version of Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine", was a wildly successful single and one of the era's defining recordings. Musically restless, Shaw was also an early proponent of Third Stream, which blended classical and jazz, and recorded some small-group sessions that flirted with be-bop before retiring from music in 1954.

Early life[link]

Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in New York City, Shaw grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, where, according to his autobiography^[2] his natural introversion was deepened by local antisemitism. Shaw began learning the saxophone when he was 13 years old, and by the age of 16, he switched to the clarinet and left home to tour with a band. Returning to New York, he became a session musician through the early 1930s. From 1925 until 1936, Shaw performed with many bands and orchestras, including those of Johnny Caverello and Austin Wylie. In 1929 and 1930 he played with Irving Aaronson's Commanders, where he was exposed to symphonic music, which he would later incorporate in his arrangements.

Shaw first gained critical acclaim with his "Interlude in B-flat" at a swing concert at the Imperial Theater in New York in 1935.^[3] During the swing era, his big band was popular with hits like "Begin the Beguine" (1938), "Stardust" (with a trumpet solo by Billy Butterfield), "Back Bay Shuffle", "Moonglow", "Rosalie" and "Frenesi". He was an innovator in the big band idiom, using unusual instrumentation; "Interlude in B-flat", where he was backed with only a rhythm section and a string quartet, was one of the earliest examples of what would be later dubbed third stream.^[4]

In addition to hiring Buddy Rich, he signed Billie Holiday as his band's vocalist in 1938, becoming the first white bandleader to hire a full-time black female singer to tour the segregated Southern US.^[4] However, after recording "Any Old Time" she left the band due to hostility from audiences in the South, as well as from music company executives who wanted a more "mainstream" singer.^[4] His band became enormously successful, and his playing was eventually recognized as equal to that of Benny Goodman: longtime Duke Ellington clarinetist Barney Bigard cited Shaw as his favorite clarinet player.^[5] In response to Goodman's nickname, the "King of Swing", Shaw's fans dubbed him the "King of the Clarinet." Shaw, however, felt the titles were reversed. "Benny Goodman played clarinet. I played music", he said.^[6] In 1938 DownBeat Magazine's readers agreed with Shaw's evaluation and named Artie Shaw as the King of Swing.^[7]

Shaw prized innovation and exploration in music more highly than popular success and formulaic dance music, despite a string of hits which sold more than 100 million records.^[3] He fused jazz with classical music by adding strings to his arrangements, experimented with bebop, and formed "chamber jazz" groups that utilized such novel sounds as harpsichords or Afro-Cuban music.

The long series of musical groups Shaw formed included such talents as vocalists Billie Holiday, Helen Forrest and, Mel Tormé; drummers Buddy Rich and Dave Tough, guitarists Barney Kessel, Jimmy Raney, and Tal Farlow and trombonist-arranger Ray Conniff, among countless others. He composed the morose "Nightmare", with its Hassidic nuances, for his personal theme, rather than more approachable songs. In a televised interview of the 1970s, Shaw derided the often "asinine" songs that bands were compelled to play night after night. In 1994, he told Frank Prial (The New York Times), "I thought that because I was Artie Shaw I could do what I wanted, but all they wanted was 'Begin the Beguine.' " ^[8]

Pacific overtures[link]

Artie Shaw and his band playing "Everything's Jumping" from Second Chorus (1940)

During World War II, Shaw enlisted in the United States Navy and later formed a band, which served in the Pacific theater (just as Glenn Miller's wartime band served in Europe). After 18 months playing for Navy personnel (sometimes as many as four concerts a day in battle zones, including Guadalcanal), Shaw returned to the U.S. in a state of physical exhaustion, receiving a medical discharge.^[9] In the late 1940s, Shaw performed classical music at Carnegie Hall and with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein.

Like Benny Goodman and other leaders of big bands, Shaw fashioned a small group from within the band. He named it the Gramercy Five after his home telephone exchange.^[3] Band pianist Johnny Guarneri played a harpsichord on the quintet recordings and Al Hendrickson played an electric guitar, which was unusual in jazz recordings of the time. Trumpeter Roy Eldridge later became part of the group, succeeding Billy Butterfield. The Gramercy Five's biggest hit was "Summit Ridge Drive". A CD of The Complete Gramercy Five sessions was released in 1990.

Throughout his career, Shaw would take sabbaticals from the music business. This included studying advanced mathematics, as cited in Karl Sabbagh's The Riemann Hypothesis. His first interregnum, at the height of his success, was met with disbelief by booking agents. They predicted that Shaw would not only be abandoning a million-dollar enterprise but that nightclub and theater owners would sue him for breach of contract. Shaw's offhand response was, "Tell 'em I'm insane. A nice, young American boy walking away from a million dollars, wouldn't you call that insane?"^{[citation needed]}

In 1954, Shaw stopped playing the clarinet, citing his own perfectionism, which, he later said, would have killed him. He explained to a reporter, "In the world we live in, compulsive perfectionists finish last. You have to be Lawrence Welk, or, on another level, Irving Berlin, and write the same kind of music over and over again. I'm not able to do that."^[10] He spent the rest of the 1950s living in Europe.

In 1981, he organized a new Artie Shaw Band with clarinetist Dick Johnson as bandleader and soloist. Shaw himself guest conducted from time to time, ending his self-imposed retirement.

After Canadian filmmaker Brigitte Berman interviewed Shaw, Hoagy Carmichael, Doc Cheatham and others for her documentary film Bix: Ain't None of Them Play Like Him Yet (1981) about Bix Beiderbecke, she went on to create an Academy Award-winning documentary, Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got (1985), featuring her interviews with Shaw, Buddy Rich, Mel Tormé, Helen Forrest and others. Later in 2003, along with members of his original bands and other music professionals, Shaw was extensively interviewed by Russell Davies for the BBC Television documentary, Artie Shaw — Quest for Perfection, which became his last major interview.

In 1991, Artie Shaw's band library and manuscript collection was donated to the University of Arizona. In 2004, he was presented with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Personal life[link]

Artie Shaw, ca 1947.
Photography by William P. Gottlieb.

A self-proclaimed "very difficult man,"^[11] Shaw was married eight times: Jane Cairns (1932–33; annulled); Margaret Allen (1934–37; divorced); actress Lana Turner (1940; annulled); Betty Kern (1942–43; divorced), the daughter of songwriter Jerome Kern; actress Ava Gardner (1945–46; divorced); Forever Amber author Kathleen Winsor (1946–48; annulled); actress Doris Dowling (1952–56; divorced); and actress Evelyn Keyes (1957–85; divorced).^[12] He had one son, Steven Kern, with Betty Kern, and another son, Jonathan Shaw (a well-known tattoo artist who founded Fun City Tattoo), with Doris Dowling.^[12] Both Lana Turner and Ava Gardner later described Shaw as being extremely emotionally abusive. His controlling nature and incessant verbal abuse in fact drove Turner to have a nervous breakdown, soon after which she divorced him.^[13]

In 1946, Shaw was present at a meeting of the Independent Citizens' Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions. Olivia de Havilland and Ronald Reagan, part of a core group of actors and artists who were trying to sway the organization away from communism, presented an anti-communist declaration which, if signed, was to run in newspapers. There was bedlam as many rose to champion the communist cause, and Artie Shaw began praising the democratic standards of the Soviet constitution.^[14] In 1953, Shaw was brought up before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his leftist activities. The committee was investigating a peace activist organization, the World Peace Congress, which it considered a communist front.

He was a precision marksman, ranking fourth in the United States in 1962,^[3] as well as an expert fly fisherman. In his later years, Shaw lived and wrote in the Newbury Park section of Thousand Oaks, California. Shaw had long suffered from adult onset diabetes and eventually died of complications of the disease at age 94.^[15] In 2005, Shaw's eighth wife, Evelyn Keyes, sued Shaw's estate, claiming that she was entitled to one-half of Shaw's estate pursuant to a contract to make a will between them. In July 2006, a Ventura, California jury unanimously held that Keyes was entitled to almost one-half of Shaw's estate, or $1,420,000.^[16]

Radio[link]

Artie Shaw performing his "Concerto for Clarinet" in 1940

Shaw did many big band remotes, and he was often heard from the Blue Room of New York's Hotel Lincoln. It was the location of his only regular radio series as headliner.^[3] Sponsored by Old Gold cigarettes, Shaw broadcast on CBS from November 20, 1938 until November 14, 1939.

At the height of his popularity, Shaw reportedly earned $60,000 per week.^[3] For a comparison, George Burns and Gracie Allen were each making US $5,000 per week during the year the Artie Shaw Orchestra provided the music for their radio show.^[17] He also acted on the show as a love interest for Gracie Allen.^[18]

Shaw's recording of "Nightmare" was used as the theme soundtrack for BBC Radio's adaptation of the Philip Marlowe novels by Raymond Chandler.

Films, TV and fiction[link]

Shaw made several musical shorts in 1939 for Vitaphone and Paramount Pictures. He portrayed himself in the Fred Astaire film, Second Chorus (1940), which featured Shaw and his orchestra playing "Concerto for Clarinet." The film brought him two Oscar nominations, one for Best Score and one for Best Song ("Love of My Life").^[19] He collaborated on the love song "If It's You" sung by Tony Martin in the Marx Brothers' film, The Big Store (1941). In 1950 he was a mystery guest on What's My Line?, and during the 1970s he made appearances on The Mike Douglas Show and The Tonight Show.

Many of his recordings have been used in motion pictures. His recording of "Stardust" was used in its entirety in the closing credits of the film The Man Who Fell to Earth. Martin Scorsese also used the Shaw theme song, "Nightmare", in his Academy Award-winning Howard Hughes biopic, The Aviator.

He credited his time in the Navy as a period of renewed introspection.^[2] He entered psychoanalysis and began to pursue a writing career. His autobiography, The Trouble With Cinderella: An Outline of Identity, was published in 1952 (with later reprint editions in 1992 and 2001). Revealing downbeat elements of the music business, Shaw explained that "the trouble with Cinderella" is "nobody ever lives happily ever after."^[2] He turned to semi-autobiographical fiction with the three short novels in I Love You, I Hate You, Drop Dead! (1965, reprinted in 1997), which prompted Terry Southern's comment: "Here is a deeply probing examination of the American marital scene. I flipped over it!"^[20] Shaw's short stories, including "Snow White in Harlem," were collected in The Best of Intentions and Other Stories (1989). He worked for years on his 1000-page autobiographical novel, The Education of Albie Snow, but the three-volume work remains unpublished. Currently, through Curtis International Associates, the Artie Shaw Orchestra is still active.

References[link]

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	Music portal

• University of Arizona: Artie Shaw Collection

• Artie Shaw at the Internet Movie Database
• Biography at swingmusic.net
• Swing Bandleader, Clarinetist Artie Shaw Dies, The Washington Post, December 31, 2004